House takes $5 dollars.
Jackpot takes $2 dollars.
Dealer takes $1 to $3 dollars.
Player takes a beating.

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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