O-Poker

In Florida, cash games are non-existent to serious players. They currently have a $2 max bet - even on the Indian Reservations. If you want to play a cash game, the biggest around is $2/$2 fixed limit. All that is about to change this Sunday.

I enjoy playing cash games live. When I head out to Las Vegas next week, I plan on getting in my fair share of 2/5NL and 5/10NL (stakes probably depend on whether or not I'm drinking that night). Up until now (well actually Sunday July 1st), if I wanted to play NL cash games anywhere in Florida I had to either play in a home game or head over to the gambling boat in Port Canaveral. I can't remember the last time that I went out on the Suncruz boat. It is just way too much work for only 3-4 hours of poker. If I want to go on the boat, I have to drive over to Port Canaveral (about 45 minutes to 1 hour), get on the boat, wait 45 minutes for it to get 3 miles off the coast, play for 3-4 hours, wait another 45 minutes for the boat to get back to shore, and then drive back to Orlando. I have to devote 8-10 hours of my time for 3 hours of poker and it just hasn't been worth it.

Fast forward to about 1 month ago. The state passed a poorly worded bill that upped the limits. Governor Crist didn't sign it or veto it, so it basically becomes law on July 1st. (I'm not entirely sure how the entire process worked, but I like the end result.)

The most important part of the bill reads:

However, a cardroom operator may conduct games

16  of Texas Hold-em without a betting limit if the required

17  player buy-in is no more than $100.

The way I read that is that No Limit games are allowed as long as the min buy-in is $100. No max.

When I heard the news, I couldn't hold back my excitement. I called the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tampa a couple of weeks ago to ask them what new games they would be spreading, only to be told that their lawyers were working on it and they should know something soon.

I called again yesterday and received awesome news. No more $2/$2 No Foldem Holdem. They are going to spread the following games:

1/2NL, 2/5NL, and 10/25NL (I'm wondering where 5/10NL is, but I 'm not complaining)

Limit games up to 20/40

I was like a kid on Christmas morning. Real poker is only 1 1/2 hours away and sure to spread to Orlando in the future. I can only imagine how juicy these games will be, especially for the first few months. Weeeeeee!!!!