My friend mentioned that the notion of professional players from around the country (and Las Vegas, always gotta say “pros from Las Vegas”) bringing their friends might lend itself too well to organized collusion.  Sadly, I have to agree.  What I think will really surprise Floridians is the level of sophistication that pros have in their poker game, as well as the level of sophistication in their cheating.  I can say from my experience prior to the poker craze of the past decade, that poker professionals have easily the ability to collude on teams that are so well organized that even local teams would be embarrassed about how naive they have been.  To put it simply, if you’ve ever “seen collusion,” then you haven’t seen good collusion.

I have to say,  I do believe that Mardi Gras, Calder, and Pompano will benefit the most from the new limits.  With only $100 on the table, players might favor a “pretty casino” over a better managed one, but when there are real stacks on the felt come July, you can bet people will begin to appreciate a level game with staff that isn’t paid to look the other way on collusion, and dealers that have a degree of professionalism and a sense of accountability.  I can say this, based on what I’ve seen of the South Florida level of customer service, “this place is no Vegas,” and that’s not gonna change any time soon.

Structured limit poker games in Florida will also be relatively consistent based on the fliers that I’ve picked up.  Typically, they’ll have $2-4, 4-8, $10-20, $20-40, and a few poker rooms are posting higher limit games as well.  A couple of the backasswards casinos are listing a $5-10 limit game, and a few also offer a $3-6.

For no limit poker games, I’ve seen  games listed as high as $10,25 with a $5000 cap buy-in, and one listed the game no cap.  Keep in mind, a poker room can write whatever they want.  As to what will actually be a sustaining regular game at a card room will be determined over time.

The one really important thing that I noticed is that the 5/10 and the 10/25 have uncapped buy-ins.  In fact, the sheet lists the buy in for the 10/25 at “$1000 – uncapped.”  I would, therefore, assume that the $1000 rule is the most that can be required to buy-in (which is how the old rule was written for $100, by the way, but enforced differently.)

They also list a short-stacked buy-in for both 1/2 and 2/5.  I really like playing at The Isle of Capri in Pompano, so I hope change that to a 1/3 NL with proper buy-ins, and a short-stacked 1/2 or something like that.  All the players talk a good game, but I wonder how much the small buy-in game pulls players from the other games.  When it comes down to putting up the $300 for each buy-in, I have a feeling a lot of players are going to balk and go to the 1/2 NL  $50 to $100.

Time will tell.  And that time is really soon.

1/3 NL poker has a lot of advantages over it’s 1/2 counterpart.  Most importantly, it’s the minimum amount to actually overcome the incredibly high rake ($5 + $2) during tight poker games.  When a game gets too tight, the winning strategy becomes to buy the pot on the flop.  This isn’t actually a winning proposition if your opponents are halfway decent and you have a high rake.  1/3 NL makes this a beatable game.  Also, the disparity between the $3 preflop bet and the small blind ($1) is enough to help force a skill decision on the small blind player.  This gives you more reads on them and more profit saving opportunity on your small blind.

As to whether the information I heard was accurate, I wasn’t convinced, however, I do hope the local market is receptive to 1/3 NL and that the poker rooms learn how to push the game so that there is a choice for buy-ins and limits at the micro stakes NL.

To comment or write an article, sign up and post away.  If you are a poker room manager, feel free to list the games that you plan to spread.

One quick edit:  I spoke with a couple of staff members at a credible poker room (eg not Hard Rock or Gulfstream) and they said that the buy-in and the limit for limit games isn’t actually going to be the sky, it’s going to be raised ten times, therefore, the highest limit game would allow a $50 bet, and the max buy-in would be $1000.  Again, this is what I heard and not yet confirmed.  I’d like to get more info from another poker room today if I can before I accept this as truly credible, although my sources were pretty solid.

I’m off to the tables.  Wish me luck.

(If you’d like to comment, please do so in the comments section.  If you’d like to post, create an account, and I’ll approve your posts.)

I can’t lie to you, I’m THRILLED to death to hear that our government is sending them a whole lot of regulations.  Florida poker rooms need to understand that this is real money that’s being shoved around, and it should be treated with laws and common sense – lots of both.

It might be unnecessary to create procedures on how to handle the changes for some poker rooms, like The Isle,  Calder, and Mardi Gras, but for the rest of the poker rooms in South Florida, throw the book at them.  This isn’t a toy that they’ve been handed.  It’s essentially license to bankrupt any desperate soul in South Florida that they want.

Poker rooms, you have been given new powers.  Use them wisely and only for good.  And this time we aren’t kidding.

Have I summed it up correctly?

Not only have the rakes been high in Florida, the jackpot rakes are getting higher too.  Recently, Mardi Gras went to the $2 rake to allow for all those high hands they’re giving out.  Others have already been doing it.  Now Calder Poker Room is making the switch starting April 1st as well.  Talk about an April Fool.

I have to respect the notion that the poker rooms have correctly realized that most players aren’t using the get-good-at-poker strategy.  They’re using the I-hope-I-get-the-one-in-fifty-chance strategy just to break even.  So poker rooms have catered to the average idiot.  Essentially, public poker rooms are felt slot halls.  THREE CHERRIES for the win!

Now I must say, I LOVE poker rooms that invite the average idiot.  I just don’t know if I want to give them an extra dollar out of every pot I win to get them there.  The only way I can beat those odds, is to play when the house is giving back more of our money than they’re taking for a particular hour.  Considering there is a huge variance in the bad beat jackpot, I consider that money a sink.  The daily promos are good if they are replacing part of the rake for the jackpot, however, taking an extra dollar makes it a bad proposition outside of those promo hours.  And, of course, those hours are the hours when rocks and nits sit and play for three cherries.

Again, I’m ok with this if I could buy the non-bluffing, non-calling pots from the nits.  But this is a bad proposition usually since the house keeps their cut (which is criminally high with the rounding up and the other policies.)

So, what’s the moral of the story?  Decide whether you want to play against nits when you’re even on the jackpot odds, or play against the easy players and take yet ANOTHER dollar out of your pots.  Whew. Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu can’t beat this at the low limit games.  Fortunately, I specialize in suicide micro-limit poker.

So far, these are the poker rooms that have a $2 jackpot rake:

Flagler Magic City Poker Room
Calder Poker Room
Mardi Gras Poker Room

As of June 5, these poker rooms have only a $1 jackpot rake:

Seminole Casino (“The Classic”) *
Seminole Hard Rock *
Isle of Capri Pompano
Gulfstream Park

*Keep in mind, both Seminole properties have a minimun house rake that might offset the savings you get on the $1 jackpot rake.

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Let’s take a quick look at this:  If $10,000 is paid out, and there are 18 tables of 10 players that are full throughout the promo (these assumptions are pretty accurate), and you were seated for every hand for the ten hours, your average value of this promo is simply $10,000 divided by 180 players. Period.  You’d have to make an adjustment for the fact that limit games have an edge over no-limit due to the likelihood that you’ll play to the river, but this is the average for a seat.

That would be $55 for the ten hours.  Hmmm, so you do realize that the line to get into Flagler’s Poker Room on the final Sunday of each month is so people can earn $5.50 per hour.  Of course, for every hour that you wait watching television while you’re on the list, you’re losing your paycheck.   If you’re rationale is, “But you don’t get $5 per hour, you get $1000 or nothing,” you might want to buy a lottery ticket, because that pays millions.  You’re just not likely to ever see that money.  You have to understand basic odds and that each promo has a long-term value to you.  Is $5.50 a good rate?  Sure, assuming you’re not losing $6 per hour playing the game, and assuming you don’t mind the hassle of a ridiculously long line if you get there before the instant they open.

I haven’t been to Flagler’s poker room in a while, but I hope if you do go, I hope you’re going because you had planned to go anyway, because $5.50 is a good overlay, but not if you don’t like crowds.

The tournament will pay $5,000 to 8 places.  Although their literature doesn’t specify, I clarified from two supervisors that the $5,000 is house money, not jackpot money or skimmed from the tournaments.  One of the things I like so much about Calder’s poker room is that they aren’t afraid to try new ideas.  They avoid the need to mimic the inbred thinking of the local poker community.  Instead they take ideas from around the country or create their own.  I tend to respect trend-setters more than dumb followers, and this two week tournament series definitely has earned even more respect from me for their poker room management.  They also have, on more than one occasion, sponsored promotions and events with their own house money.  Calder is owned by Churchill Downs, and therefore, probably isn’t sweating the cash.  (Although I still have issues with the lack of a Super Bowl party.)

The points for the tournament will be issued for buy-ins (1 point for small tournaments, 2 points for $100 and up) and placing.  Placing will be like most points tournaments.  If there are five places, then first places gets five points and fifth place gets one point.  There will also be shirts and hats for placing down to 64th in the series after the 17 days.  My only criticism is that they also give out those stupid little card protectors/spinners too.  I understand it’s just another thing to put the logo on, but they really are pretty dorky, not to mention it’ll make them look like hypocrites later when they try to tell players that they do not allow foreign objects at the table.

I’ll update this post later when I get more time.  Feel free to comment or offer tips.

My only criticism is that they are jumping on the new South Florida trend of collecting two dollars for the jackpot.  I guess the local community has given up any hope of actually ever winning at the game of poker, and have now resorted to crossing their figures and hoping to hit three cherries on the poker tables.  To me, I’m fully aware that there are slots only 5o feet away from table 12, so I can play mindless games of random chance whenever I want (which is never).  I just fear that we’ll end up with an already high five dollar rake and a two dollar jackpot in every game in town.

I have already conceded that South Florida poker is more of a scavenger hunt for promos than it is a game of betting and bluffing. At this point, I’m afraid that I’ll have to choose whether I like the excellent staff of the Mardi Gras, or find a table that lets me keep my extra dollar in my winnings.  Decisions.  Decisions.