Miami Poker Rooms

I haven’t been to Flagler Dog Track’s Magic City Poker room in a while, but I’ve heard about this promo that they’re doing now.  On the last Sunday of every month, the highest hand during each hour gets $1000.  Someone said it was for ten hours.

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.

I just got back from Calder Poker in Miami Gardens.  They just announced a new promo that they’re doing for their poker tournaments.  They’ve sponsored a free roll tournament on April 5 for the top 16 points players based on a simple tournament points system.  Points accrue from March 14 to March 31.

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.

I’ve been spending my time lately at Mardi Gras Poker Room inside of the Hollywood Dog Track in Hollywood.  I have to say, I’m impressed that they have been able to do such an incredibly good job of running a poker room.  Whoever hired the staff actually did an excellent job of just getting good people.  I don’t mean good dealers or chip runners or managers, I mean good people. I’ve consistently seen solid dealing and dispute management, and most notably they know how to spread tables efficiently.

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.

If you’d like to write an article and post it here, feel free.  I built this site so that people could write articles, not just me.  Create an account and write whatever you want.  Please keep in mind, I  tightly moderate this blog, so anything perceived as spam or something that might be biased self-promotion obviously would never get posted.

If you are a representative of a poker room or casino, you can contact me by submitting a comment and I’ll be able to get in touch with you.  If you’d like to send me a list of information about your tournaments or promotions, I’ll be glad to review them and possibly post them.

Keep in mind, this site isn’t really a complete site.  It’s really just a quick blog I put up that happens to get found by Google searches a lot. I guess I can add forums or tournament schedules or whatever you want.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been to a casino that leased its parking to the Super Bowl and didn’t have a Super Bowl party, and I’ve been to a casino that is called “Mardi Gras” and did nothing on the actual day of Mardi Gras.

I understand that every business is out to make a profit.  I also understand that casinos make their money when people are dumb enough to gamble their money away on a losing proposition, either at their tables or their slots.  But can a casino at least pretend to want us to have a little fun and entertainment at their “entertainment venue?”

I spoke with the guy that is the marketing genius for Calder Casino near Dolphin Stadium shortly before the Super Bowl and I asked him what they were doing for the Super Bowl.  Not only did he tell me nothing, he proceeded to vehemently defend the notion that their casino didn’t need to host a party since the actual Super Bowl itself was so close.  I also got from a top manager that they were more worried about opening the casino on time for the Super Bowl than having a party.  Hmmm. So let me get this straight.  You can build an entire building on time, but to plan a party was an impossibility?  The idea was to open a casino before the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl so that the tourists would spend in their casino, yet nothing was done to attract or entertain people?  Good management. To put it in perspective, the parking lot of of the casino was rented out to the Super Bowl for ticket holders.  The casino is that close to the stadium of the most watched television show in US history.  And there was no party on the property, aside from the private party in the terrance level that was rented to a group.  And the marketer tried to explain to me essentially how I was clueless.

At Mardi Gras Casino in Hallandale, which has a poker room that I actually like a lot, there was no sign of the Mardi Gras holiday aside for the year round decorations.  I understand that parties are inefficient at extracting patrons’ hard-earned money from their hands, but if you expect to make friends and loyal customers, you might want to try to make friends.

If the attitude of the casinos in South Florida are so short-sighted that they don’t understand that a customer can reasonably expect to be treated like a customer, then they certainly shouldn’t expect to actually make money long-term.  If their opinion is “screw the customer” then my opinion is “screw the casino.”  There are only two industries in which I always pull for the thief to actually get away with the crime, banks and casinos – two industries that don’t understand the word “customer” and have too strong of a sense of entitlement.

I’ll be adding more information about the popularity of the poker tournaments at Gulfstream in Hallandale.  They’re pretty well-known, and typically have a solid turnout, but I’d like to get more information in the comments about what the texture of them is like.

I’ll try to check up on the tournaments the next time I go to Gulfstream’s poker room later this month.  I’ve been playing a lot more at other poker rooms in South Florida lately, so my information might be a few weeks out of date.  Feel free to comment.  Please note, for spam purposes, all comments require approval.

Yup.  Last week I was in a poker room and I saw the table next to mine develop a crowd of spectators and staff.  The floor manager was trying to make a floor decision.  It was a premature BOARD.  All five cards.

I had a tough time with the way the decision was made.  I’ll tell you what the actual decision was.  Here are the facts, as I got them partly from observing, partly from asking staff:

Preflop, there were three players betting.  One player goes all-in, another also goes all-in, and the third was overlooked by the dealer.  I don’t know if the player had his cards well hidden or not.  The dealer then runs the cards before the third player had acted.

So… what is the solution to this irregularity?  I’ll tell you what was done soon.