The Venetian has become the first poker room on the Las Vegas Strip to fully switch to the slide dealing technique, a move that card room directors across the city have been debating for months and one that Brazilian poker has already embraced at the highest level. Tommy LaRosa, the Venetian’s Director of Poker Operations, confirmed the transition to PokerNews, framing it as a proactive step to tighten game security rather than a reaction to any single incident at the property.
From Pitch to Slide
Under the traditional “pitch” method used in most American poker rooms, dealers toss cards across the table toward each player. The problem, according to security-minded tournament directors, is that a careless or overly high pitch can momentarily expose the bottom of a card as it leaves the dealer’s hand, creating an opening that a sharp-eyed cheat, a hidden camera, or even a reflective surface could exploit. Slide dealing removes that risk entirely by having the dealer push the cards flat across the felt, so the card never leaves the surface of the table and the face stays hidden throughout the deal.
“As technology continues to evolve, we felt it was important to be proactive and adopt a dealing method that helps safeguard the player experience,” LaRosa said. He explained that the Venetian, whose poker room reopened in a new location within the resort two years ago, began formally evaluating slide dealing earlier this year “as part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen game protection.” The switch required retraining the entire dealing staff from scratch. “Our dealers received training and had the opportunity to practice the technique before it was introduced on the floor,” LaRosa said, adding that the focus was making the change “seamless for both our Team Members and our players while maintaining the efficiency and professionalism guests expect from our poker room.”
Brazil Got There First
While the Venetian’s move is being treated as a watershed moment for the Las Vegas Strip, the technique is far from new in Brazilian poker. According to SuperPoker, the BSOP (Brazilian Series of Poker), the country’s premier tournament circuit, has already adopted slide dealing across its events this year, with dealers widely considered among the best in the world making the transition on camera. BSOP tournament director Roberto Soares explained the reasoning behind the switch in an Instagram video published by the series. “The slide model is safer because it doesn’t allow players to see the cards during the dealing process,” Soares said. “Sometimes the dealer can raise the cards a little and let players see each other’s cards,” he added, referring to the shortcomings of the old pitch method. That head start means Brazilian players heading to Las Vegas this winter will find the Venetian’s tables feeling more familiar than many of their American counterparts.
A Trend Taking Hold on the Strip
The Venetian is not acting alone. South Point, a 30-table card room a few miles south of the Strip, has also begun training its dealers on the technique, and the move has sparked a broader debate within the Las Vegas poker community about whether other major rooms should follow. With 50 tables and a calendar that includes marquee series such as the $5,000 WPT Venetian Las Vegas Fall Championship starting November 5, the Venetian’s decision carries outsized weight. Prominent pros have already weighed in publicly in support of the change, including high-stakes regular Matt Berkey, who shared his approval on social media after witnessing the new procedure in action.
Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu also endorsed the shift during a recent episode of the PokerNews Podcast, arguing that slide dealing meaningfully raises the degree of difficulty for anyone looking to gain an unfair edge at the table. “It will be much more difficult for cheaters to cheat, so they won’t like it,” Negreanu said. That sentiment echoes the broader anxiety that has gripped parts of the live poker community following a string of hole-card exposure and camera-based cheating scares at major American rooms over the past year, incidents that pushed game integrity to the top of the agenda for operators nationwide.
Why Game Protection Has Become a Priority
LaRosa was direct about what he hopes the policy achieves for the Venetian’s reputation as a destination for serious players. “Ultimately, anything that helps strengthen game integrity is something many players appreciate,” he said, adding that his broader goal is “to create an environment where players feel confident in the integrity of the game and fully immersed in the experience every time they take a seat.” For newer players trying to understand exactly what is at stake during the deal, Poker Pro Academy’s poker hand rankings guide is a useful primer on why protecting hole cards from the moment they hit the felt matters so much to the integrity of every single hand.
What Comes Next
With two prominent Strip-area rooms now committed to slide dealing and more operators reportedly watching closely, the technique looks positioned to become the new standard in Las Vegas rather than a passing experiment. For Brazilian fans who have watched the BSOP mandate the method domestically for most of this year, the Venetian’s announcement is less a surprise and more a validation of a safeguard their own national circuit adopted ahead of the curve. Whether other iconic rooms on the Strip, including those hosting the WSOP itself, decide to follow suit may depend largely on how players and dealers react to the Venetian’s rollout over the coming months.
