Trip report - Hamilton Jai Alai & Poker - Jasper, Fl

[sublyme]

I decided to venture to my first card room tonight. Hearing over the radio that a card room had opened 30 miles away, I decided it was worth a visit. The website, btw, is http://www.hamiltonjaialai.com - not only can you play poker there, but you can gamble on jai alai! I'm looking forward to doing that in the future when I have more free time.

Anyhow, it was about a 30 minute drive or so to get there. I walked in the doors at 7 and went straight to the poker room where there were mounted plasma screens and 30 some odd poker tables. All were of nice quality. I went up to cashier and bought in for $60 and went to sit at the 1/2 limit table. Ok, I know, 30BB's wasn't enough, but I'm not exactly rolling in money here in college, and I just wanted to try my hand at a live card room. The nice thing is that there was only a single $1 blind in play, so I wasn't put into any marginal situations regarding completing.

So I sit and immediatly see that this table is crazy. Every hand is capped preflop, flop, turn and river. The guy to my right is the maniac instigating this. I play the part of the poker amateur - quiet and bashful. The guy to my right takes it upon himself to talk up his strategy to me - "I raise every hand so that when I do hit on the flop they don't know it." I smile and nod and listen to him and watch him raise every hand he plays for about 5 hands. Then I'm in the BB and he raises on the button and I look down at 77. I re-raise him. The rest of this crazy ass table calls, and it comes back to him and he caps. I call, although I really dislike being involved in a capped pot with 77. Still, I know how the table plays, and I figure I've got a decent shot at winning this hand.

Flop comes down 589 rainbow. I fire out a bet, a few folds, maniac raises me, I call, everyone else folds. At this point I have no reason to believe maniac has me beat, because of the way I've seen him play. The turn comes another 9, and maniac stares at me then checks. It seems fishy, but I fire out the $2 anyhow and he raises me. I smoothcall.

The river is a beautiful 7. Maniac bets, I raise, he raises, I raise and he calls. He flips over 96o and I show my full house. The dealer is a 40 or 50 year old woman who obviously can't read hands too quickly, and maniac doesn't seem too good at it either. "I have three 9's", even though he has a stronger hand he doesn't realize (a straight). The dealer acts confused and I emphasize that I have a full house and she pushes the pot to me. I toke her $1 and I'm already up $20.

As play progresses, the dealers were changed every 15 minutes or so. Slowly but surely my stack grew. I get AQo and once again re-raise maniac's preflop raise and flop a queen. The entire tables caps [censored] with me and finally everyone folds the turn. Another big pot for me.

I'm on the cutoff and pick up JTd and call, button raises, everyone calls and I call. Flop comes JJ4. I bet, raised, re-raised, etc etc. I'm wondering if anyone had J4 or 44, but I figure that's a risk I'm going to take - no way am I so tight that I'm folding three flopped jacks to a loose table like this. Turn comes a 9, more capping, this time the pot is between me, old man, and old man in a cowboy hat whose trying to look like doyle brunson. We'll call him Hoyle.

River comes a beautiful jack. They bet, I raise, they make crying calls and I turn over the quad jacks. Hoyle claims he had a full house but mucks; I suppose he may have improved to one on the river with three jacks on board, but I didn't put him on having me beat before then.

I managed to get AQo again and flop a Q and get to a showdown and it holds up. I get AA and raise and everyone caps preflop. I'm in heaven. Flop is 27J and everyone caps again. Turn comes a 2, and I'm pissed, because I knew that one of these bastards was probably holding a 2. I check-call it out with the black guy to my right and show my aces and he shows Q2o.

As time goes on, I win with some other hands. I get JJ and beat another guy's pocket 10's. I get AA and black guy to my left is involved in the pot with me. Flop KT2 and black guy check calls me. Turn is an A, and black guy raises, I re-raises, ad nauseum. River comes another 2 and I've improved to Aces full. Black guy mucks at showdown and says he flopped two pair with KT.

It's 1.5 hours in and I decide I should get going soon, but decide to play through my last orbit since I'm not paying for cards. I'm on the button and get KK and raise, fewer callers at this point as people have gotten a bit tighter with me showing down good hands. Drunk guy to my left (black guy went to play a SNG) calls me. Flop is AAT. I'm obviously not thrilled with this, but I read the drunk guy for a T so I bet and he raises and I call. Turn is another T. Great. I check-call it down and he shows JTo for the full house while I have a miserable two pair, Aces and Kings.

I finally say to myself I should kick it and I cash out at $191 for a $131 profit over 2 hours of playing.

Pluses - Loosest players ever. I'm not a great limit player, but damn these people would play any two cards. Literally.
Minuses - 10% rake up to $5 max. I lost a good deal of money on rake with the big pots I won. Also, their 10 man SNG's were $45 buyins and only pay out to top 2, with 1st getting $220 and second $100. The breakdown is $32 for the tournament and $13 to the house for entry. Highway robbery.

I was able to turn a profit because I got lucky, made lucky draws, and played smart against the loose folks. However, I think the place is gouging way too much in rake and entry fees. I'd probably play in their SNG's if the entry fee was only $5 and it paid out to 3 places. Freakin' ridiculous. I will return, though, for some more 1/2 limit in the future. I don't count on making another amazing session, but if the cards are right and the players are chasing, anything can happen.

Also, I should mention that in Florida pot limit/no limit is illegal in cash games (because I think Florida likes to discourage gambling?). So I only was able to play limit, but the way they get around the pot limit/no limit problem is hosting sng's.

[vox]

This post, more than any other, captures the essence of live poker in Florida. It also helps to explain why some consider Florida poker a bastardization of the "real thing".

I played the Ham the night after it opened. They had about 7 of those 35 tables going. All the dealers were brand spanking new. As in, this was their first time dealing. $1-$2 HE was fun, and I donked it up and donated a little bit. Then I moved to $2-$2 O8 and got spanked with an underfull. The O8 players knew what they were doing - the HE players decidedly did not.

Was it busy when you went? Are you in Valdosta or Gainesville?

[sublyme]

I goto school at valdosta - it's awesome to find another 2+2er near me. I lurk more than I post, but it's cool all the same.

It wasn't really busy, but there were 5 or 6 tables that were full (counting the rip-off sng's)

[vox]

'Sup Bro?!

I'm in my 5th year at Florida. Hamilton's about an hour away for me, so I won't be going there much, unless I'm on the way to Tallahassee or Atlanta.

I only post about things I know about. So far, that's a lot of posts about Florida's gaming laws. But I'm off to Vegas at the end of the month, and hopefully I'll have the energy to make a trip report.

Sublyme, great post. Being from Gainesville, I read your account of your trip before I ventured up to Hamilton, very informative and I had a clue before I walked in. thanks.
Taterhead