Eight Deep for $20/$40 Stud at the Borgata

Eight players are waiting for $20/$40 Stud at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, and there's exactly one table running.

That's a waitlist-to-table ratio of 8:1 for a game so rare in 2026 that most American poker rooms don't have a button for it on Bravo. The Borgata's median waitlist for the game sits at 1. On the morning of May 23, it hit 8.

That's a waitlist-to-table ratio of 8:1 for a game so rare in 2026 that most American poker rooms don't have a button for it on Bravo.

Why This Matters

Stud at a $20/$40 limit is functionally extinct outside Atlantic City. The game requires a full eight-handed table to run properly, the player pool skews older, and younger grinders raised on No-Limit Hold'em and PLO rarely sit. Finding one table of it is unusual. Finding one table with eight more players trying to get in is something else entirely.

The Borgata is one of the few rooms in the country that still lists Stud as a regular spread. That it's generating this kind of demand on a single table suggests there's a pocket of action in Atlantic City that the rest of the poker world ignores.

The Numbers

Here's what Bravo showed for the Borgata's $20/$40 Stud game as of mid-morning May 23:

• Tables running: 1
• Players waiting: 8
• Waitlist-to-table ratio: 8:1
• Borgata's median waitlist for 20-40 Stud: 1

For context, an 8:1 ratio would be notable for any game type. For a Stud game at a mid-stakes limit, it's an outlier by a wide margin. The typical waitlist reading for this game at this property is a single name.

What's Running Elsewhere

The Borgata's broader room activity beyond the Stud table wasn't captured in the morning snapshot. But the Stud signal alone tells a story. Atlantic City has long been the last stronghold for limit Stud in American cardrooms, and the Borgata is the flagship room in that market.

Whether this was a planned session among regulars, a reunion of old-school grinders, or just a coincidence of eight people all wanting seven cards dealt one at a time, the waitlist speaks for itself. Demand like this for a format the rest of the country has abandoned doesn't show up often.

When it does, it's worth noting.