Florida dog track poker

[pauly2x]

Interesting column...
http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/sports/article/0,2071,NPDN_15000_2615890,00.html

Pretty much on the money, but no one should be surprised that a live $1-2 game is full of loose players and calling stations. I've had mixed results there, obviously doing much better when the river rats miss their (numerous) draws. I only play there a few times a month, since I prefer the $3-6 online game, but sometimes you just have to have that feeling of chips in your hand.

I hear they're starting a monthly no-limit tournament this week, so I'm probably going to check that out and report back if anybody's interested.

[beerbandit]

How's the live dog racing? I've never been to one, my only expirience is on TV and I'm sure it's not comaprable.

thanks

beer

[sprmario]

I was just looking at the tournament structure for Holywood Seminole casino here in s. fla. The entry fees are just really nuts $50+15, $450+50. I can't really justify playing in these when you can play online for a lot cheaper.

I went by the Seminole hard rock and it was a mob scene on sat night. All their tables were totally packed and routinely you'd see 5 or 6 people to the river. Better hope you are getting near the nuts to win these hands because people will call you down w/ under pairs to the river. Great 1 on 1, not great when there are 4 or 5 people doing the same thing.

[AtlBrvs4Life]

I used to live in Naples, but I never played at that dog track. I do play at the Palm Beach Dog Track every now and then which has a weird structure. There is one $1 blind to the left of the dealer. A player can bet or raise $1-$2 on any betting round. Capped at 4 bets per round. I find that this structure makes it easy to win for a good player as you can see more flops for only $1 and outplay your opponents post flop.

The Palm Beach Dog Track has NL tournaments now which have a ridiculous buy-in at $32+$13. They get plenty of people every day though.

Edit: Yea the new Hard Rock Casino is horrible. I can't stand playing there. I feel like I'm playing with a bunch of robots programmed to check call. The 11 handed tables are the worst.

[pauly2x]

The Bonita track held its first tournament Thursday and limited it to 50 players. I arrived at 11:15 a.m. and just barely made it in. The tournament didn't start until 1 p.m. and they don't open the doors until 11:30. There was a line of nearly 50 people by the time the doors opened.

You could tell it was there first tournament because they still had some major kinks. For example, they didn't give out any numbers as players arrived or even attempt to start a line. We all just stood around outside until they opened, then it was a mad rush to the clubhouse where the line reformed. Most of us blew right past the guy taking the $1 clubhouse entry fee because we didn't want to get stuck at the end of the tournament line.

I wasn't crazy about the buy-in, but was thankful there were no rebuys and that they ran it as a freezeout, compared to the craziness that it poker "tournaments" at the seminole casino up the road. The buy-in was $45, but only $32 of that went to the prize pool. I was less than thrilled about that, but one of the dealers told me just about all of the entry fee money gets sent to the state.

The tournament itself ran very smoothly. The players were all in good spirits, so we didn't have anybody throwing cards or any of the other antics you might see. Because it was a no-limit tournament in a room that spreads $1-2 and lower, quite a few people were knocked out very quickly while making some very strange calls. My only complaint is about the tournament blind structure. Everyone starts with T1000 with blinds at T25-50. The blinds raise every 15 minutes. I would like to see them either add more starting chips or play longer at the smaller blind levels.

As for me, I went out somewhere in the 12-18th range. I don't really remember because it only paid five spots and we weren't to the final table yet.

The guy that won it deserved it. I only saw him play the final table, but he was pushing pretty hard and eventually overcame a good-sized chip deficit. The tournament lasted about three-and-a-half hours, but should have been over 30 minutes sooner, but the second-place finisher made some unlikely hands while all-in.

All in all, I would recommend this tournament if you're itching for live-action tournament play and can't find a home game. The dealers are, for the most part, OK (some are certainly better than others), and dare I say they even employ one or two very skilled dealers. My only problem is with that big $13 (or 30 percent) buy-in fee. For that reason, I would recommend sticking to Internet tournies, where the rake is much lower.

Also, I was told the tournaments will be once a week (usually on Thursdays, at least for now), and starting next week they will open it up to 100 players.