With poker spreading all over the Sunshine State, I spent 4 days playing in this poker room situated in a race track casino in Fort Lauderdale. It was a big room, with around 50 tables. They spread Limit and No Limit Holdem and Omaha and stakes from $1/$2 to $5/$10. However, due to a state imposed buy-in limit of $100, I couldn’t bring myself to play anything but $1/$2 No Limit Holdem. Buying in for 50 Big Blinds is pretty small; I wouldn’t want to play for 20 or 10. Unfortunately I didn’t play any games that were very deep; big stacks were $300, the buy-in at the Venetian. I have seen $0.25/$0.50 games that played deeper. However, I have never before seen such bad play as I saw over my days playing in the Isle Casino.

The worst hand I ever saw was limped into by 5 players including the blinds. The flop was AQJ rainbow; the small blind bet $8, the big blind folds, the early limper calls as does the mid-limper (immediately to my right) and the button. On the turn, an off suit 7, the small blind bets $20, the early limper calls; but the guy on my right makes it $50 to go and is called by the button as well as the other two players. The river is a ten, making any king the nuts to Broadway. I, of course, put the raiser on the nuts and thought this card would kill his action (he was a nice guy). The action checked around the button who bet $50 into this monster pot. The small blind called, after some deliberation, the early limper folded as does the guy to my right, but not before showing me his two pair (QJ). The button shows 89 for the strait… and the caller mucks.

I don’t know where to begin. Not only did the button call the flop bet with no pair and no draw, but he also called a raise on the turn drawing to the low end of the gut-shot. Only a ten would make his hand, and he would still lose to any king. I couldn’t believe he bet the river and got called… I cannot even guess what he the small blind mucked.

That was the great thing about the tables… the terrible play. But with bad play comes bad suck-outs. So I ran even until the last day, where I finally showed a modest profit for my time. I had to adjust my play for the lower implied odds; that requires a lot of patience. My advice is to play in Florida if you are going anyway… but if you are planning a trip, there is no place like Vegas.

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