First up is my review of the stunning and pristine Best Bet Orange Park Kennel Club poker room
So the name is a little misleading since what used to be a big draw here, greyhound racing, is not defunct in N. Fla. This room actually opened while I was playing at the other sister greyhound track where I first started playing poker like 20 years ago and took much of the poker traffic. That other room has been closed down for a few years nows and about two months ago they demolished the whole building and track. I have heard talk that Orange Park may open a poker and sports/racebook only location then demolish this one since it is fairly ridiculous to keep running the space and utilities where half the place (dedicated to greyhound racing) is no longer used.
The now out of use greyhound track/seating
They closed the track down but the same people pretty much kept coming to bet on telecast horse and dog races anyways. The telecast betting area is downstairs and the poker room upstairs, we don't go downstairs but it seems pretty scuzzy.
If I had to liken the Orange Park room to a Vegas property it would be the Fiesta (was a station) out towards Henderson but on a much smaller scale. Its ugly, kinda grimey, its dated, its nearly entirely locals.
As for the games there are typically 2-3 2-2nlh w/$200 cap games, 1-2 2-5 nlh $500 cap games, and a 10-20 stud8 game that run on most weekdays. Weekends will have about twice as many games +a 5-10nlh and some tiny limit game usually run as well.
The weekday 2-2 nlh can play pretty ***** small due to a lot of the regfish buying in at $100 until later in the afternoon/night but its somewhat compensated for by their love of getting said shortstacks in really bad
There is a small tournament area of 5-6 tables where they run little dailys I'm not really sure what they've been running probably like $75-125, Ive never played them so also not sure of rake or structure.
Dealers are pretty mediocre, there are a few good ones and some pretty bad. A good number of them will miss actions like subtle checks, string bets, out of turn stuff as well as try to push the pot to hands like 2 pairs when another player has a flush so def have to keep on top of some of them if you want things to run smoothly.
The poker players here are a pretty ethically and age diverse collective of locals from across a broad socioeconomic spectrum. You have some financially well-off regulars that happily dump a few hundred a day for entertainment as well as a good number of regulars who coast in with the last hundred or so dollars to their names at the time and put it on the tables. Oh they also run these tables of house games like blackjack and 2 card poker or w/e it is, Ive never actually played them or paid enough attention to be sure.
The food is probably one of the weirdest parts because I will make a statement on it that seems both outrageous and counterintuitive...when it comes to the food here ONLY EAT the SUSHI. There is a sushi chef who runs the sushi bar and is in charge of the vendor contracts and making it so its actually decent. Any other food you order comes from the little back 'kitchen' and is basically frozen snack food (think like the little TGI Fridays frozen foods) popped into a microwave and reheated. I pretty much get the sushi every night I play and it is also cheap af. Spicy tuna roll and an eal roll w/avocado is about $12.
Drinks are cheap but you do have to pay for them which blows. Cocktail waitresses are better than one might expect. Message girl is there on weekend afternoons and nights only.
That's about it. Games are soft here but I certainly miss the Vegas rooms and look forward to my first trip back which may not be until Nov. I will post month figures later tonight and probably review one of the other rooms in a week or so. Let me know if photos do not show up in thread thx!