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Poker is Big in Florida

Posted on May 19th, 2011

If there’s any doubt to Florida’s rapid rise to poker prominence, the World Poker Tour has totally trashed it away. The world renowned poker tournament has recently inked a tie-up deal with the Jacksonville Greyhound Racing and Poker for the WPT’s Season X and with the tremendous success of the tourney’s Season IX Seminole Hard Rock Showdown, the Sunshine State really looks serious in grabbing the poker world’s limelight. The Seminole Hard Rock world poker event was the first major poker tournament Florida has hosted. The tourney drew a tremendous wave of 433 players. WPT’s Season IX showed the poker gods how fertile the poker market in Florida is.

“Florida is a growing poker market with a huge imprint on the U.S. poker scene. The WPT is focused on growth and we are very excited about our new stops in North Florida,” WPT CEO Steve Heller said. “The Jacksonville Poker Room promises to be one of the preeminent poker rooms in the country. Jacksonville Greyhound Racing & Poker’s commitment to providing world class service to players is exactly what WPT was looking for when selecting a home for a new event. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership.” WPT is among the best in the business when it comes to mainstream televising of huge poker tournaments and poker entertainment. The WPT is largely credited to the blossoming of the poker industry when it aired the first-of-its-kind poker television series back in 2002. Since then, the tournament has flourished tremendously along with the sudden mainstream popularity of poker around the globe.

Jacksonville Poker Rooms, which is supervised by the highly-reputable Deborah Giardina, will host a televised WPT Main Event as well as one Regional Event in the upcoming Season X. A non-televised Main Event – which is the first time in WPT’s history – completes the roundup of schedules in the Jacksonville rooms. The Jacksonville Poker Rooms have distinctively superior-class poker venues. It has the state-of-the-art Orange Park Room fit for the most prestigious games and the big-time names in the poker industry. Players will really cozy themselves with the top-class accommodation and amenities the cloistered two-tabled poker room offers. Be sure you are elite though if you want to set foot and play on the world-class room. $50,000 to $100,000 is the typical buy-ins for games played in the room.

Two different events will also be held in the Jacksonville locations on this month. A $25,000-guaranteed tournament with $550 buy-in will be held this coming Saturday, May 21st at St. Johns. The event will have 20,000 starting chips and half-hour levels. A much pricey tournament with the same nature will be played on May 28th, Saturday at the Orange Park. Aside from the big world poker event looming, a lot of state poker tournaments are also ready to rumble on the next couple of weeks. One is the Florida State Poker Championship which will be held at the Isle Pompano Beach Casino beginning on July 7. On the 29th of July, the tournament will begin its 3-day run through a $5,300 buy-in Main Event that will have a $1,000,000 million guaranteed prize.

Another poker attraction in the state is the Silks Poker Room at Tampa Bay Downs. Tournaments in this poker venue are held twice daily, having buy-ins of as low as $30 to the maximum $200. Every third Sundays of the each month, a $350 buy-in No-Limit Hold ‘em event is played with a champion’s prize not lower than $10,000. Poker aficionados won’t be short of their dosage of poker action in this poker venue as it has room filled with 50 plasma screens showing poker games every day, from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. Seminole Casino Brighton is another poker venue worthy of a visit for Florida’s passionate poker players. The casino is located at the top of Lake Okeechobee northwest corner. It offers a lot of promotions. Tuesdays and Thursdays are scheduled for Aces-cracked awards, Wednesdays feature Rolling Cash Fever which could offer up to $1,000, and on Friday midnights, are Full House drawings. On May 30, a Memorial Day high hand awards will be specially held to award the top three hands achieved from noon to midnight.