Tampa and/or St. Pete dog track card rooms

skaboomizzy · #1 01-02-2004, 12:26 AM

Anyone played them? I'm thinking of heading out to Tampa's Saturday afternoon before the NFL games. Is the rake as atrocious as the Seminole casino? I understand they spread 1/2 hold-em, so rake is a bit of an issue. I'm just looking for some cheap B&M experience.

goodguy_1 · #2 01-02-2004, 03:34 AM

No but I live about 85 miles north of the Palm Beach Kennel club.Straight down 95 about an hour and twenty minutes... I keep on promising myself to go..I'm gonna go this week and check it out.Hard to get excited about B&M $1-2 LHE but I heard The Room is nice and pots are decent.They also originally had some of the lowest rakes in the State when I checked around in early Fall 03.

Palm Beach Kennel Club

There have been many posts on RGP do a Google Search:
Tampa poker

FredJones888 · #3 01-02-2004, 12:38 PM

last week I tried Derby Lane Dog Track card room in St. Petersburg. A couple 18-23 yr old guys at my table who were mumbling to each other during hands and obviously trying to help each other. The dealers did nothing and didn't even seem competent to shuffle ! I'm never going back there even though I didn't lose any money. The first time was the last time.

skaboomizzy · #4 01-03-2004, 05:40 PM

Well, the dog track only offers cards during live racing season... not 'til June. So I figured I'd try the Seminole casino.

The $1/2 game was just bad enough to be frustrating. I lost my first two hands with A-K (vs. Q-Q) and A-A (vs. rivered flush despite my best efforts to bet everyone out) and it was only downhill from there. I went on a mini-tilt for a while and won only one hand in 2+ hours. Of course the first hand after I decided to tighten up, I tossed out 4-5... the flop was 3-6-7.

7+ people seeing the flop everytime, not a lot of raising going on. I really should've played much much better than I did, but at least I know what to expect next time I go.

The room itself isn't bad. I was told a 30-60 minute wait when I signed in, but they opened up a couple more tables and I was seated within 20. I wish it was non-smoking, but it wasn't too bad in there.

Jim Kuhn · #5 01-04-2004, 09:12 AM

A couple of weeks ago I was at the Naples/Fort Myers Dog track. The poker room had alot of action. Raised and reraised pots with 6-8 players in them. Games looked pretty juicy. I think they had 15-20 tables going also.

chesspain · #6 01-04-2004, 11:58 AM

[ QUOTE ]

The $1/2 game was just bad enough to be frustrating...7+ people seeing the flop everytime, not a lot of raising going on. I really should've played much much better than I did, but at least I know what to expect next time I go.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, this sounds like the perfect game! [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

skaboomizzy · #7 01-04-2004, 12:55 PM

Yeah, I know. I went on a little mini-tilt after losing those first two big hands... chased too long on hands I shouldn't have.

The "frustrating" part was seeing what won on showdowns. Ugh.

pauly2x · #8 01-05-2004, 06:52 PM

I went there a few weeks ago and was less than impressed. The dealers (except for the big guy named Paul) were all terrible, it took the dealers forever to shuffle, it took the dealers forever to count chips, it took the dealers forever and a day to figure out how much rake to pull. One time this one dealer misdealt twice in the same hand, now that's hard to do. Another dealer screwed up something simple, then started asking the players, oh, wait, is that right? It took another dealer almost a minute to count of $20 worth of white chips. Come on, guy! Plus just about all of the dealers were flashing discards all night long, but I don't think anybody else on my end of the table noticed.

The games were slow, maniacal and frustrating. The players were bad, and to make it even worse, they would criticize other players for their bad play, and then the very next hand call UTG with J2d. Everybody's an expert at the 1-2 level, I 'spose.

The place itself isn't bad. I could do without playing $3 to get into the clubhouse. The tables and chairs are nice. I went to one of the bars to buy a beer before I sat down and stood around for about four minutes waiting for the bartender lady to come back, but eventually gave up.

If 1-2 is your game, then maybe you can show up, play a few hands and make a little coin. If you're like most decent poker players and graduated from 1-2 about the time you graduated high school, don't waste your time. I booked a nice $50 win, but I was there just because it was the closest place I could have chips in my fingers. (They were ugly chips, too)

Bottom line, if you want to play 1-2, go online... the rake is lower, you don't have to tip the worthless dealers and you get probably twice as many hands per hour.

Although if you play on line, you don't get to see first-hand someone's dopey smile when they crack your aces with 48o or J6 or 5T or some other garbage.

Jim Kuhn · #9 01-05-2004, 11:05 PM

I was not able to play as I had my kids with me. I just walked through the room a couple of times and observed. The pots and number of players calling seemed very large. I thought they looked like the easiest games I had ever seen. I could see where the other stuff could be annoying.