Exactly how in the world would a player be able to track all the JP money? At least at the parimutual facilities the state helps the players by tracking and making sure 100% is returned to the players. Seminoles, however, are really free to do as the wish with the money.

using bbj money for uknown uses.

in ac it's a little more clear-cut as only recently were casinos allowed to use for anything other than the actual bad beat pay-out... and caesars properties (4 poker rooms in ac) started doing it without making it known, then outright denying it, then instructing employees not to talk about it. i'm probably more annoyed by that and just venting at anything that seems remotely similar.

i don't know how you could tell the funds are being kept honest regardless of how it's distributed, but would hope that casino's are heavily regulated.

I am not sure what the regulations are, if any, on the tribal casinos in terms of tracking the BBJ dollars and ensuring that they go back to the players. I do believe it is the case that, in Florida, the BBJ drop MUST be given back to the players in the form of promotions, be it high hands for the hour, a bad beat jackpot, that sort of thing.
I know that a local track has gone to system of "giving away" seats in satellites, and I believe they are getting to that money that way.

For example, they had a $500 + $ 50 tournament. For awhile, they did a promotion where they would randomly put a drawing ticket into the pot at every table. The winner of the pot got the ticket. Then a few minutes later they would draw five numbers, raffle style, and those five numbers each got a ticket for a $110+ $15 seat into a satellite, where the top 20 percent got a ticket to the main.

Now here is the double whammy, if I'm right:

1) I believe the house used the bbj drop to fund it. If so, for every five tickets they gave away, one of those earned a spot into the main, worth $500 + $50. The house gets a rake of $15 for each of those splash the pot tickets, to they are taking as profit to the house $75 ($15 times five) and that is, effectively, coming from the bbj drop.

2) When someone won one of the tickets, remember, the house is going to take $50 of that $500 + $50 entry.

Thus, by taking $625 out of whatever was generated by bbj drops for a given period (five tickets @ $125 each), the house is taking $125 of it for profit (five entries of $15 each and then $50 from the entry into the main) and redistributing the other $500 to the players. It generates profit to the track, out of the bbj, and is less money to be used in direct player promotions.

Disclaimer: My math may be off. I've talked about this before, in front of dealers and floors, and never been corrected. So far, it would seem I am right about how they are getting their hands on bbj drop dollars.

Any info to the contrary would be appreciated because it does tilt me a bit.

The Seminole casino poker rooms are not subject to Florida state regulation. They can do anything they wish.

You are correct about the poker rooms at the parimutuels - they do get away with taking profits out of the bbj funds by giving away tournament seats. The state has received player complaints about this, but has not taken any action against it so for the moment it stands. Pretty much anything can be awarded as jackpot prizes, so at least the tournament seat give-aways are something of value to poker players rather than something stupid like designer sunglasses.

Can somebody explain to me how this makes sense. For the August "WPT Dollars" promotion it shows that I have 23 hours, which is what I've played so far in August. For the "Dress like a pro promotion" it shows that I have 17 hours. How can that number be less? I didn't play at all in June/July, so it shouldn't be more, but it should be the same as my August hours. I don't really care because I might not put in 80 hrs there this month and I don't care about getting sunglasses, but I just found it odd.

Also, anybody who is worried about their comp dollars expiring after 365 days, I went over a year w/o playing here and all my comp dollars were still there.

"Dress like a pro" only counts hours played Sunday-Thursday..."WPT Dollars" counts them all.

Ahh, that explains it.

These are the correct starting chips for the steps. I took out the part that was wrong.

they do expire man... maybe they haven't processed your name/card yet. So i'd use some up. I'll be your date to council oaks if you want.

I'm curious who told you that. I remember months ago when they took some points away, but then restored them. I talked to a supervisor back then, and he said they decided to not to have them expire since they don't tell you how many points expire on what date, and aren't in a position to issue statements like "real" casinos.

But that was some months ago, and since then I've drawn my balance down using them for the last WPT. Have you had any taken away since they restored them?

I just got a letter from them telling me my points expire after 18 months. Those are the 2k I got from signing up plus some slots action, not poker earned points. Unsure if there is a difference since they do separate the two.

+2300 this weekend. Should have been 4k, but karma kicked my ass for playing late Sunday night (when I should have been home sleeping, for work). Wound up hanging around a tight game with a couple 5/10 regs that moved down due to lack of action, and no real fish in it (which would make me the fish).

Got a couple coolers (Ac Qc < Tc Kc, flop JQx 2 clubs, KK < AQ on a 2JQ rainbow flop, KK < 34 on a K56 flop)... but alot of it was also me crumbling OOP to a good LAG guy that punished every limp I made and forced me to either raise or 4-bet any hand I wanted to play. Lesson learned. Table selection is good .

I don't know what their reputation is worth to them, but it's not as though if they get a bad reputation everyone will go to the other casino down the street.

Wait until their 5 year deal (or however long it is) expires and we get full casino competition. We will all see much better service, promotions and value for money.

When someone has exclusivity like the Seminoles do, you very much get an attitude of them feeling like customers are their to serve them.

Quality aside, at Bellagio or Wynn, I feel like a welcome guest. Overall (although admittedly not from everyone), at any Seminole facility I feel like they believe they are doing me a favor by allowing me to come in the door.

I think Hollywood is pretty well-run. They're friendlier across the board, as well as more competent and professional. For example, instead of responding with a good hearty laugh when asked to reduce the rake short-handed, they do what every other card room on Earth does-- they reduce the damn rake.

The only category in which I score HHR lower than THR is cocktail service. If you think it's slow in Tampa, go to Hollywood sometime. Just remember it's BYOB. I've heard people claim to have seen waitresses in that room, but it sounds like a hoax to me. Like a casino jackalope.

To be honest I have been to both Tampa and Hollywood HardRock and I feel the atmosphere,service and staff are better at Hollywood unfortunately I live in Tampa.
I prefer to play at Derby Lane or Silks over HardRock any day. The dealers, poker managers and service staff are much more friendly and even remember my name so it feels like "Cheers". I also compared the upcoming WPT Regional at Tampa HardRock vs. the current on going WPT Regional at Hollywood HardRock and the structures seems to much better at Hollywood with less rake which makes no sense to me?

I am looking forward to the Halloween Tourney if they have it again at Silks this year. That was the best tourney all of last year in my opinion with $25K starting stack and great structure. It took 2 days and over 400+ players but well run from beginning to the end.

This comparison is spot on. I'd say Hollywood HR has more numerous and more formidable competition...if they were run like HR Tampa, they'd have less patrons. Ahh...the power of choice.

Very true. Adam Smith's invisible hand would simply guide everyone to Pompano. It's funny what you can learn from these little doses of the free market here and there in America.

A guy at my 5/10 table was talking about how he took the Beats Headphones that he got from the HR promo to Wal*Mart and they gave him a $430 gift card. You just show ID and they scan the bar code and give you store credit since you don't have a receipt. And WMT gift cards can probably be sold for 95cents on the dollar. Thought I'd give people who got them a heads up, as that's much better than putting them on ebay

You feel like a welcome guest as a poker player at the Bellagio? Really?

I way prefer HR over DL. Not always having a shuffler in a room of that size is completely and totally unacceptable. It's like turning every dealer into Oscar.

THR beats Derby in the most important categories for cash: bad, loose players (Derby has too many bad, tight players) and game selection. That's why I play there every day. I prefer THR dealers across the board as well, with only a couple of obvious exceptions.

That said, I prefer Derby in every other category. You have the option to run twice at 2/5 and above, it's warmer (hell, inside my refrigerator is warmer than THR), tables are 9-handed, it's brighter (and with windows), tourneys are far better, and they have great food and good prices. The soup is always fantastic. And a little known menu item: the Oreo parfait. I devour two of them. F'ing AMAZING.

Oh yeah, and no mile-long walk through the smoke. That's sweet, too.

Lol poor Oscarn man.

Yeah, fair point. Pre poker-boom it was better, but still not too bad other than time to get a table. Last time I played NL there actually was 2007, since Venetian got my business for NL with their 200BB buy-ins. That's also a well-run room. At least B still promotes higher limit limit games, which is nice.

All HR has to do is buy someone a $200 plane ticket to Vegas, fly out there and walk around the rooms and they could pick up some good ideas. Most of them would be free or cheap to implement and would make a big difference in the experience and would likely get more people to return on a consistent basis, which would be good for all of us.

I actually consider not running it twice a huge plus. It's a dumbass thing that wastes tons of time that people only do because they saw it on TV. The only reason the pros do it on TV is because they're all playing higher stakes than they should for their bankrolls, so it's important to minimize variance as much as possible.