Florida Poker

On vacation in Southwest Florida.  I had a chance to sneak away and play cards a couple of nights.  My assessment: Florida poker is crazy.

You see, state law says that you can only buy in for $100.  Now, my regular game is $1/2 NL when I play live.  Only at the Seminole Imokalee Casino, nobody wants to play $1/2 NL, they only play $2/5 or $5/10.  Did I mention that you can’t buy in for more than $100?  So, the game is almost all short stack against short stack.  Its a gamble-fest.  Wait for a good starting hand and then push it hard.  Even if you’ve doubled up, expect to have your whole stack at risk on any hand you raise.

I had pretty bad luck and I’m not sure I played terribly well either.

I got pocket aces 4 times, every time UTG or UTG+1.  I would raise to 3X and the whole table would fold.  I would get QTs in late position and raise to 3X and the BB would re-raise to 12X, which I don’t feel like I can call with a 20BB stack.

The guy in the next seat told me I played this hand wrong, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t.  Please feel free to comment.

I was on the button and there was a raise to $20 UTG+1.  A loose regular to my immediate right shoved for about $65.  My stack was about $160.  I have 88 and decide to flat call (perhaps I should have overshoved).  The BB (another loose player with about $800) and UTG+1 (with about $80) call.  The flop comes 7c 8h Jc.  This is the ideal flop for me, since I hit the set.  The BB checks, UTG+1 checks.  I shoved and I’m not pleased when both players call.

In this casino, when there’s no more betting, they made you turn your hand over.  Here’s what they showed:

BB – 6h9h

UTG+1 – QsTs

CO – Jh Th

And UTG+1 hit his flush on the turn and won the hand.

It was a weird night.  I saw the floor make two calls that I think were both wrong:

1) There were four players in a hand after the flop.  The first player bet $25, before the second player had a chance to bet or fold, the third player shoved for $65.  The dealer told the fourth player to act and said he’d come back to the second player.  The fourth player challenged that decision saying that the second player should act before him.  The dealer insisted and the floor manager agreed with the dealer.  The player was correct, wasn’t he?  The second player has to act, he should act as if the third player hadn’t acted so he can call $25, raise or fold.  He has a slight advantage as he knows what the third player is going to do (and the third player should not be allowed to change his bet), but the fourth player should have the advantage of knowing if the second player is going to bet or fold before he has to act.  Right?

2) In another hand, there are three players in the hand.  On the river player one bets a good amount on a board with four diamonds on it.  It is player two’s turn to act and he look across the table and starts talking.  He says that he doesn’t think that player one is bluffing and says “I think you have a big diamond”.  Player one tells him to shut up and asks the dealer to stop him from talking saying it is cheating.  The dealer asks them both to play their hands and player one calls the floor over who tells player two not to talk about the cards.  Player two objects.  I think player two can talk about what he thinks player one has as long as he has cards in the hand.  Right?

Anyway, I don’t really recommend Florida for poker, unless you like to gamble.  I can’t even imagine a $5/10 game.  How would that go?