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Our trip through South Florida was a whirlwind. It included a three night stay in Miami, followed by two nights in Key West, and finished with four nights in Hollywood Beach. The Miami and Hollywood Beach days included a lot of poker. In fact, we played at seven different poker rooms in seven days. We cover our experience of the Miami area lifestyle (as well as our Key West diversion) elsewhere. Here we want to share our experience with South Florida poker rooms. You can also find individual reviews of each of the seven rooms we played – Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood, Seminole Coconut Creek, The Big Easy, Pompano Park, Magic City, Gulfstream Park, and Dania Beach – in our Room Review category.

We recently ranked the Top 5 poker rooms in New England (our home turf). However, with such limited experience of the South Florida rooms (a single visit for all but Seminole Coconut Creek), we do not feel qualified to create such a ranking. Rather, we thought we would share key elements of the South Florida poker scene overall, including a few standout aspects of various rooms.

Dealers in South Florida Poker Rooms are Very Strong

Most dealers were fast, professional, and friendly. Perhaps the healthy and consistent activity (see Cash Game section below) makes dealing in South Florida a desirable job. Whatever the reason, the dealer quality was strong. Not quite Turning Stone strong, but always solid to excellent.

Players are Generally Friendly

The player mix varied from room to room, with Seminole Coconut Creek skewing older and The Big Easy offering great diversity in age, gender, and ethnicity. Players at most rooms were generally friendly. Seminole Coconut Creek stood out most in this regard, and this was one of the reasons we played there twice. Coconut Creek’s Crazy Pineapple tournament was fun partly due to the openness and patience of the players. Understandably, dealers occasionally forgot to collect discards before starting to deal the turn. These moments were met with laughter and good cheer rather than irritation. Gulfstream had the most serious players among all the venues we played, and therefore felt the least welcoming.

The number of women playing poker varied from a low at Magic City (Heather was one of 3 women in the entire room, tournament or cash) to a high at The Big Easy where there were a healthy number of women. Gulfstream Park also had only a handful of women playing either the tournament or at the cash tables.

Tournament Structures are Insane

If you love rebuys and innumerable, complicated add-ons, you’ll love playing poker in South Florida. Some rooms, like Magic City, feature tournaments with very short stacks and quick blind levels, encouraging fast action and repeated rebuys. Gulfstream Park offers unlimited rebuys to the end of registration and 3 different add-on options. The Big Easy’s “free” tournament offered 500 chips followed by a variety of add-on options from the get-go. Blind levels were 15 to 20 minutes in most tournaments, so the combination of rebuys/add-ons and short levels made for a lot of crazy play. The gambling end of the poker playing spectrum will love this; others, like ourselves, not so much.

Dania Beach offered the craziest structure we have ever seen. The original buy-in was $60 for 10,000 chips, and whenever you fell below 5,000 chips you could add on $20 for 5,000 more. Many players availed themselves of this option repeatedly during the early stages. At break, there was an add-on of 50,000 chips for $80. Yes, an add-on 5x the starting stack! The tournament had nine players alive at break. Then eleven new players bought in for $140 and 60,000 chips apiece. Suffice it to say, the tenor of play completely changed. This was Dania Beach’s Monday tournament, and the exact structure of other tournaments vary. However, the 50K add-on is generally a part of most of their structures.

Tournament Rakes are More Insane than the Structures

If you navigate the gauntlet of South Florida tournament structures and manage to cash, you might be disappointed by the pot at the end of the rainbow. You’ll often hear poker professionals harp on the importance of knowing the rake. “Anything over 15% is impossible to profit!” some will shout. However, those of us playing local tournaments with entries below $200 know that the rakes will be higher, and we live with that. Poker is more pastime than profit opportunity when small tournaments are your base.

However, a pastime should not bankrupt you. Many of the South Florida poker rooms had rakes far beyond what we have seen before. Gulfstream’s tournament rake was 37%! Coconut Creek punched in in the low 30% range. Pompano Park seemed to offer a rake around 25% which we would usually balk at, but it felt like a welcome respite in the South Florida poker landscape. We breathed a sigh of relief when we returned to New England with typical rakes in the low 20s.

Due to the complicated rebuy and add-on structures, some South Florida tournament rakes were hard to calculate. Also, frankly, we stopped wanting to know exactly what was being pulled from the prize pool. Our fiscally conservative sides would have called an end to poker tournaments on this poker vacation had we looked too closely. How so many South Florida poker regulars can afford to play tournaments with such brutal rakes is beyond us. It seems like you would need to be a top 1% player to break even. To be fair, some rooms featured monthly point system awards and included tournament players in room-wide high hands. So that must help.

Poker Is Valued Differently Across South Florida Venues

Unsurprisingly, South Florida poker rooms are valued very differently by their venues. At the two Seminole casinos, Hard Rock Hollywood and Coconut Creek, the poker room is considered an important part of a larger, profitable gambling complex. At the other extreme, Gulfstream Park’s bell cow is their beautiful racetrack. The casino clearly falls behind both live and simulcast racing in importance. And the poker room – dark, dingy, and tucked in the back – falls at the bottom of the heap of Gulfstream’s offerings.

At The Big Easy, the poker room seems a key element of the entire casino. It was even more active and vibrant than the slot areas. Magic City gives the poker room its own space altogether. The Magic City poker room feels like its own freestanding entity in a larger complex housing various activities. Dania Beach offers an attractive midsize casino with a nicely designed poker room, but not a lot of action beyond tournament regulars. Pompano Park is another midsize casino featuring more healthy cash and tournament volume.

Cash Games are Very Active in Most South Florida Poker Rooms

We spent a few weeks tracking both the cash and tournament activity across South Florida poker rooms. Most South Florida rooms have vibrant cash games, with the exception of Dania Beach. On a typical Saturday night, there may be 10 to 30 tables (with Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood at the high end) of cash going in a given room. About half of those tables will be $1/$2 NLH. While most rooms, especially the larger ones, fall off during weeknights, cash activity remains high. At some place like The Big Easy the drop off is negligible; they may average 15-16 tables on a Saturday night, and only be down to 12-13 tables on a Tuesday evening. The nightly “free” 7pm tournament may help to keep the volume steady. We have detailed activity for each individual room in that room’s Poker Room Review.

So there you have it: the pros and cons of the South Florida poker scene. We were surprised to find our poker experience in South Florida so different from what we see in New England. It was a great place to visit, but not quite our style for tournament play long-term.

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Seminole Coconut Creek Poker Room

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The Seminole Coconut Creek poker room, along with its larger sister casino Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood, are major players in the South Florida poker scene. The Isle at Pompano Park is the other leg of the South Florida poker room tripod. The Seminole Coconut Creek is more remote than the other two casinos and has some unique tournament offerings. We enjoyed the unique tournament offerings so much we partook twice during our extended South Florida poker vacation.

Casino Setting

After battling the urban and beach traffic of Miami and its northern beaches, the Seminole Coconut Creek casino was a breath of fresh air. Located on route 441 near the juncture with 834, there is little in the immediate area. Standing in front of the casino, you only trees and lush greenery. The casino’s location feels a bit like the Florida version of Foxwoods. In reality, it’s not far from the South Florida bustle. The exterior is attractively landscaped with palm trees and flowers. Parking is plentiful with both a six level parking garage and exterior parking.

Non-Poker Amenities

As one of several Native American casino properties in Florida, Seminole Coconut Creek legally offers blackjack, pai gow, and baccarat in addition to poker and slots. Electronic craps and roulette games also sit on the casino floor.

Unfortunately, Coconut Creek was among the louder and smokier casinos that we encountered in Florida. Classic 1970s rock played relentlessly through the many loudspeakers. While I am a fan of such music, it became a little much. A small, quiet smoke-free room with slots and blackjack tables lies on the second floor.

The dining options at Coconut Creek are plentiful with wide a range of price points. At the high end, there is an NYY Steakhouse and an Italian restaurant named Sorrisi. At the other extreme, a deli sat next to the poker room. We grabbed a decent bagel there during break. The casino is also scattered with bars and lounges where you can grab a quick bite. There is a Fresh Harvest if you are looking for a healthier buffet experience.

Music options abound at Coconut Creek. The Nectar lounge and Sunset Grill both offer musical acts. “Willie Nelson and Family” performed in the arena on the day of our visit. Neil Sedaka (yes, he’s still alive!) and Kansas were both coming soon. Clearly the ubiquitous 1970’s music resonates with Seminole Coconut Creek’s target audience.

The Seminole Coconut Creek Poker Room Comfort

The 23 table Seminole Coconut Creek poker room is open to the casino floor, without walls or other barriers. Slot machines surround the room. Suffice it to say that the room is a bit loud. And smoky. Although smoking is off limits in the poker area itself, smoke wafted in from the slots areas, and many non-poker players wandered in to use the restrooms without attending to the No Smoking signs.

The poker room’s chairs are well padded and comfortable, although not adjustable. The felts are quite worn and some are fairly dirty. The lighting is dim, causing players in one of our tournaments to complain that they could not see the flop. The chips, however, are new and it is easy distinguish denominations. Most tables have shufflers, which helped to speed our game along.

Poker Room Staff

When we arrived at the poker room, we asked the greeter whether we needed a player’s card to register for the tournament. He had no idea, and it took a minute to find a floor who could answer this basic question. However, staff overall was excellent. The dealers were all very good and friendly. The floor ran the tournament well. Waitresses circled frequently, and were friendly and responsive.

Players at the Seminole Coconut Creek Poker Room

The players at the Seminole Coconut Creek poker room skewed older. Generally, most were very friendly and seemed to be enjoying themselves. On both of our visits, the quality of play was wildly variable. There were some unrepentant calling stations, but there were far more solid players, and a few very good ones. There were fewer aggressive young guns than we encountered at many of the other Florida poker rooms.

Tournament Structures

The Seminole Coconut Creek poker room generally offers two daily tournaments. Buy-ins range from $80 to $130. Blind levels are either 15 or 20 minutes and starting stacks range from 8K to 16K. All daily tournaments have a guarantee ranging from $2K to $20K (on Wednesday evenings currently). The two tournaments we played in both featured 60 to 80 players. However, the Wednesday tournament draws many more, with 172 entries on a night shortly before we arrived. Beyond the typical NLH tournaments, Coconut Creek also mixes in a few Survivor, Omaha, and (one of our new favorites) Crazy Pineapple tournaments.

For those who aren’t familiar with the variant, Crazy Pineapple is basically NLH except you get 3 cards in the hole, one of which you discard after you see the flop. As you can imagine, there are a lot of people in every hand, and the winning hand is usually a monster. This tournament was particularly fun at Coconut Creek where everyone was pretty laid back and enjoying the insanity. Both dealers and players kept forgetting the discards until someone would gently remind them. The tournament felt more like a friendly home game than your typical casino event.

Many months also offer “featured” special events with larger buy-ins and pay-outs. In February, Coconut Creek hosted an extended WSOP circuit event with fourteen events spread over fourteen days.

As was typical at the Florida poker rooms, such as Gulfstream Park, the rake for the tournaments we played was extremely high (33%). Tournament players were eligible for high hand promotions, so some of the rake went to that. Regulars also accrued casino points, so part of the buy-in likely went to that as well. Whatever the reason, rakes this high are impossible to beat.

Cash Game Activity

The Seminole Coconut Creek poker room has a very active cash poker scene. On weekdays there are 5 to 8 $1/$2 tables, 3 to 4 $2/$5 tables and 4 to 7 tables of other games. The “other” games volume is actually slightly higher than its sister casino, Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood. Friday and Saturday nights the volume rises to 9 to 10 $1/$2 tables, 3 to 5 $2/$5 tables and 7-8 tables of other games. Over at the Seminole Hard Rock you’ll see much higher weekend activity in $1/$2 and $2/$5, but again Coconut Creek nudges out Hard Rock on “other” games.

Seminole Coconut Creek Poker Room

The afternoons we were at Coconut Creek, there were about 8 to 9 active tables of cash poker.

Overall Assessment of the Seminole Coconut Creek Poker Room

While most of our Florida poker room experiences left us flat, Seminole Coconut Creek somehow added up to more than the sum of its parts. Despite the fact that the poker room sits in the middle of the casino action, filled with smoke, and loud, we thoroughly enjoyed our experiences at Seminole Coconut Creek. In the end, the quality of the dealers, the friendly players, and, for Florida, the reasonable tournament structures carried the day. While Coconut Creek is a bit farther from Miami than many of the South Florida poker rooms, it is definitely worth a visit.

• Comfort
• Tournament Structures
• Personnel

Seminole Casino Coconut Creek Poker Room

Summary

While most of our Florida poker room experiences left us flat, Seminole Coconut Creek somehow added up to more than the sum of its parts. Despite the fact that the poker room is plopped in the middle of the casino action, filled with smoke, and loud, we thoroughly enjoyed our experiences at Seminole Coconut Creek. In the end, the quality of the dealers, the friendly players, and, for Florida, the reasonable tournament structures carried the day. While Coconut Creek is a bit farther from Miami than many of the South Florida poker rooms, it is definitely worth a visit.