In Florida, the maximum buy-in at all poker tables is $100 (Florida law). However, there are still plenty of 2/5 and 5/10 games, even with this law. Would you still play 5/10, or even 2/5, with the small maximum buy-in? 5/10 is kind of like a craps shoot; people just push all-in all the time at the chance of tripling up their stack.

Thank you!

Even though I am fairly confident of beating the 5/10 game at Hard Rock it just doesn't make sense buying in for 10BB. How many times do you have to jam, miss and rebuy before you get enough chips to play decent poker.
It is a bit better at 2/5 even though not ideal.
Stay at 1/2 or 2/5 would be my advice.

LOL

1-2 is hardly a feasable game in Florida let alone 5-10............

Plus, Florida has a ridiculous $5 max rake and comps are basically NIL.

2/5 NL in FL is very very beatable.

Yes, it is.

Having said that, think of all the pots you win that are over $50......for everyone of those, you are paying the house $2 more than many other areas of the country.....AND your making no comps and have to pay for drinks.

I beat the 1-2 and 2-5 games here in Florida........but I have paid approximently 3-5,000 dollars more in rake by paying this ridiculous $5 max ......AND I have lost/spent thousands and thousands in comped food, gifts, and drinks.

This is playing 25-30 hours a week...........so losing well over $10,000 in rake and comps by playing here.

They make you pay for all drinks at the casinos you go to? Which part of Florida do you live in? All the casinos around here though have free non-alcoholic drinks...maybe you mean alcohol. Sorry, I'm not sure. And yeah, the comps are horrible. Isles of Capri probably has the best comps around here, but you still have to play a LOT to get anything worthwhile.

Thanks for the advice. I was just wondering some other people's take on it, because I never really saw the value of playing 5/10 here. Some people claim that it's good because people play so fast and loose that it's easy to double up...but even then it seems to me that it's based primarily on luck. With only 10BB your stack gets eaten up incredibly fast. I know sometimes at new tables they all have a "deal" where one player raises all of his chips except for one, and everyone calls except one player, who pushes all-in. Everyone else folds. They continue to do this until everyone has close to a $1000. I sometimes play 2/5, but I wonder if even that is smart with the small buy-in amount.

OP, try using the search, this topic has been exhausted!!!

d'

I'm sorry! Forum Posting 101. I am awful at using forums. Screwed up my first post here...

Unless you get to a table w/ deep stacks and figure out a way how to sneak chips on the table, 5/10 is nothing more than a classic crap shoot, PERIOD!!!

2/5 is def. beatable, if you can SS properly. But I urge you to consider your opportunity cost while grinding these games!

d'

god the search key engine is amazing on this site, d'anconia and me r gonna meet up one day and play, i always find my self in the same threads as him

Play 2/5

Best game imho

Fish...Your observations are right on the money about the rake, etc...

But...If you are a working stiff like alot of us, driving 20 mins to the card room for some recreation is more feasible than flying off to Tunica or AC or Vegas for the comps and lower rake....

I feel kucky that I have some quality, well run rooms nearby...ie:Isle

my 2 cents

Wow, our standards are different. I find the Isle to be rather poorly managed and annoyingly, excessively noisy.

seriously soulvamp? The Isle is the the best run/nicest room around imo..

It's excessively noisy ... so much so that if you're at one end of the table (in the 8 seat, for instance), you cannot hear what someone at the other end (in the 3 seat) is saying. Forget trying to say something to that person. And the brush and supervisors are constantly hawking their tournaments over that obnoxiously loud PA.

Everything at a table stops dead about every 10 minutes for a bank fill, which is really annoying. And the dealers make no attempt to keep control of the game. Constantly have people acting out of turn, talking on their cell phones when the action is to them, berating other players, etc., and no dealer shows any interest in curbing that stuff.

They've got a nicely furnished room -- comfortable chairs, nice big tables -- but that doesn't make it a nice, well-managed room.

The Isles is definitely the nicest looking in my opinion, but yeah, it has some problems. It is very noisy. But not many poker rooms around here are *really* well-run and managed. Since blackjack opened at the Hard Rock, I feel the poker room has really been put on the back burner. I have had soooo many countless problems with the new room, and it almost always seems to be something that could have been easily prevented by less indifferent and more organized managers. The Mardi Gras isn't too bad, but a couple of the floor people there are complete idiots who make terrible rulings all the time. Gulfstream I am a little too biased to judge. The Dania Jai Alai has some problems so bad that I can't even post here. I have a problem going to Coconut Creek because I'm a little claustrophobic and feel like I am suffocating there. But, in the end I spend a lot of the time at the Isles because it's close to me, there are always so many tables to choose from, and it's nice looking.

I think your complaints are valid, but its also the same way at Hard Rock and Seminole (hollywood). It's even worse at Seminole because they allow smoking.

As for dealers, every room has their good and bad ones. I think most dealers fall short on their job because they don't want to hurt their tips so they refrain from telling the habitual string bettor that he needs to make a single motion to bet or to let the guys in seats 2 and 3 know they can't be talking about their mucked cards during play of a hand. It's just up to the individual dealer and the rooms to enforce the rules. I really doubt that most dealers see the aspect of keeping order in the game as their job. They're just there to toss cards and drop the rake and they leave those things to the floor people when they really should be the first line of defense.

One thing that I like about the Isle that they don't enforce at Hard Rock or Seminole - No Flop... No Drop. I've had floor people at both other rooms rule either way on it which makes it even worse in my eyes.


As for the OP - stick to the 1/2 and 2/5 games unless you have a tremendous bankroll that can withstand a ton of variance at the 5/10 games. Very few things suck more than finally building your initial $100 buyin into a playable 100bb stack and still be stuck with guys who average 10-25bb in front of them.

That's completely unavoidable anyway. The seats turn over much too quickly and it's rare to be at a table with more than 3-4 large chip stacks at HR.

I have also noticed lately that a lot of people who build a big stack are cashing in their winnings and then buying back in for $100.

I agree. The problem is early on you simply cannot get a person off a hand. There is no isolation at all as you will always have 4+ callers no matter what. We all know the odds of AA holding up when you have 6 callers.

It is a crap shoot early on and if your hands aren't holding up early on you can easily be stuck $400-700 before you know it and it takes time to get back $700 when you can only buy-in for $100.

I played last night for example, I had my money in with the best hand every single time and lost every single time the first 5 hands. I was getting run down and rivered and just did not have enough chips in front of me to scare anyone off their hands.

Here is another issue, lets say you have $85 in front of you because you payed the blinds now you have 10 10 in MP. you raise lets say $40. you get 4 callers then a re-raise to $120. Are you folding for just $45 more? Everyone else is most likely calling. Your getting 4-1 to 5-1 to call. With only 10bb's and less in a 5/10 game your almost always pot committed and getting good odds to make a call.

Here is a hard rock hand from a few months ago. I was sent from the must move to this table and there was a lot of chips in play. I knew almost every player and thought I died an went to heaven...well...here is the third hand after sitting down.

On button, UTG rasies to $35. EP re-raises to $350. MP reraises all in to $1400. LP calls all-in for $1200 and I look down at AA. I have $485 in front of me. I go all-in. Original UTG raiser calls all-in for an additional $1300. EP Calls off his stack.

Flop comes 7 9 10
Original UTG jumps up screaming and throws his cards face up to show he hit the straight. He had 8 6 offsuit.

Its a sad story I know.

Why wouldn't you make it $85 instead of $40?

I new someone was going to say that. This was just an example, I wasnt seeking advice for the correct amount to bet in this spot. Personally I vary my bet sizes but this is not what the threads about.
Most nights at the Rock wouldn't matter if I made it $45, $85 or $150.

When the he** is Orlando gonna get some poker love? It's the 4th largest market in the state, with a Jai Alai and dogtrack - but no poker rooms! Arrrgghhh!! I can drive to podunk Ocala or Merritt Island or Daytona or even Tampa. All these rooms are at least 45min from O-town. Sucks!!

/whine

I'm certain you don't need any advice.

You answered it yourself when you asked if you could fold with $40 left.

Myself, when I realize I won't be folding I go ahead and put my stack in.

But yeah they will call $85 just as quickly as they will call a smaller amount so I understand where you are coming from.

The good thing about hard rock is the must moves make it incredibly easy to add chips while moving... just pocket some green chips before going to the table and then pull them out and add at the new table.. solves the 100buy in problem pretty well...
the only problem is when u catch a cooler.. the only thing u can do is 100 again or go back to the must move and repeat..

This would be the absolute MECCA if we had over 100 buy in with as easy as the games are here
just remembering the very first week of no limit when hard rock was spreading up to 25-50 w/ no cap buy in makes me smile

HR teems with cheaters and other lowlifes. Nihan, sir.