A new situation, I would appreciate feedback.
Fairly deep into Day 1, a player, in the 10 seat, shoves all in on the river, the dealer bends over to count what is a sizable shove. The action is on a lady in the one seat, who, as the dealer is bent over to the right, turns to the players in the 2,3 seats, (I'm in 4 seat), and asks them have they ever played with the 10 seat before.
They don't respond, she tanks forever and finally folds. After the hand, I ask her if she really asked the other players that. She told me to mind my own business, but not quite as polite. I told her thats collusion. The other players said as long as they don't respond, she can ask that. I ask the dealer. He says hes not sure. I sort of drop it, and its not mentioned again.
What does 2+2 think?

I think it is terrible poker etiquette and in some rooms, table talk is not permitted at all until two players are left in the tournament. I am not sure if that is the care at SHRT, but this should not be going on and if it happened to me I would be very unhappy

I think she should have been told by the dealer she can't ask that. It's an attempt at collusion. Just like it isn't OK to ask "do you want to check it down"; it doesn't matter if the other person replies or not, the question is still inappropriate. Having an attempt at collusion ignored is still an attempt at collusion.

Obviously no one is allowed to ask anyone such a thing during a hand, and every dealer-- even the bad ones-- should know this. Dealer should've at least told her that it's not allowed, or called a floor to issue her a warning.

Unclear if dealer heard her, she attempted to be discrete about it and the dealer was busy counting the chips of the guy who shoved.

Yea that's the plan as of now...staying at laquinta like a mile away...wouldn't mind staying in the casino itself if I could chop up the hotel room a couple ways though

The hotel is outrageously expensive. So many much more reasonable options nearby.

I'm flying down from New Hampshire on Wednesday for a 4-night stay, because I need to be in Sarasota during the day on Thursday and Saturday. Since I was able to get a cheap flight into Tampa and I wanted to play some at the Hard Rock, I found a Ramada 10 minutes away (@ I-75 and Fowler) for $55 per night, with continental breakfast and free Wifi.

I frequently get a nice hotel room for $50 plus taxes on Priceline using the "Name your own price" feature. These are 2.5-3 star hotels like Marriott Courtyard, Marriott Fairfield, Embassy Suites, etc in the Brandon and Tampa East-Fairgrounds area. 2 star hotels like Laquinta are even less expensive. But you don't know which exact hotel you will get until you win the bid, and winning bids are not refundable. However, I have never gotten a bad hotel with Priceline, and I have used them at least 25 times. Stay away from downtown and airport areas unless you are willing to pay a stiff daily parking charge on top of the room rate.

Has anyone played in any of the turbo events? Just wondering if they are a total crap shoot like they appear to be.

Yes and yes. I've played 2, and in both cases chipped up early, got to like 25k in chips. But by first break, and close to half the field gone in either, it simply turns into all in or fold poker. Every hand. If you are utg, and see 88, its fold or shove into seven people behind you to act. Because if you limp, or 3x it, someone behind you is shoving. There isn't much poker to be played after that first break.

Thanks for the reply.

Continental breakfast opens at 6am, so I should be able grab something around 7am before I leave, since it looks like it should take a little over an hour to get to Sarasota without traffic. Do I need to anticipate much (or any) rush hour traffic between Tampa and Sarasota from 7:15am to 8:30am?

I guess if you are headed south on I-75 you should be OK. But it is over 60 miles. A hotel in Brandon would be closer, and just as close to THR.

I've already prepaid for the Ramada, so I'll just deal with drive from there. According to Mapquest, it's only 62 miles from the Ramada at Fowler & I-75 to the conference hotel in Sarasota. So hopefully it won't be much over an hour's drive, especially if I don't have to face any major traffic on I-75 that time of the morning.

Depending on where you have to be in Sarasota, it could take an additional 30 min tops once you get off I-75.

You'll have heavy traffic from Fowler to the Crosstown exit then traffic should flow to your Sarasota exit. West bound traffic from I-75 into Sarasota sometimes crawls due to all the traffic lights.

While poker goes out the window about 2 hours in, I still think there's a huge edge you can exploit if you know push/fold poker or can chip up early and be aggressive on the bubble. I've played 4 of these and chopped 3 for ~10k, including the one Tuesday night. People expect the chop will happen, so the bubble is extremely tight and easy to exploit. I 3bet shoved A9o with 9 to go and villain folded AQo for example. 6th place in their minds isn't $500, it's ~$1500.

Even with the massive rake, there's too much dead money to ignore imo.

Coming in from MA the week of the 17th. Going to play LLHE. What chip denominations are used and do you buy them at the table or cage? Thanks, Joe

LHE = 2/4 (really the only game that runs... Florida is all about no limit). The only real chip denominations used are $1 (white) and $2 (pink/purpleish). Chips can be bought at the cage or at the table you're seated at, but it's preferred that you buy them at the cage so the dealer is kept dealing .

I guess I owe some people an apology (Provolone, I think, maybe others) in regards to an earlier discussion where I defended the older generation of players at the THR against the stereotype of being "bitter, miserable nits". Yesterday I had the most miserable day of poker ever at the THR,(nothing to do with results) and it revolved around the seniors tournament and the cash games that followed.

I knew my day was going to be bad when I excitedly go to my table for the seniors tourney (where I had hoped to take advantage of my relative youth) and saw the undisputed, no one comes close worse dealer in the THR sitting at my table. Ugh. And it turned out as I expected. We started with 5 players and 5 empty seats with stacks, which the dealer had to deal in and put out blinds for. A total impossibility for him. Every hand was screwed up. "No, XXX, the blind goes here, the button goes here, those cards are dead, etc, etc". Then, as players arrived while we were on the clock, he would ask for ID, and then just stare at it for like 2 or 3 minutes. "What are you doing, XXX?" "I can't read the year of his birthday to verify he's over 50, the print's to small." Ugh.

But after an uneventful short time in the tourney, I went to the cash games, and there were a bunch of older guys I didn't recognize, even though I play 2/5NL almost every day. To sum it up: what a bunch of mother****ing *******s. I'd never seen so much bitching, berating, very deliberate slow rolling, and just miserable people at the tables. I don't know where they came from. Maybe it's because I almost always play late at night, and they are the day shift. Even some guys I did recognize and thought were OK where acting like jerks. Maybe it's getting too many seniors at one table that brings it out in them. Or they just like to **** each other over.

One example, one guy goes all in, player two hems and haws, and finally says, "I guess I have to call you. Waits for player 1 to turn over a set of 3s, then player two pauses, and turns over the absolute nut straight. I'm thinking WTF?

Another guy goes all in with AA on the turn, gets called by KQ who has two pair. An A hits on the river. Some other guy says to the AA guy "wow, you got lucky". The AA guy (an older guy) goes off on a rant about how luck had nothing to do with it, he knows how to play this game without luck, etc, etc. Then he stacks his chips and hit and runs. Crazy.

This type of thing went on all day, at every table I went to. I don't normally change tables unless one is really bad, but yesterday I changed 3 or 4 times just trying to get away from all the miserable people.

So I'm embarrassed to say that I had not encountered this species of older guy before, despite my time at the THR. I now know exactly what you guys were talking about.

I probably will never play in the daytime again. The combination of the worst dealers (nothing like starting a tourney with XXX, getting knocked out, going to a cash game and there's XXX again!) and the most miserable players would just take the fun out of it. Life's too short as it is (especially when you're a senior!)

I played cash games Tuesday night and stuck to 1-3. I sometimes play 2-5 and looked over at the table behind me to see what kind of game it was. This was about 9 o'clock in the evening. No complaining, bad mannered seniors at that table.

But what I saw was far more depressing. Every single player sat stone faced, grim, most had hoodies and headphones. Their eyes were dead. The dealer looked like he was in a dull trance. And it was like this when I looked back later, and again later. It might have been the most miserable bunch of people I've ever seen assembled, other than at a funeral.

And its close.

If player two calls, he has right to see player one's cards. If player one calls player two, that is a different story.

the astonishment wasn't just that the guy waited to turn over his cards, it was that he hemmed and hawed about calling with the nuts

Anyone know how many people the Main Event has so far? Please.