Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Trip Report

[EazyCard]

July 1st the dog/horse tracks will be allowed to run no limit cash games. The law states that players cant be required to buy in for more than $100, so it will mostly likely be a $1-2 spread. The Limit games will also see an increase from $2 max to $5 max. The sng's and mtt's will also have alot more flexiability and hopefully better structures. I believe that they will also be allowed to run the cardrooms on non-racing days. Im hoping that the Hard Rock will follow suit in an attemt to not lose any players.

[Lord_Strife]

[ QUOTE ]
Just spent 2 1/2 weeks at Wynn and was then went to Tampa for non-poker reasons. Tonight, I had some dead time and noticed some ad in my hotel lobby for this casino. After a very quick look online to confirm they had a poker room, I decided to go eat dinner there and see if they had anything interesting. When I got there, I was mildly suprised as I was expecting a dump, and it actually looked rather decent. They had a buffet for $25 which I ate. The quality was surprisingly decent with 4-5 food stations with servers as opposed to the serve yourself format. A sushi station, a pasta station, a great dessert spread, and other stations as well. Reminded me of a Sunday brunch style format with all the server manned stations.

After dinner I decided to go make some money in the pit...but wait...crap...miles upon miles of slot machines...no table games! So, I walk over to the poker room..."I'll take the [biggest no limit cash game you have" which got the reply: "Would you like $1-$2 limit or $2-$2 limit?" ROFL minbetaments

So, as I begin to call it quits on this place, I notice they have some kind of SNGs going...and what is this? They even have 1k SNGs! So I get on the list for all the SNGs and there is a seat for a $125 open. I sit down and pay my entry fee and get T1500. I have never played a SNG seriously in my life but I am more than sure that I am +EV against these monkeys. As they finish getting the SNG setup to run I walk over and grab a pamphlet which contains the structure. W? T? F? I do some quick math and apparently this $125 SNG I have just bought into is only returning $950 in prizes to 10 players??? $95+$30?! And my T1500 starts us at 25/50 level? Thank God this unbeatable SNG only lasted 3 hands.

Hand 1 I get KsTs in the BB. Like 400 players limp and I check/fold a 864 flop. The winner tables 55 on a K8664 after UTG fired two barrels and turbo mucked the river when snapcalled. Next hand I get TT in the SB and raise one limper and take it down PF. Last hand 10000 players limp so I limp with K9o on the button. Flop KsQh4s. The guy who bluffed the first hand bets like 150..one guy calls in between..so I obviously autodump my chips in the middle. Original bettor mucks...and caller in between thinks for 42 minutes and calls and turns over AJ not suited. The turn is obviously a T and as I get up to leave...the winner of the hand starts applauding (!) Then two other players follow suit! So, I obviously have no choice but to applaud as well. Then, I left.

P.S. They had some ridiculously smoking cocktail waitresses. I didn't want to say Wynn quality as that would be blasphemy..but goodness!

[/ QUOTE ]

Man this was some quality reading. Unfortunately I grew up in this state and have avoided the casinos in favor of online poker, I can definitely see how people view this state's poker the way you described. I loved the comment about the monkey's and we have beaches to compensate. The cocktail waitresses are smoking hot because Tampa has a pretty large strip club circuit so most of them work both jobs to support some poor habits.

[PrimogenitoX]

Oh yea...holy crap...like 3 strip clubs within a 1 mile radius of my hotel...which was by the airport...and I wasn't even looking for them so who knows how many I missed!

[RonH]

If you like the girls in Tampa, you should try South Beach...oh yeah, a lot are topless. :-)