BY TOM SOMACH

Has the poker boom finally busted?

In what may be a sign of the times, the poker room at the Hilton hotel and casino in Las Vegas has been closed down, again, due to a lack of interest.

After having been closed for many years, the Hilton’s poker room reopened with much fanfare on Sept. 2, 2005.

At the time, Hilton flacks bleated that the worldwide surge in interest in all things poker, spurred on by Chris Moneymaker’s unprecedented win at the 2003 World Series of Poker, among other things, had spurred the hotel-casino to re-open its long-shut poker room.

But now, after just two years in operation again, the poker room is closed again.

It officially shut its doors on Oct. 17, 2007.

A Hilton flack now says the property can make more money with slot machines than poker tables, so the straights and flushes had to go.

“We had to look at the overall picture and consider the utilization of space,” said Ira Steinberg, vice-president of communications for the Las Vegas Hilton.

“The profit from the poker room was not as expected,” he said. “We now plan to expand our slot product.”=9D

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)