True, forgot about that one.

Being that I usually stay in the hallendale area (gulfstream park) where would a good place to stay be in the area...

As far as mardi gras goes I used to whack the straight 2 game there not stop actually paid for the trip and dog/horse loses in that game(sorry for the undercover brag) when it was Hollywood dogs.....

Gonna be awesome to get out of the ct cold and roll into miami

Gonna be awesome to play cards and spill outside when a race goes off... I got to figure the room is gonna get a ton of race track guru's and there the biggest fish in the world (me)

So any hotel reccomendations will be appreciated please don't tell me the diplomat hahaha

Is this a different poker room that the one at Calder or is Studz just the name they call their poker room? Any clue if they'll be using the same Calder chips or will they have a different rack? I collect $1 chips and would love to get my hands on one of the new releases if they have one.

You sure about that, I am pretty sure the law states that they cant have games running for more than 12 hours a day...

Also as was mentioned, they cant do PLO because of the stupid law still in place which limits non-holdem games to 5$ max bet per street (except tournaments).

I'm positive. "Action-Packed Poker At Every Table! Open 24 Hours!"

http://www.playmardigras.com/poker_room.shtml

I think they bought a defunct parimutuel facilities license so they can run 12 hours + 12 hours.

Studz will definitely be printing new chips. I've been promised one by a friend.

Thanks for the info, Brent. Just for your own knowledge, Mardi Gras is working on rolling out a poker player reward system in the very near future, and I believe the Hard Rock already has one in place, not just The Isle.

I look forward to checking out Studz and seeing what it has to offer.

The Rock might have one. The last time I was there all they had were these paper players club cards that did nothing other than make sure that you weren't registering more than one time for the tournaments. But I haven't played a tournament there in a while.

Im hoping this room.. takes a more of a Casual local poker tournament structure

unlike the hard rock.. where the good tournaments are the ones that are 350$+ buy in, some of us cant afford it, Im hoping there is some good affordable MTTs we can play like once a week there or something

I say that the good ones are 350$ + buy is cause those are the ones with 30 min levels and 10k chips to start

the other "affordable" ones are like 120$ but the chip stack is like 2k and blinds start at 25/50 with 15 minute levels
like and online 1$ re buy donkament

They give $0.50/hr at 2/5 and 5/10 NL and $0.30/hr in the rest of the games.

is the room gonna be anywhere near the outside apron of the track?

If I walked in the room is the room before or after the finish line

thanks for the info... i should be playing over there me thinks...

its at the front entrance, I think the back is on the finish line, but you cant really see outside.

Im thinking of driving down from Tampa for something new. I like new poker rooms, new chips, chairs etc. Is it guaranteed opening Friday morning?
It will have a regular rake 10% to $5 right, not time rake right?
I thought I saw some recommended hotels before but I just scanned thru posts and didnt see any. What are the recommended hotels in the area?

I think there's a missing post from one of the people who works in the card room. Anyway, here's a link to their Accomodations page:

http://www.calderracecourse.com/visit/accommodations

El Palacio is the closest hotel.

According to their poker page, they're still set for Friday. I have no idea about the rakes.

Did some research and the close hotels are too expensive or they got bad reviews. Found La Quinta 9 miles away for $75+tax with excellent reviews.

I called this morning and they had 1 table of 1/2 limit open...its a beautiful room from what I saw walking around. I think when the word of mouth about this place gets around its going to be the place to play.

Was wondering how opening day went today how was it

18 or 21 to play?

pretty slow, they had almost all NL games and 1 stud.

18

Was it a typical racetrack crowd with a mix of other players from nearby rooms I'd figure it would have been a packed house

Just came back from playing a 5 hour sesion of 2/5 NL at Calder so I'm gonna write a TR.

Place: if I had to evaluate the whole Calder complex I'd say it's kind of a dump. However, the poker room is pretty nice. I think for a new room they could've done a bit of a better job but it's still a nice play to play. A nice note is the presence of windows on the back of the room which bring sunlight into the room during the day.

Furniture: The room is split in 2: one side with tournament tables (no auto-shuffler) and another one with cash game tables (auto-shufflers and tables are of a different color). Tables are kinda small (9 fit comfortable but games are 10 handed), chairs are very good (wheels, very comfy but the seat doesn't rotate)

Chips: kinda plain and lighter than usual but nice overall. I saw $1 (white), $2 (yellow), $5 (red and white and a commemorative red and black) and $25 (green). The chips were very hard to stack because they are so new they slip away.

Food and drinks: there are 2 places to get food although one closed early (pizza. The other one made sandwiches. Avg price $5-6). I had a Manhattan Clam Chowder which sucked bad. Drinks come in small cups and coffee is small and very bad. The servers were very friendly but not very hot, just avg.

Employees: floor was extremely friendly, they took amazing care of customers. This might be the best attribute of the room. Dealers, though friendly, were the worst I've seen in a while. Very inexperienced (one of them dealt his first hand ever in a casino) and nervous. They have chip runners which is not common in South Florida.

Competition: OK but not great. Avg.

Games running: I was there for 5 hours and the most tables running I saw were 4. A 2-4 LHE, a 1/2 NLHE, a 2/5 NLHE (I left when we were down to 6 handed) and a 5/10 NLHE which run shorthanded most of the night. I think there was a stud game running for a while but had broken by the time I left.

Comps: they give $0.50/hr at 2/5. Didn't care to ask about comps for other games.

Hope it helps.

Sapol the dealers were that bad I thought they only took the top notch ones and didn't settle for anything less...

So is the room better then any other room down there cuz I wasn't impressed with any room down there so Calder seems to be the best in terms of nicest place to play...is it better then gulfstream??

Gulfstream has a problem and that is they have very dumb strict rules and they won't change them. Examples: no chopping and no rake reduction (they used to prohibit straddling but now they allow it).

In Calder I found that the floor went more with what players at the table wanted over any rule they might have. They were trying to make players happy more than enforce rule after rule.


About the dealers: if they only took top notch dealers then I don't want to know what bad dealers are (maybe they don't even have arms....who knows)

Weren't you impressed by The Isle?