Playing at the Hard Rock might be worth it but with only $2 games I don't think it would be worth staying there. Stay on St. Pete Beach (eat and party at the Hurricane)or Clearwater Beach (party at Shepard's).
A much closer poker room to the Trop with the same $2 poker games minus the smoke is Derby Lane. They have about 50 poker tables and run tournaments once or twice a day along with turbo tournaments throughout the day.
The Ocean Jewel runs shuttles out to their boat from both downtown St. Petersburg and John's Pass which is midway between Clearwater Beach and St. Pete Beach. The John's Pass shuttle is about a 45 minutes quicker to the boat than the downtown shuttle. This is really the only choice for higher limit and no limit poker in the Tampa Bay area.
Links.
Derby Lane poker
http://www.derbylanepoker.com
Ocean Jewel poker
http://www.oceanjewel.com/poker.php