Hard Rock Casino Tampa Poker Room Review
The Tampa location of the hard rock casino is amazing. Super clean, 7 handed poker with the plexi-glass. Kuka wrote a review about Hard Rock Tampa in Tampa, FL. As a 'Players Club Member', I visit the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa often. Although I have never stayed at the hotel, I can honestly say the food is good, the live shows are a lot of fun and the casino is ALWAYS busy! The Hard Rock is always conducting giveaways & promotions for its members. I personally go to play the tables and slot machines.
The Hard Rock Casino in Tampa, run by the Seminole tribe of Florida, is a large, great room. They have 50 tables, spread $1/2 and $2/5 no limit hold'em with a $100 capped buy-in. They spread $2/4 limit hold'em and $1-5 limit stud. There are regular tournaments as well.
This is the action room in the Tampa area. There are many younger players, most with either iPods, sunglasses, or baseball caps, just as they see on television. I have no idea if any of them have any serious game. The few who were at my table when I played on a Wednesday morning were professional poker wannabees who, after they lost a hand, loved to talk about how other players played their hands wrong. I enjoyed having them at my table and would love to play with them again. They were good for the game.
There's a nice food court right near the poker room. The prices are very reasonable, I thought, with a veggie burger at one of the places for $3.95, a veggie lo mein for $4.50 and house fried rice for $5.50 at the Asian place — or a huge scoop of Ben & Jerry's ice cream or a Cuban Chicken Noodle Soup for only a few bucks each. They also had a place that sold beef empanadas for $3. Did you ever see the musical Sweeney Todd? Remember the show-stopping scene 'Worst Meat Pies in London'? Leave it to say, stay away from the empanadas.
The poker room itself is non-smoking, but is open to the rest of the casino. This allows for some annoying smoke to waft in near the edges of the poker room. Someone less bothered by cigarette smoke than I probably would not be bothered by it, but I was.
There is a very high ceiling with excellent lighting on the tables, very comfortable, well cushioned chairs, but without wheels – making repositioning a little more of a chore on the nicely carpeted floor. The room is not as clean as some, but cleaner than most. It is well run – with tournaments going off on time, empty seats being quickly noticed and called for, and signing up for games simple.
The room takes the standard-for-Florida 10-percent, $5-maximum rake and a $1 jackpot drop. The jackpot goes for a bad beat jackpot and a high hand bonus. When I was there, the bad beat was colossal – at $125,000. You needed to have your quads beaten. A royal flush in spades paid the holder $500. Other royals paid $100.
I heard an interesting story that I verified with a few other players. Apparently, for three days back in July of 2007, the poker room spread a $25/50 blind no-limit game with no cap. Players were seen sitting at the table with tens of thousands of dollars each! The poker room was taking quick advantage of the fact that as a Seminole casino they were not officially regulated by state law. By the third day of this enormous game, that had run continuously, people in suits (who were misidentified as state inspectors but who were really tribal officials) came in and shut the game down – as it went against the spirit of the state law that limited buy-ins and limits inside state-regulated casinos in racetracks and jai alai frontons. This high-stakes game apparently risked damaging the trusting relationship between the Seminole tribe and the state regulators. I guess the Seminoles didn't want to kill the golden goose of casinos they have established in Florida. Even so, for three days last year at least, the place had the biggest action outside of Las Vegas and Southern California. Folks I met were dreaming of a day when these games could once again flourish. And, for what it's worth, in my opinion there's no good reason that they shouldn't be allowed.
I liked the action and the excitement of this room. If I were in Tampa on a regular basis this is the place that I'd play in cash games. But for tournaments I'd probably play at Lucky's – a place with no-juice tournaments at a nearby dog track that I'll review in a subsequent article.
Hard Rock Casino Tampa
5223 North Orient Road
Tampa, Florida
866-502-PLAY
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Live casino poker
Poker in South Florida received a big boost this weekend as both the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino properties in Hollywood and Coconut Creek reopened their doors on Friday, June 12.
The properties, which have been closed since March 20 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, opened under “Safe+Sound” guidelines, which include guests being required to wear a mask, temperature screenings, and a 50 percent max occupancy.
For poker players, the following precautions and procedures will be in place:
- The poker room will run 25 of their 45 tables
- Active tables will feature Plexiglass dividers
- All games will be played max six-handed
- Both players and staff will be required to wear masks
- Cards and chips will be cleaned on a regular basis
- Food not permitted in the poker room. Players can request a 60-minute dinner break.
- One table or seat change allowed per session
Hard Rock Casino Tampa Fl
Both Seminole properties have host prolific tournament series including Seminole Showdowns, World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit stops, and Moneymaker's Road to PSPC. The reopening come about three weeks after their sister property, Hard Rock Tampa, resumed their operations on May 21.
'Major tournament series for Seminole Hard Rock Poker have been well-established globally over the last 10 years,' the poker team at Seminole Gaming told PokerNews. 'When the time is right, these series will return with the same first-class experience that the players have come to know and love.'
The Hard Rock Tampa poker room, which opened under the same guidelines outlines above, saw an immediate demand as poker players not only flocked to the tables, but were willing to put their names on long waiting lists.
'The opening of poker at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa went extremely well. It has been open for over three weeks and the tables remain full, with lists,' the Seminole poker team added. 'Much of the credit goes to Director of Poker Operations, Pablo Perez.'
All Seminole Hard Rock properties have also been equipped with air purification and disinfecting systems
“The health and safety of our team members and guests has always been of upmost importance to our senior leadership team and Tribal Council,” Seminole Hard Rock said in a statement. “We want to make sure that we are doing everything that we can to provide a safe environment for our team members and you, our loyal customers.”
It continued: “As information is changing rapidly and we are learning more daily about COVID-19 and how to stop the spread, we will continue to regularly update the Safe+Sound protocols based on facts and data provided by our partners, industry councils, as well as global and governmental agencies.”
Hard Rock Hollywood Poker Room
For more information follow @SHRThePokerRoom on Twitter.
*Images courtesy of Seminole Hard Rock.
Hard Rock Casino Poker
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Poker TablesSeminole Hard RockCoronavirus