ATTENTION FLORIDA NL HOLDEM PLAYERS. I HAVE A HEALTHY ROLL AND A WILLINGNESS TO GAMBLE.

Time to hype the new poker trip I'm taking in a couple weeks. I've got a 5 day window away from the girlfriend, the dog, and the plan is to hit most of the poker rooms on the east coast of Florida. The only restriction on the trip is that it can't begin before Wednesday October 23rd and I have to be back in Tallahassee Sunday night October 27th.

First, I'm headed east on I-10 to Jacksonville Best Bet. I hear that they have pretty good action there and currently they are running satellites to their next WPT event. Anyone have info on the action there or info on what game to hop in?

Next, I'm headed south to Daytona Beach Kennel Club. This card room frequently has a 5-10 NL running and I'm up for the challenge of higher stakes. I rarely find the opportunity to sit in a 5-10 nl game and I am excited to take an open seat in that one and feel it out. Anyone have info on this game? I welcome the challenge of a tough game, but I'm definitely not above taking a 2-5 nl seat or even a 1-2 nl seat if the higher game isn't worthwhile.

The next card room south of Daytona is West Palm Beach Kennel Club. This card room isn't the nicest one. I haven't played here since I played a couple WSOP circuit events there so I may pass this one up but who knows.

Further on down I-95 is the first Seminole property I will be visiting. This is the Seminole Coconut Creek. They are starting a Regional WPT event series here and so I can foresee the action being good here. I have to be very careful at these Seminole properties tho as they offer table games and I have been known to put heavy money on table games when I get stuck at poker. Definitely one of my leaks that I work to plug but sometimes the inner degen in me gets the best of me.

South of Coconut Creek is the Isle Capri of Pompano. This is definitely a premier card room of South Florida. They pretty much have a 5-10 nl game running whenever the card room is open and lots of grinders at 2-5 nl from what I can remember. This month they are running a tournament series so I may take a shot at getting a seat in their main event, but with the limited time frame I have I doubt that will work.

Then there is the Hardrock Hollywood. This is another place that has great games going there. I'd say lifetime I have won more at this card room than any in the United States. The 2-5 nl deep stack and the 5-10 nl they used to run when I lived there were great. Of course you would have your locals that you would recognize, but wealthy fish also frequent this property. The Hooters there is also the nuts. Some of the best eye candy in between sessions.

A new property that I'm interested in checking out is the Hialeah Card Room. This property has been open now for almost a year so I'm sure some of the initial hype has died down, but I hear the games are good there and I'm all about checking out new properties.

I'll update the thread with more info as the date of departure inches closer. Until then, subscribe, add suggestions, or anything really. This is the second poker trip I've posted on here and the last one ended because of a lack of interest by other 2+2ers. Hopefully this one will have some good feedback and make it more interesting for everyone.

CHEERS!

Got the entire trip down to the minutes. ALways bring it back to hollywood! Good luck on the trip stay away from the pits...

Thanks! I'm definitely excited about the trip. I really want to play this 125$ buyin 100k guarantee they are having at Coconut Creek. Its a double stack turbo that is expected to run 3 days. They are running like 6 day 1 flights, then all comeback on sunday and it is projected to run until Monday. Don't want to enter if I don't even have the opportunity to finish it.

One night booked in Daytona Beach. Gonna get on an early 5-10 nl list and hope to run hot right from the jump. May skip Jacksonville at this point. The card room is closer so I will be able to hit this one some other time.

Well, in anticipation of the poker trip this week I drove down to Orlando and played at the SHR there. Great poker venue, tons of action, and cheap hotels nearby. I managed to book a Sheraton that allowed pets for 66$ a night over the weekend. Booked a solid win on the trip playing 2-5 nl and hoping it will propel me to book some wins at 5-10 nl next week. Gonna be interesting either way.

Just found out the Daytona Beach Kennel Club's 5-10 nl game is a 500-3k buyin. My time in Daytona may get very interesting knowing that.

The trip begins today. I am headed east over to Jacksonville first. Gonna see what the biggest game is running and give it a shot. Next it's down to Daytona Beach. I hope they have their 5-10 nl running today. I'll update the thread this evening with how the day went.

Had an absolutely wonderful trip. Lots of highs and few lows. Complete breakdown comming soon.

I set out on my endeavor on Wednesday last week. I decided to skip out on Jacksonville Bestbet on Wednesday because when I called the poker room, they said that there was no list for 5-5 nl or 5-10 nl and their 2-5 nl game was capped at 500 buyin. Instead, I headed directly to Daytona Beach where I had scored a 50$ hotel room right next to the local Kennel Club. I checked the bravo and they already had a 5-10 nl game running. When I arrived I sat down with the max which was 500 and put my name on the 5-10 nl list. I play 2-5 nl for an hour or so, take a dinner break to get a 11$ prime rib dinner, which was delicious, and sit back down to a short handed game that consisted of a few of the players I would meet at the 5-10 game.

One of the players was a young female who played decent. I didn't see her get out of line much and it looked like she put a decent amount of thought into her sizing. She was 3-betting occasionally and I pretty much avoided her. One of the players was a middle aged middle eastern looking man. HE LOVED ATTACKING C-BETS. This guy would flat pre and raise a c-better with 80% frequency. My impression was that he had a little bit of a hero in him and didn't like for people to bluff him.

I was called for the 5-10 nl game and I racked up at 2-5 nl up 100$ roughly. So I sat down in the 8 seat of a 9 handed game with 1000 but Im really only in the game for 900. The young lady was to my left, which I didn't mind because she played pretty straight forward and the middle eastern guy was in the 5 seat. Stacks ranged from 1k to 3k+ as the buyin limits were 500-3k but no one was short stacking.

I pay my blinds and on my first button I pick up QQ. 5 people limp into me for 10 and I make it 100. Everyone folds but the last limper who was an elderly asian lady that I heard from a 2-5 nl player was sticky. She had roughly 800 to start the hand. The flop came KQ9 rainbow. She checks I bet 150, she calls. Turn 9. She checks I bet 225, she calls. River is a 2, she checks, I put her all in and she calls and mucks when I show Q's full. SWEET! Up to roughly 2k.

I fold several hands until I get AdTd in the sb and the button straddled to 25. I raised to 100, and got two callers. The flop came AXX. I c-bet 175 and bot players folded. EASY GAME!
Several orbits later I wake up with KK Utg+2. Hand goes as follows. UTG folds, UTG+1 makes it 35, i make it 100, young lady calls, 3 other players call, and a player who had just moved over from 2-5 plo makes it 600, folds to me, I shove my roughly 2k in the middle and everyone folds. SWEET! Picked up 1k preflop without even seeing a flop!
The last memorable hand I played was a hand I got very lucky. I opened black 44 in early position to 35 and got 4 callers, one being the hero middle eastern from the 2-5 nl game that attacks cbetters. Flop came 2h3h7d. I thought it was a pretty good flop for my 44 and c-bet 125. Folds to the middle eastern who calls and says 'how big is your pair? Q's?' The turn is a 6d. The middle eastern guy only had approx 800 behind so I didn't want to bet and get raised out of the pot so I checked with intentions of check calling. He checked back. River was a 5c. I check hoping he will bluff missed flushes, bet 88 or 99 for value as I won't check a bigger over pair there twice. Unfortunately, he checked back and mucked saying he had a set, which I'm almost positive he didn't have because no way he checks back the turn.

I racked up 3233 about an hour later with a solid win of +2333 on my first session of the trip. Headed to the hotel at roughly midnight with intentions of waking early to finish the drive to south Florida in search of more 5-10 nl action at the Isle and at Hardrock Hollywood.

In hind sight I picked up some big hands in that game. I did a fairly good job at not putting myself in too many iffy spots by playing relatively tight. The game was great, and there was a ton of action in that card room.

Very interested in this thread and GL to the OP - stay out of the PITS! That was one of my biggest leaks in Vegas, I went on a bad run at poker and then compounded it in roulette mainly. Very hard to overcome a downswing in both games!

I look forward to reading about your experiences in each room. I am very curious to hear your pros and cons about each room as well. PM me if you like so as not to derail, but I read where you said you lived down in S. FL and I was wondering the details. Did you play for a living? How long ago and how long did you live there? What was the best/worst room and why?

I will be in S. FL myself soon for vacation and there are a lot of smaller card rooms down there I didn't even know about! I was wondering how a decent player would fare in each of them playing 2/5 and maybe some 5/10 as you are doing. Are any of the smaller ones worth visiting? I had been planning on playing at mostly HR Hollywood or the Isle one as I read those were the best (also the biggest, but sometimes the small rooms are softer).

When I first moved to 2009-2011 Florida I did so to work and enjoy life. Slowly as I grew tired with the work routine, kept running good at the poker tables, and managed to get my finances under control, I quit work and solely played poker as a means of income. In 2011, I decided to get back in school. I lived in Fort Lauderdale. Hence why I was headed down in this thread. I have some friends I like visiting and know the layout of the land really well. It's funny traveling back to these card rooms and how many of the old faces are still there today.

As far as the best and worst rooms it comes down to a few factors with me. 1) player composition. No matter how bad a room is if they're players suck then I'm willing to drive there.
2) dealer speed and floor ruling accuracy. Nothing worse than having a horrible dealer not controlling the action and then a bad floor person to compound the errors of the dealers with bad rulings.
3) diversity of games being spread. I prefer bigger games. I feel like most card rooms have varying levels of play at each buyin limit, but I don't feel like my edge at 1-2nl is significantly higher than at 2-5 nl. Each table composition is different and depending on who is up, who is stuck, if someone has been playing too long, etc, the table may be profitable or not so much. It's all about finding the right table and if there are more games being spread then it helps in finding profitable ones.

Isle is the nicest aesthetically. The dealers are on point and so are the floor. They run a ton of great promo's. The only complaint I have is that they're 2-5nl buyin is 200-500 and I prefer it be deeper. No big deal tho most rooms have a 2-5 nl with similar buyin limit if not the same.

As far as the smaller card rooms in south florida I'm not too familiar.

I'm going to be posting Day 2 of the trip later today. Lmk if there are any other aspects you'd like for me to comment on.

I wake up at 645 am in Daytona Beach and get in the shower. I want to get an early jump on the 4 hour drive I have left until I get to Fort Lauderdale. I check out of the hotel and grab 2 free muffins and 2 free apples, feeling good about my 50$ hotel room and decision to stop in Daytona Beach. I top off on fuel and back on I-95 S I go.

I hear that the games in West Palm Beach Kennel Club are good, but I decided to drive past it as it was only about 10am when I would have been showing up. Instead I check the bravo app and see that there is already 1 5-10 nl running at the isle and 6 more on a wait list for a second table. To the isle it is. My memories of the isle aren't great as I have had limited success there. This doesn't bother me though as every session is different especially when there are years separating the sessions.

I sit down at 2-5 nl for 4 hands and the 5-10 nl game is running. One hand that I did see was a younger white male opened his button fairly large and then cbet the flop and took it down. Pretty standard stuff. Just someone who likes to play his button aggressively.

5-10 nl is called and almost everyone buys in for the max except me. I had decided I was going to play 5-10 nl with 1k buyin as I only had brought 7k on the trip with me. I sit in the 9 seat and across from me in the 6 seat is a player I recognize. This kid is a south florida reg and has many accomplishments in the tournament realm including a runner up to a wsop bracelet this summer. The player in the 7 seat is a Haitian tournament grinder. I don't know him by name but I def remember him from playing in south Florida years ago. All in all I felt good about recognizing whom to avoid.

The first hand I play is KJ off UTG+2 I make it 35, a female in the 1 seat calls, and the kid who played his button aggressively in the 2-5 nl game makes it 135 on the button. Everyone folds to me and I decided to use that little piece of information I had gathered to my advantage and 4-bet to 435. The female quickly folded and the aggressive button guy tank folded. WHEW GOT AWAY WITH ONE THERE!

The next hand I play is KK. Barry opens utg to 35, folds to me, I raise in middle position to 100, everyone folds around and barry calls. Flop comes AJ2 rainbow. Barry checks, I cbet 150, and he folds. FAIRLY STANDARD.

The next hand I butchered. UTG the Haitian makes it 35, I look down at AK suited and throw out 40. (I thought utg was straddling for some reason.) The 40 is determined to be a call, everyone folds out and I bet a flop of K 8 2 and the Haitian folds. PAY ATTENTION! MISTAKES ARE COSTLY AT 5-10nl.

The next hand I played I butchered as well. In a straddled pot on the button by the female to my left, everyone folds around to me with As9d. I raise to 75, and she calls. Flop comes 5s6s7c. I bet 75, she calls. Turn comes Qd. I check, she bets 225, and I decide to shove for 770 more. She calls with 1010 and I brick the river. Nice hand Nice call blah blah blah. I HATE MY BLUFF THERE.

Stuck 1k at the Isle I decided to take a walk. It was only 12:30 and the day as well as the trip were still very young. As i walk through the isle casino I notice a video bj that has a 500 max bet. What the hell I decide and put 5 crisp 100 dollar bills in the machine. I click the bet button about 100 times and here we go a 500$ hand of video bj. I get a 12 against the dealers 10. I hit and get a 3. I hit again and get a 4 and make 19. The dealer flips a 3, and busts! SWEET! Ok now only one more bet gets me even... What the hell. I get dealt A9 vs another dealer 10. I stay and the video dealer flips a 7. Easy game! Made that 1k back quick enough. I cash in and head to the Hardrock Hollywood for some more poker.

I arrive at the Hardrock around 130 and park on Lucky Street as I always used to do. I walk in the poker room and find out that they are giving away 500$ every 20 minutes for the high hand. The next two days they will be giving away 1,000$ high hand every 20 minutes. I thought to myself, sweet there should be more fish here than usual. They have several 1-2 nl running, a few 2-5 nl and a 5-10 plo. I decided 2-5 nl will do and I sit at a new game with 600. Again I recognize 2 of the players at my table but these guys are far from pros. I would describe one as a retiree and the other as a recreational semi decent player.

The session is pretty brief. I picked up AA once and managed to make 100$ off of a guy who opened utg to 20, I made it 50. Flop came A J 9, check check. Turn 6, he led 50 and I made it 150. He folded. Then I busted the same guy with 10c8c. He limped and I made it 25 and got 3 callers. Flop came Th 7h 5c. He led 75, and I called. Turn came 4c, he led 100, and I called. River came 6d. He checked I put him all in for 180ish and he called and showed 10 7 for a flopped top two pair. I racked up about an hour later up 405$ on the session and headed to my dad's apartment on the beach to drop my stuff and relax a bit. At this were +2738.

I was excited to get an early jump on the games on Friday at Hardrock because I know the room would be slammed with the 1000$ high hand every 20 minutes promotion.

Your style seems good enough, but focus a bit more on your play if you are at 5-10 or a deep 2-5! The accidental call is bad enough but the turn check shove line is really bad IMO, you aren't repping anything really with that line as it wouldn't make any sense to me if I was in there with you and not bluffing myself.

I guess you answered what I was asking, I'm just about to make a trip like this myself starting in N. FL and headed down. I have played at Jville and Tampa before but never made it down to South FL or even Daytona for poker anyway. So I was really wondering if a guy lived there which room would be his go to and which ones would be his backup...

Anyone else reading along feel free to let me know what they think of the different rooms please.

GL and once again...STAY OUT OF THE PITS! Video BJ counts!

I'm rooting for you to go on a hot streak, and playing badly to lose 1k is bad enough, but usually the video machines are going to rape you and you will feed them more than just the ol' "let me throw 5 bills in here and win my G back like last time". You will lose and probably not stop... you know it you sick degen! I don't want to read the busto from chasing losses with Martingale story, you're better than that

Yeah sometimes I have too much gamble in me. The turn jam was definitely horrible. Day 3 coming tomorrow

Day 3 Part 1 starts on Fort Lauderdale Beach overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. I get an early start around 8 am, have some breakfast, and gather my things I will be needing for the day. Unfortunately, my early start is delayed a couple hours by some meaningless morning chatter from a parental unit. "Why don't you go check out Nova today?" "Want to come to an AA meeting?" etc. I don't know why he insists on such things seeing that I don't drink frequently, haven't had a drink in over 3 months, and used to live in Fort Lauderdale so I know the layout of Nova's campus. Anyways around 1030AM I arrive at Hardrock Hollywood and find an open seat in the 2-5 nl deepstack.

The players in this game don't look particularly tough. It looks like a few retirees, a couple young guns, and a guy two to my left that has amassed quite the stack of roughly 5k. He is a sharp looking middle aged guy with a poker stars jacket on and some beats headphones by dre. I buyin for the maximum of 1200 and play my first hand I'm dealt which is a QdTc after a few limpers I make it 25 and get 3 callers. Flop comes QT2 rainbow, and I continue with a 75 dollar bet. I get one caller out of the small blind. The turn is a T and the small blind decides to shove for his remaining 150 or so and I make the easy call with a full house. Easy game we are up to 1500 right off the bat.

After winning a pot with such marginal holdings I tightened up a bit as I had expected others to perceive me as the loose aggressive type so I wanted to have some premium holdings before I entered into my next pot. Also, I remembered that at noon the high hand promotion is paying 1000 dollars every 20 minutes. As I watch the players in the game I notice that most of them aren't particularly any good except for the middle aged poker stars jacket guy with the stack. He plays a tight game, but applies pressure mostly in position when checked to in an attempted to pick up dead money. He is straddling every button and says that he has been playing since yesterday and is on hour 20 of play straight. Despite what I consider solid pre and post flop play his stack wavers from 5k to 4k after a few shorties manage to either get there or flop heavy against his strong preflop holdings that he can't release postflop due to his opponents not having very many chips. All the while I'm having a field day with this line up and have chipped up to around 2k.

Then finally an interesting hand. Middle aged pokerstars guy straddles his button, sb calls 10, bb calls 10, two others call 10, and I make it 55 with KcJs, folds to button and he makes it 140, everyone folds around to me and I call. I call because were pretty deep, and I feel like he won't get too crazy with me as I had been playing much more solid after hand 1 and he is the type to take notice and adjust accordingly.

Flop comes Q 8 4 rainbow. I decide to lead 125 as my hand isn't strong enough to call a flop bet, and I might be able to get him off JJ TT 99 AK type hands on this flop and a safe turn. He calls. Turn comes 7 completing all 4 different suites. I decide to lead 325 in attempts to make him a believer that I have a Q and his JJ TT AK is no good. He tanks forever, literally 3-5 minutes and around the 2 minute mark he starts asking me questions, "Where are you from?" "How much is that?" He then comments, "That board is so dry... and you play good..." After about a minute longer of trying to gauge how strong I am by my bodily movements or lack thereof he flips over AA and tosses it in the muck. When he does I go ahead and flip my KJ off and he gives me a head nod of approval and says, ''well at least I know what you're capable of now''. My response is, ''i'm just happy to win the pot''. Pretty sick bluff to pull off there imo. I can't believe he didn't raise the flop and I can't believe that he put me on a set and laid it down. His logic he said was, "He didn't think that I could lead into him twice on that dry of a board without a set." I felt pretty good about it.

I played for about an hour longer after the bluff and had amassed a stack of 2,414 and racked it up. My intentions were to get some food, do some running around, meet up with some friends, and come back later for some 5-10 nl Friday night action. So I leave the poker room with another solid win. Up +3,952 at this point. Day 3 Part 2 to come later today.

Day 3 Part 2 begins at the Seminole Hardrock in Hollywood. I was feeling confident about my game, and my bankroll had some extra padding from the trip so far. I sit in a short handed must move 5-10 nl game with 1400 in front. The game was 6 handed and consisted on one a couple young guys, and a couple old guys. The first hand I play I get a QT on the button and decide to call a utg open of 35, with one caller in between, both the blinds call and we see a flop 5 ways. KcJd5c is the flop. Everyone checks to me and I bet 100, and only the utg opener calls. Turn drops the lovely Ah, he checks and I bet 175. He calls and the river drops a meaningless 5d. He checks and I value town him for 275. He calls and mucks. In hind sight I don't really like how I played this hand. I think I could have gotten more on the turn since a good amount of his range consists of flush draws, two pairs, and combo draws.

The only other big pot I got involved in was a pot with the same guy. This time he was on the button and I was utg. I open AhQc to 35, he calls, and the bb calls. Flop comes Qd4h6c. I lead out 75, and only he calls. The turn is a Js, I lead out 150 and he calls. The river is a Tc and I decide to check call him down depending on sizing. He bets 275... I think that he may have made 2 pair with a QJ, QT, type hand but that was about the only thing I could see that beat me given the way he played the hand. I decided to call the 275 and he showed down 66 for a set of 6's. I was surprised he showed up with such a strong of a hand. I could have definitely lost more had he raised the flop. I think he played his hand fine if he puts me on air or some sort of 1 pair type hand.

A few minutes after this hand 2 players were called to the main game and I didn't want to play 4 handed so I racked up a small winner +83 for the hour and a half I had played. +4037 total so far for the trip. I make a couple laps around the hotel and shopping area round the card room. Halloween costumes were in full effect and I saw this one woman wearing a leather catwoman outfit. Quite possibly the finest feline I had ever seen.

I also grind floridas poker rooms
you can also find little ****ty places like bars who run games for their drunk regs in the back
best game ever vs the hicks round here was in Jacksonville at this hole in the wall place near the airport
they ran a 1-2-5NL game with people buying in 100-200
sat in with 500 left with 2900 lol
thought I might not get cashed out by them though, they don't like thinking people around the ******ed southern donks

lol gl in FLA PM me if you go to jax best bet ill meet up with ya and buy you an Asian meal there lol

ppeace

they all looked like viffer lol
damn rednecks

Haven't posted here in a week or so. I'm headed back onto the road for more 5-10 nl action. I was considering playing the 100k guarantee but I prefer cash. Updates after todays session

Was wondering what happened, thought busto and drowning your bad beat sorrow in a few fifths.

No, actually I've managed to put together several winning sessions. My last session was a loser but I'm still up fairly large since starting this thread. I know I keep promising updates and don't deliver but tonight I will take an hour or two and bring everyone up to date. I have one really great bluff to share with everyone. Headed to chipotle. Later

I'm going to go ahead and give a spoiler on how the first trip ended up as it's been several weeks since it ended. I played one more day at hardrock turning another 1kish profit at 5-10 nl. Then on the way back to Tallahassee I dropped in on Jacksonville best bet and made another 800 profit at 2-5 nl. All in all I had made roughly 5k on the trip after expenses, which was awesome! Added lots of cushion to the bankroll and added lots of confidence to my game.

The latest poker trip was a 2 day grind that started at Jacksonville Best Bet. It was roughly 11am and the 100k guarantee was about to start in an hour so the room was quickly filling up. I opened a new 2-5 nl game that consisted of a tourist away from his kids to my left, an older grinder 2 to my left, an 2 older fish, a kid waiting on the tournament to start, and a black gentleman who kept buying in for the minimum for 100 and reloading everytime he lost. This session went very smoothly as I was making hands and picking up big hands preflop. All in all my play was pretty bad as I missed out on a ton of value. Here are a few hands from the session. I got AA in late position and made it 25, the button called, and a utg limper called. The flop came Ad Kc 9d and the utg limper check raise my 50 cbet to 100. We were 500 deep and I put him on a big hand and decided to raise him back to 200 also charging the occasional big draw, well I was wrong and he folded. Another hand was a 5h6h where I called a 15 open from an asian in middle position. The button called and the bb called and we saw the flop 4 ways. The flop came 2h4c8d and the asian continued for 20, I called and the button called. The turn was the 3c giving me the nutter butter and the asian continued again with 20, i raised it to 60 and both players folded. F Me!!! I then got Td7d in middle position and decided to open to 20 and found a caller out of the bb. The bb was playing pretty tight and with no callers I immediately pegged him on a big hand. The flop came Th 2h 4c. He lead into me for 25 (big hand obv) and I decided to call. The turn brought 7h. He checked, I bet 45 and took a minute to just call. The river was the Js and he again checked. I bet 95 and he took about 2 minutes before calling and tabling KK so everyone could share in his frustration. Then a Kh6h from late position. With a couple limpers I raised to 25 and got 3 callers. The flop came 4h5c7s and the short stack first to act bet all in for 80 with about 40 left. Two players folded in between and I decided to put him all in and he called with TT and I spiked my straight on the turn. I left Jacksonville after about 3 hours of play as a 805 winner and left for Daytona Beach to continue the run good from the 5-10 nl session I had played there weeks before. Little did I know that the 100k guarantee tourney would be a driving force to bring the majority of big action players to Jacksonville this night as the 5-10 nl would never open in Daytona and there would be one in Jacksonville.

I arrived in Daytona Beach at 4pm or so and went straight to the Daytona Beach Kennel Club. I sat down at 2-5 nl with 500 and added my name to the 5-10 nl list. The table consisted of 3 middle aged to older gentlemen to my left who played fairly straight forward, an elderly lady who had some sort of eye problem that made her look like a parrot staring into space at all times, 2 younger african american fellas one who played a pretty good game and the other who played way too loose. Despite the weak lineup I literally got killed in this game. The bird looking lady beat me in two 300-400 pots where she was going for a straight and ended with a flush. Stuck 400 in the game I decided that this table wasn't for me and got a table change. Man was I glad I did that.

They moved me to table 2 where I sat down in a high action 2-5 nl game. The first hand I played was a JdTd where I opened to 20, and only the player to my left called. He was an interesting fellow that wore all black, a cowboy hat, tons of gold jewelry and had half a nose. The flop came Ad 6c 8h, i cbet 40 and he eyeballed my stack and just called (he had my 500 initial stack covered). The turn was the 9d. I checked and he bet 95 and I called with my flush and straight draws. The river was a 5s. I decided to go ahead and pull the trigger and I bet 250 to which he took about 90 seconds and folded AQ face up. I returned the favor and showed my J high and scooped the pot.

I had won a couple smaller pots and then... Cowboy straddles his button to 10, sb folds, bb completes, a couple folds to the biggest stack at the table with about 3k calls 10, folds to me with Ad7h and I raise it to 50, cowboy calls, bb folds, big stack reraises to 200... Pause here. I take a minute and think what is he limp raising with. I knew he could play a big hand this way, but then again he could also be trying to steal the 110 in dead money out there as this play will work with a high frequency of the time. I think 'can I call and try to play him post flop'? This seemed terrible. He would fire on almost all flops and I can only continue if I flop gold. I think 'what does it look like if I shove?'. I had recently just bluffed and he was it so it wasn't the most opportune time to try and get him off a big hand... but did he actually have a big hand? I decided no and I pulled the trigger. All in 826 total. Cowboy folded quickly (after the hand he said he put JJ in the muck). The big stack takes forever to try and get a read on me. He is talking to me, talking to himself, talking to the dealer, and finally after about 3 minutes he calls the clock on himself! As the floor counts down from 60 I sit motionless hoping not to give anything away and he finally folds. I fold this time with cards face down and the table discusses the hand for a round or so after the hand is over. The consensus was that I had KK, but they definitely weren't sure and knew I was crazy and capable at that point. Although this hand was high variance, probably neg ev play it ended up paying off big time with table image. I was getting payed off on my big hands and winning big pots. An example was the next orbit cowboy straddled the button, one player called 10, and I made it 40 with AhQc and both the straddler and the limper called. The flop came AdKh7d and I cbet 80 after the limp/caller checked, only cowboy called. The turn was the As and I checked to cowboy with a half a nose and he bet 200, i tanked for a minute or so and I put out a big pile of green and black and he immediately called and tabled AJ. No good sir. I played for about 6 hours in total at DBKC and netted a profit of 1605 after racking up over 2500 at that table. No 5-10 nl but a juicy 2-5 nl will do.

Ill try and post day 2 recap later today. Thanks for reading and commenting.

So it seemed like Daytona was good to you
Overall would you say DBKC or Jville BB is a better 2/5 scene? I've played in Jville once but since my parents are in central FL, the action at Tampa HR was way better so now I always head there, but Daytona is about the same distance.

If you know about Tampa then chime in about them, but I didn't know much about Daytona poker until lately...I think I'll have to make a beach vacation trip.

Hey guys, I am planning my next trip for this week. I either plan on heading to Biloxi for their 1150 main event friday, saturday, and sunday or Tampa for their opening series, or head to Jacksonville and Daytona Beach.

I really want to go wherever the games will play the biggest. Probably tampa... What do you guys think?

Ashberrj,

I just came across this thread today for the first time. I have been comtimplating where I will start playing for a living next year (mid 2014), and came across this thread. Florida has always been my #1 choice due to hearsay. I will subscribe to this thread and read periodically over the next week, as it's TLDR to read while I am supposed to be working.
Any advice on where you think is the best place to live, (combining a formula of moderate cost of living and best selection of games)?

I'll be checking out the Miami poker scene in about 3 months

Ryan