Before the main Casino and the distractions offered there is a stand-alone poker room all to itself. I'm hard pressed to think of another poker room anywhere with it's own building like this. It's nice inside. It's not the warehouse look of the Hard Rock in Tampa. The decor is classy. The only negative walking in is you cannot read the wait list. The man at the computer could see it and tell me that it wouldn't be long for $2-5NL but didn't volunteer how far down list I was. He was right though. I sat down within 10 minutes when three people ahead of me didn't take their seats.
This was a Thursday afternoon and I could count 10 tables of action of which at least 2 were 2-5 games. At the table was 2 guys under 30 that bought in with a big stack. An older guy on the end that looked like a retired New York cop that could smell a bluff like a car theft and collected a big stack from a couple of guys that thought themselves wise. The others were average players with bankrolls that could stand buy-ins of $500-1000. The standard pre-flop raise in the game was $20 and it was nothing to see 5 to the flop for that. I saw 9 to the flop once for a $15 pre-flop raise.
They were running a $200 per 20 minute high hand promotion but it didn't seem to hit more than once an hour. I didn't ask the minimum requirements but the context suggested Aces Full of something.
The dealers were good. The first one was apologetic that I needed to make my initial buy-in at the cage. I can understand this for $2-5. Some people are buying $800-$1000 in chips and the tray only holds so many.
There are a lot of food options, but most of the places are closed in the early afternoon. I had hamburger at the Hard Rock before playing. The biggest drawback to playing here is the parking situation. Navigating the parking garages and elevators and then the long walk is so much more trouble than other area rooms. You can valet at Pompano for $3 and walk right in. No such luck here. This is especially bad as I had walk it in the rain.
