Real poker in Florida began last week - July 1, 2010 at 12:01 am. The maximum buy-in for cash games had been $100. It all changed last Thursday. The buy-in restriction was removed and each room was able to set it's own limits.
I wasn't able to play until Friday and was leaning towards heading to the Seminole Hard Rock in Tampa which is a little over 1 hour away. A few friends talked me into the Daytona Beach Kennel Club and Poker Room - mainly because of the big Nascar race being in town.
I left earlier than my friends in an attempt to beat the holiday/race weekend traffic. When I arrived at the poker room, I noticed that they had 2 buy-in ranges for each limit (multiple tables). It was pretty ridiculous. (2/5 with 100-300 and 200-500 and 5/10 with 300-500 and 500-1000). I was debating which game to play and I put my name on the list for both bigger buyin range 2/5 and 5/10. I got called for the 5/10 about 10 minutes later.
About 1 hour later, they decided to make their life easier and collapsed the buyin ranges to one per limit, but kept the small mins. I liked not having multiple games with different buy-ins at each limit, but didn't like that the new buy-ins allowed for more short stackers (30 bbs vs. 50 bbs)
After 5 hands in at 5/10, I was dealt AA and got aipf against JJ and held. I 3-bet and 5-bet the guy, before he finally shoved. He had like $725-$750. As I was raking the pot an older guy (regular - not in the pot) at the table said, "Oooohhh!! Wow!!! Huge Pot!! That's a hundra dolla tip right there!!" I tipped $5 and the guy went on to call me cheap and tell me "Come on, at least give the dealer another $10." I just ignored him. WTF? $5 is cheap?
About 45 minutes later, I won about $550 ($1100 pot) of a guy that couldn't fold his weak Ace against my AQ on a AxxxQ board. The same older guy (not in the pot) again commented on my $5 tip. "You just won two $2,000 pots (not correct) and you are only tipping $5. That is crazy. I'm going to bust your ass for being so cheap. Dealer, if I win a big pot (I didn't see him win any pots) then I'm going show you how people are supposed to tip."
LOL. The guy left the table about 2 minutes later.
Random thing I noticed - occasionally one guy (not the guy ripping on me) would tip like $40-$50 when he won a big pot (like $700 - $1k). I didn't believe it the first time I saw it.
A little later I lost a big pot with QQ to a guy that couldn't get away from A6o when he flopped bottom pair. Ace on the river killed me.
On another hand, I lost about $400 when I live straddled and was dealt 84 in a 8 way limped pot. The flop came 88T and there was action from a shorter stack (guy with about $350ish) that made me think he clearly had an 8. A horrible player in between us was forcing the action (with what I was guessin was something like AT). He had about $1,200. On a blank turn the short stack put his last $125 in. Mid pos called. I decided to shove since there was a flush draw (might have been bad in hind sight). Mid pos folded. River was an Ace. I told the short stack that I had an 8. He didn't say anything and I flipped up my hand. About 15 seconds later he dramatically flipped over his flopped full house (T8). Slow roll FTW!! Another WTF moment.
Several hours later with some up and down hands I was down about $550 and the table had gotten pretty tight without any spewey players, so I moved over to a 2/5 game that 2 of my friends were playing in. I think only 1 guy had $500 in front of him. I lost another $250 there without any hands of note other than losing a big pot against an extremely loose guy with QT vs. 22 on a QT2xx board.
I would rate the action as much much worse than I expected, but there are still good spots. It just seemed like there were way too many nits around. I guess that is probably because a lot of them are used to playing with the $100 max, where the only profitable way would have been nitty.
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Other random things:
This was the first night that they were open all night. Prior regulations only allowed them to be open until 1 am on weekends and midnight during the week. Because of this, they were clueless. I went to grab something at the concession stand at 10:50. The stand closes at 11 PM, but apparently the lady running the stands watch was 15 minutes fast. She said that they were closed. I just wanted a candy bar. They had no food service at all after midnight, because no on thought about it in advance. Paul asked about getting anything to eat around 1 am and one of the waitresses brought him their "brand new" late night menu. She said, "I don't even know what's on it. They just decided to offer it - just came off the printer and I haven't looked at it yet." The menu had 5 items that were all pretty much microwave items. Paul and Matt both ordered a Ham,egg, and cheese croissant. It was some microwave Costco type thing. Neither of them finished it and both of theirs were frozen in the middle. ----- I guess they didn't expect the crowd overnight because around 11:30 they made an announcement that dealers weren't allowed to leave when their shifts end unless they got specific permission. There were several floor people dealing also. ------ I ran into a ton of people that I hadn't seen in years from Orland home games - which was very cool. I haven't played in any home games around town in the last 2-3 years, since the game where I felt most comfortable stopped. ------- The dealers did a great job, especially considering all the pressure that they were under with it being the first weekend. Anyway, I won't get a chance to play again for 3 weeks, but will probably try out the Hard Rock Tampa next. |
Posts
tipped $5 and the guy went on to call me cheap
This comment and the slow roll thing make it sound like there are plenty of newbies who don't know squat. $5 is a good tip.
Sounds like you'll clean up there and at the Hard Rock.
Memphis MOJO
1:06 PM
Let me know when you want to hit Tampa. I might go tonight but I thought that about last night and didn't go. LOL
But you got my number right? If I'm around, I'll join you. I mean it is only 6 miles from my apt...
Alan aka RecessRampage
9:46 AM
$5 is a decent tip 10 or 15 is a good tip 40 or 50 is insanity. I agree the games there are way weak but I tip 10 on a positive 500 pot because it helps keep or make a dealer better for the time he's at the table and don't give me the its their job speech watch a dealers attitude change when the money rolls in. It might be sad but its true. Pay attention to the winning players and the losing players money is like a drug those who have seem happier those without well you can figure it out.
flarecpkrplayerrrr
11:40 PM
It sounds like Florida will be a great destination and the prices sound quite interesting.
cost per head
2:05 AM