(well i thought it was) short, boring trip report to ebro, FL

[Micro Donk]

since 1 person showed some interest, and im bored

went down to ebro, FL mainly for fall break from friday the 12th to yesterday, and returned home today

ive only played live extensively once before, at TS during the summer, but im going back in december

i went during the offseason for panama city beach, id imagine the room would be more active during then, but it was still active on the weekends

AFAIK, ebro is probably one of the only poker rooms in the florida panhandle. it is a dogtrack (which the locals said has been open for ~50 yrs), and they opened the poker room like a few years ago. i went down there cause i live in TN, where gambling of any kind (except the lottery) is illegal, and im not yet 21, so im kinda limited in my selection. found out about ebro not long ago, and thought id try it out. there was one other trip report about ebro here already, btu why not...

anyway, ebro poker room is around 20-25 tables but its rarely full (over half were filled on weekends). i was onlyt there from friday night to tuesday evening so i cant really say what happens on weekdays. first time going, its kinda hidden, and it doesnt tell you where the poker room is. you actually go up the stairs in front of you when you enter, take a right, then go into the first doors on the right. admission is free during the day, but when the dog races are to begin, its $2 per person

limits they offer arent anything special, but a low stakes balla like me, it was good. they offer 1/2, 2/5, and 5/5 no limit, 1/2, 2/4 and 1-5 spread limit. they also had omaha and stud games but there was no interest in it. the most popular games were 1/2 and 2/5 NL, and 1-5 spread. i think 1-2 limit was playing too. as we know, florida law makes max buyin for NL games $100, so the 2/5NL isnt even worth playing unless you like to gambool, so i stuck to 1/2 the entire time

the tournaments seem to be a summer thing, as they never got going when i was there

rake seems kinda high, but im an inexperienced live player so im not sure. rake was 10% of the pot up to $5, add $1 for the jackpots. they hav a few jackpots there. a royal flush in clubs, match play, high hand (ran a couple times per day)

the room itself was pretty nice, was clean, most everyone was friendly, but at times it seems unorganized (one dealer allowed a bet of $1 was allowed in 1/2 NL game because it had 1 in it. nobody said anything though and it was allowed. someone raised to 10 and they folded anyway. the dealer acted like the other player was an idiot for asking about it, so eh...but that was the only bad dealer i saw the whole time...also on tuesday afternoon, there was only 1 non dealer there, so she had to work at the desk, the cage, and did deal once someone else arrived). the room is more populated when the dog races are running. like monday (no races) there were 4 tables running the entire day, and down to 3 past 11PM. this may have to do with the recent change though (it was formerly closed on mondays, but changed oct 1...if i could have been there for today, then i would have known for sure). on tuesday (dogs ran) there were like 8-10 tables going most the day.

as said before, the people seemed nice, one of those places where a lot of them knew each other, personable...the players there are, as kinda expected, full of older people, mixed with teenagers from the area (who mostly also play bad)...the old people didnt seem to have a trend about them though. some were big nits who didnt play a single hand...some kept limping in but were big nits postflop...good amount of people that see 70% of flops but only go to showdown 10% of the time it seems

as for how i did, i did decent, made $500 overall (only 5 buyin though)...could have done better

i rate it a 8/10, and ill probably go back...

if i forgot to mention anything just tell me cause ive never written a trip report

[ev_slave]

I've been there, and they must have just added the NL. They only had 2 limit before... the limits didn't jump up on the turn or river. It was garbage.

I lost the taste in my mouth, and I never even wanted to go back. But if you say that there's NL now, I may try again someday. My parents live in Panama City and I'm bored quite often when visiting.

[People_Mover]

Thanks for the review! Couple questions:

No flop no drop??? or do they still rake no flop hands?

Hours of operation?

Food? Drinks? Booze? prices?

I'll be there for thanksgiving with my wife's family so I'll meet you there if you want. (we are both 26) and love to gambooool lol I'm sad show 'n' tail burned down [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Micro Donk]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the review! Couple questions:

No flop no drop??? or do they still rake no flop hands?

Hours of operation?

Food? Drinks? Booze? prices?

I'll be there for thanksgiving with my wife's family so I'll meet you there if you want. (we are both 26) and love to gambooool lol I'm sad show 'n' tail burned down [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

i doubt ill be there thanksgiving tho

theres a pretty nice looking (and expensive) restaurant that is pretty much connected to the poker room up there (i didnt go in so i cant say how it was). they also have concession stands, and you can order food from the waitresses from both places apparently (one woman ordered this awesome looking apple pie that came with 2 large scoops of ice cream, another guy had some clam chowder)...i just had hot dogs, and a cheeseburger (which they wont let you take to the tables). all was good. they run tuesdays for free admission, $1 hot dogs and $1 beer. i drank coca cola the whole time, and some of them gave it free, some charges 1.70 for it, so i dont know what thats about...water and sweet tea were free...

they also had like...10 TVs on the walls..nothing huge but good enough, though if you get a bad seat, you wont be able to see the scores on the games...

as far as i saw, no flop hands were not raked. unsure about pots that become 10+ but dont see a flop, since its really rare...i had that once (4bet KK, kid folded AK faceup), but i didnt notice if they took rake. dont think he did but dont quote me

hours are noon to midnight 7 days a week

edit: they only have $1 and $5 denomination chips, so you can build a nice pyramid of them if you have a huge night

[MicroBob]

I've played there twice now and like it much more than I thought I would.

You don't have to pay the $2 admission on race-days after your first appearance there as long as you sign-up for the free players-card. Once you get the players-card you just walk right in even on race-days I believe.

Drinks and food are okay but not free which is something I got used to in Tunica.
I've had to pay $1.70 for each of my cokes but when I'm paying that much for a really teeny coke-cup I tend to limit my intake. Learned from a regular about the $2 or $3 larger cokes or whatever available at the concession stand downstairs.

No max-rake without any betting or any such California sillyness to my knowledge. I don't know absolutely for certain about no-flop-no-drop though but I don't think so.
Had a hand or two where there were 3 or 4 limpers in for $10 or something pre-flop and then somebody would go all-in for $100+ and everyone would fold. Forgot to see if they raked that but I don't think so.

Some dealers aren't so great but they have all been better than many of the dealers I saw working at the WSOP in LV who were simply terrible and seem to put in a bit more effort than a couple of the dealers I've had at the Tunica-Grand.

Most dealers in Ebro try to run a pretty smooth game and do a decent job of it even if they aren't as fast as the Bellagio dealers or something. They seem to understand that faster hands = more tips and try to keep the game moving. To the extent that one dealer unwisely called time on a player without anyone else requesting it. The player was facing a difficult all-in decision and got pretty ticked at the dealer. I wasn't paying full-attention to the situation as I had already folded and was busy watching the bugs attack the Yankees in Cleveland on TV but my impression was that the dealer's actions were pretty inappropriate. The player did not appear to handle it very well however and the chewing-out he gave the dealer was about as equally inappropriate imo.

Other than that though the palyers and games are about as friendly as can be. Locals getting drunk on beer after beer and happily giving away $50-$100 at a time.

Floor is friendly.
Room is very clean which impressed me.

The room is definitely more crowded on Thu through Sunday. I'm actually surprised at the high amount of traffic there on a weekend during non-tourist season in Panama City. Have to think action will pick up even more and be relatively crowded by Feb, Mar, Apr. As it is now, Panama City is REALLY dead...yet the poker-room is still doing decently imo.
Not using all tables on the Friday night I went but definitely a fair majority of them which ain't bad considering how dead this area is right now.

Players may be slightly worse than typical 1/2 or 1/3 NL games in Tunica. Tunica players are pretty bad but I think Ebro has them beat.


ev_slave - they were only allowed to spread 2/2 limit in Florida until the new law on July 1. I'm guessing you must have played in Ebro before then. When the new law came in then all the rooms changed across the state.
Ebro now has 1/2 and 2/5 NL for $100 max buy-in.

[People_Mover]

Bob, you see an omaha game running?

What is the 5/5 games?