Florida Poker Making Big Steps

Poker in Florida has come a long way in the last year, mostly due to the law change in July 2007 that loosened poker room regulations and, in part, allowed an increase in maximum buy-ins for tournaments. Poker rooms across the state began offering bigger events, and the demand for poker became further solidified today with the start of the largest poker tournament in Florida state history.

At the Seminole Hard Rock poker room in Tampa, Florida, a $1,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em poker tournament maxed out at 600 entrants this morning. It generated a prize pool big enough to exceed the $100,000 guaranteed first-place prize.

“Did we expect to sell out? Absolutely,” said Poker Room Manager Henry Funke. “Phones have been ringing off the hook for two months. We were sold out one week in advance of the event.”

Two fields of 300 players will play down to 30 both today and tomorrow. The final 60 will battle for the $170,000 first-place prize on Sunday. Because of the immediate success of this tournament, many other large buy-in events like this are already in the works.

Because the Seminole Hard Rock is a Native American casino, it does not have to abide by state law in terms of poker room regulations, but it did hold off on big buy-in tournaments such as this until now. However, most casinos in Florida had been bound by law to a $32 maximum tournament buy-in. After the law change, Florida poker rooms were allowed to up the maximum to $800 according to Mike Smith, director of poker room operations for the Isle at Pompano Park.

“Since the law changed, we have been running $100-$250 tournaments every week, but we are really excited for the Florida State Poker Championship coming up in June,” said Smith.

The tournament series is the first big buy-in tournament series out of the gate for the casino since the law change and is scheduled to take place June 16-23. The main event has an $800 buy-in with a $100,000-guaranteed prize pool.

“We are expecting around 1,200 entrants over the eight days. We just made the announcement, and already we are getting a lot of positive feedback.”

Tournament preregistration for the Florida State Poker Championship is expected to kick off in about a week, and with events planned to be maxed at 260 entrants plus alternates, it would a good idea to secure seats early.

Making preregistration even easier, the Isle recently announced that it joined PTSeats.com, an online tournament registering site. Players will be able to reserve a seat by paying with any major credit card from the comfort of their own home. Click here to read more about it.

The Palm Beach Kennel Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, also wasted no time taking advantage of the changed law, upping their daily tournament buy-ins, which now range from $65-$100. The room also has high-hand jackpots every hour for seats into World Series of Poker main event qualifier that will give away four seats.

One of the first rooms to have a widely successful big buy-in multitable tournament was the Derby Late Poker Room. In September, a sold-out field of 500 entrants competed in a $500 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament for a quarter million dollar prize pool. The event was filled an entire three weeks before the start of the tournament.

“Poker is booming in Florida, and players are speaking with their buy-ins,” said Shift Manager Jason Hoggatt. “The next big event is in the works, and we should be announcing it soon.”

The law change in Florida also greatly affected cash games by legalizing no-limit hold’em and increasing stakes. Click here to read more information.