Sara Ferrero
Florida is a slice of the US renowned as the country’s retirement haven and a home for nautical recreation, amusement parks, and fancy beach resorts. It is also known as the place which houses some of America’s most impressive Native American casinos. The Seminole Tribe of Florida has a tight grip on the state’s gaming sector, and it owns Florida’s massive Hard Rock gambling complexes and its ones in Okeechobee, Immokalee, Coconut Creek, and Hollywood.
The Sunshine State has no commercial venues, but it does allow dominoes and poker to be played at licensed card rooms, of which the state has close to thirty. Although online poker is not allowed in Florida, its sweepstakes version can be enjoyed remotely by all within the state’s borders.
Still, despite not being as widely available as other US regions, Florida still has a decent poker scene, featuring a quality blend of high-stakes and laid-back games. Below, we are excited to tell you more about it.
Poker Regulation in Florida
As noted, internet poker in Florida is not yet allowed. That said, in 1996, ten years after the state’s lawmakers introduced lottery gambling, poker was permitted to be available on race tracks. When this was made possible, pots had $10 maximums and expectedly did not draw in substantial crowds.
This restriction was lifted in 2007, and a new one was put in place that stated $100 buy-ins were possible. Today, there is no mandated specific maximum bet or raise amount. Card rooms in the state operate under the Florida Pari-Mutuel Wagering Act, regulated by the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering. Aside from those in famed casino resorts, most others are typically attached to racetracks.
Home games are allowed in Florida if they are private, non-profit, and social. If someone charges a fee to participants (rakes the pot), then per law, such an activity will constitute illegal gambling.
How Floridians Approach Poker
For the most part, those serious about the game go to Miami, Tampa, and Jacksonville for prime card action, as these places are where the highest-end tournaments in the state happen. The WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship is a top attraction for many veteran pros from within the Sunshine State and outside it, and the same goes for the WPT DeepStacks at Bestbet Jacksonville and Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood’s Lucky Hearts Poker Open.
Hialeah Park in South Florida, along with the Derby Lane room, is a famed gathering ground for casual poker players. Like in most parts of the US, more than half of the poker entertainment in Florida is casual play.
Florida’s Poker Scenes
As most readers probably know, Jacksonville is Florida’s most populous city, but when Floridians talk about the Jacksonville scene, they also mean its surrounding towns. Hence, the Bestbet St. Augustine, off Exit 311 at 800 Marketplace Drive, forty miles south of Jacksonville, and the Bestbet Orange Park in Orange Park also get bundled in with Bestbet Jacksonville. The latter is the state’s top poker and racing venue. It has eighty-eight tables inside a twenty-thousand-square-foot space.
The Miami and Fort Lauderdale area is a territory with eleven rooms. These are Magic City, Big Easy Casino, Card House Port St. Lucie, Casino Miami Jai-Alai, Harrah’s Pompano Beach, Hialeah Park, Miccosukee Casino, the Palm Beach Kennel Club, the Seminole Coconut Creek, Hard Rock Hollywood, and Dania Beach Casino. Naturally, Hard Rock Hollywood and Seminole Coconut Creek are this area’s two most massive properties. But they do not necessarily have the most tables, as that honor falls to the Palm Beach Kennel Club, which has sixty-four.
The third and final poker scene in Florida is the Tampa and West Florida one, where six establishments bring card gambling action to residents. Bonita Springs, Derby Lane, One-Eyed Jacks, Silks, TGT Poker & Racebook, and Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa. Derby Lane in St. Petersburg is the most sizable one from this pack, with fifty-one tables.
Top Florida-Born Pros
Trust us. Florida has no shortage of high-quality players born in the section of the contiguous US with the longest coastline. Some names anyone with even a fleeting knowledge of the game should know about are Florida natives Jason Mercier, Jake Schindler, Michael Mizrachi, Sean Winter, Vanessa Rousso, and John Racener.
It should come as no surprise that the first three names hail from Hollywood, a location with Florida’s top casinos. Hence, it should be no shock that it has given birth to some of the country’s best poker talents. The state has a decent poker infrastructure with a wealth of cash games and daily competitions that let those serious about this form of gambling hone their skills against diverse opponents regularly.
While it is true that the native tribes have a monopoly over gambling in Florida, residents can still play at offshore sites, ones like Bovada and Ignition, that accept gamblers from the US to join their ranks and offer the most popular cash game variants for mobile play.
Comments