 The Tropicana Resort & Casino hosted the first eight Round 1 preliminaries and the first Round 2 playoff prior to the completion of construction at the Neonopolis, where a top-floor movie theatre was reworked into the Poker Dome set.Eventual Poker Dome Challenge winner Rodel Tuazon won the first preliminary held in the Neonopolis studio, in an episode also featuring Tony G.

On July 12, 2006, The Poker Dome played host to the World Pro-Am Challenge, with a US$1,000,000 prize pool.Three professional players were pitted against three amateur online qualifiers, who had access to three other pros for coaching.