Sand Casino in Pa., applies for 89 table games, including 12 poker

The Allentown Morning Call had a breaking news story last night on their website. Sand Casino in Pennsylvania - which is directly competing with Atlantic City's customers - applied for 89 tables games (link).

Almost half of those table games were for blackjack.

Just four tables were for "Texas Hold'em poker tables."

The good news: With just four tables in a casino, customers will deal with long wait lists. Regulars will camp on these games for a while. Anyone who isn't playing poker will want to come to Atlantic City because there are more options, especially on a weekend.

The bad news: Weekday games in Atlantic City will be hurt by these new tables. Four full tables is still 40 people. That's 40 people being taken away from places such as Showboat, Bally's and Harrah's. People who will enjoy this room aren't probably the types that play in big poker rooms. This could certianly hurt some of the smaller rooms in Atlantic City.

Update: After re-reading the article after the first comment left, I think I may be wrong. There is a request for 12 poker tables and I assumed that lumped 3-card, Let It Ride, Caribbean Stud and games like that under one umbrella. However, 3-card poker is specifically mentioned.

So, it seems Sands would have a 12-table room, which is actually pretty good. Not the biggest room, but the only rooms in Atlantic City that regularly run 12 or more games are the Borgata and Taj Mahal.