Comparing Florida Poker Rooms

[Casey333]

I wonder if it would be helpful, since we have higher betting limits, to have a thread devoted to comparisons of what each room is offering (or not offering as the case may be).
I live in S. FL and may start going to the B&M's to at least see if it's possible to have a positive outcome over the long haul.
I have, as best I can figure, 6 choices, Hard Rock Hollywood being the closest to me.
Perhaps people could post things like better rakes, comps, what the rooms are spreading, etc.

Thanks in Advance
P.S I accidently posted this in Legislation so I moved it here. Hopefully it will be removed from that forum.

[soulvamp]

I spent the afternoon just checking in on a few places though didn't play, as I didn't want to deal with long waiting lists. Just was curious as to what was going on around town.

Hard Rock is offering NL of a variety of buyins and blinds, even down to .50/$1 blinds with $30 max buyin (this was on one of the electronic tables). Don't know about Coconut Creek or the old Seminole casino, as I didn't stop there today on my tour. All the parimutuels only have $100 buyin with $1/$2 blinds.

Hard Rock had all limits of LHE listed, even the infamous $2 straight, but I don't know what was active and what wasn't.

All had 2/4 LHE. The Isle also had 3/5 LHE and 1/2 LHE. The Isle and Dania were offering 2/4 Stud. All also had waiting lists for 2/4 Omaha H/L, though none had a game going. Dania still has it's double-flop game -- it's graduated from a $2-straight game to a $5-straight.

[MicroBob]

Worth noting that some of the rooms might switch very quickly on what they offering due to demand and just general experimentation.
What they are spreading on the very first day might not be the same as what they are spreading just a few days from now after things settle in a bit.

[darnold305]

Hard Rock was [censored] amazing today. They spread .5/1 all the way up to 10/25 and will go higher if there are requests. Definitely definitely go to the Hard Rock over any other casino and its not even close.

[bocablkr]

Just got back from the Isle of Capri and all I can say is wow. It is as nice as any poker room I have been in. The tables are big and comfy, with a wooden strip area for your chips. Plenty of space between their 34 tables.

They were spreading 1/2, 2/4 and 3/5 limit. Played for couple of hours at the 3/5 and broke even. Action was very tame and friendly.

Then played 1/2 NL $100 max buyin for about 3 hours and won about 100. Again you got to see a lot of flops cheaply. Could have won much more but I was card dead most of the night.

Their SNG's are offering twice as many starting chips than at the Hard Rock (unless they have changed). The rake is also quite a bit less. For ex. The $100 SNG starts with 2000 units and the rake is $150. At the Hard Rock you get 1500 units and the rake is $200 total. The $200 starts with 4000 units while the $250 at the Hard Rock starts with 2000. They are starting some really nice Tournaments July 9th. There is a $350 Sunday event with 10,000 units and 30 minute blinds. Awesome.

[sevencard2003]

any poker rooms having $2-10 spread limit or PL omaha high or hilo? which casinos have NO ANTE in the stud games? and how does the rake work on pots of under $5 (just a $2 blind and one $2 call?) what i mean is they rake a $4 pot??

[BigBluffer]

[ QUOTE ]
I wonder if it would be helpful, since we have higher betting limits, to have a thread devoted to comparisons of what each room is offering (or not offering as the case may be).

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought I'd revive this thread in the hopes that we can now get some kind of meaningful database going for us Florida players. I'll lead off with my "home" casino, the Brighton Seminole.

First off, as for cash games limit is dead, dead, dead. Saturday night is the only time they can get enough interest to run a limit holdem game, and then it's one table of $2 straight. Other than that it's 1/2 NLHE with an occaisional 2/5 NLHE. They used to be able to get a $2 straight O8 game going on Saturday nights, but not this past Saturday.

Rake on all cash games is 10% up to $5 + $1 jackpot/bonus drop. Minimum rake is $1 on all hands (they do not observe the no flop-no drop convention), then in multiples of a quarter (yes, they use 25-cent chips). The $1 jackpot/bonus drop is taken when the pot reaches $10.

Tournaments are almost entirely dead too. I haven't seen a tournament go in weeks other than the Wednesday night $20 "no-vig" game at 7:00. $2 goes to the RF jackpot pool and the remaining $18 goes to the prize pool. The house makes its money by keeping the entire $20 from the optional rebuys. Last night had about 20 runners. 2000 starting chips, 15-minute levels starting at 25-50. Antes kick in at level 6, 300-600-25.

SNG's are available, but I haven't seen one fill in weeks.

Brighton has one of the few remaining smoking rooms in the state.

They have a progressive spade RF jackpot. The club RF, which used to be progressive, was frozen at about $2000 and will revert to $1000 when hit. Hearts or Diamonds RF get a flat $1000. There is a $100 SF bonus and a $50 Quad-Aces bonus. All jackpots and bonus hands require both of your hole cards to play.

If other Florida 2+2'ers could chime in with information like this, we can have a nice list of what's out there for us.

Edited to add rake information.

[rja87]

I normally play at Coconut Creek...they are normally spreading like 4-5 1/2 NL tables, a $2 straight table, 1 table of limit O8 (I think it is 2/4 but it could be straight 2 not positive) and a table of 2/5 NL also. The rake I believe is 10% up to $5 and then the $1 for the jackpot...tournaments are completely gone as there hasn't been enough interest since they started having NL cash.

[Fishhead24]

I can't imagine a better cardroom in Florida than TAMPA GREYHOUND.

Do a search here on this forum to find out why I believe this to be true.

[VOX]

Here's information for the Hard Rock in Tampa -- I was there last Saturday.

1/2 NL runs on the vast majority of the 50 (up from 48 -- PokerPro is gone) tables. I'm pretty sure all the tables have shufflers now. 2/5NL also has a few tables. 2/4FL also goes off regularly, but 3/5FL only had a LOI. There's a 2/4 O8 w/kill to 5/5, but it's full of regulars -- this may not be a bad thing. 1-5 Stud on several tables, too -- money can be made here, it's all about game selection.

SNGs at $120, $225, $535 and $1050. The first two run constantly, the higher ones less so. The winner has $50 held out, for the dealers, I guess.

Multis run every day -- they have a calendar here.

Rake is 10% up to 5, every hand is raked, including the SB's $1 on any attempt at a chop. NL is raked to the dollar, other games are raked to 50c pieces. $1 Spade Royal Jackpot (often 5 digits, Omaha is a separate jackpot that sometimes edges north of $10K) drops at $10. If someone hits a "bingo", what they call any royal flush, since the other suits pay $100, your game will break, as they spend 30 minutes running the tape, counting the cards, etc.

No smoking in the cardroom, but there's still a tobacco girl, and smoking is allowed in most of the rest of the building.

New Kem cards, Chipco chips in $1 white, $2 purple, $5 red and red w/ ugly bikini girl, and $25 green, with metal 50c tokens. 10 seat tables, 8 seated Stud. Dealers are chatty, but otherwise on par with what you'd find in, say, Biloxi. Brushes are sloooow. Cocktail service (free non-alcoholic bev, $2 beer specials, and reasonable cocktail prices, compared to the hotel bar prices at the bars) is slooooow. Seating is done with buttons, and they get messed up often. At peak times, expect a long line just to get on the list.