Poker blog reports by Tex Canuck as he lives the dream playing Texas Hold Em PokerA Poker blog that follows the Hold Em Poker adventures of Tex Canuck in Poker rooms throughout Canada and the US.
Sports Interaction Poker The recession is hitting Las Vegas hard. Prices are tumbling. Now is a good time to take in the splendour of the strip at prices you can afford. $49 Las Vegas Package includes Show Tickets ! Couples get-away special - Las Vegas packages for 2 adults from $49 for 3days/2nights including Entertainment like Gambling, Shows, Attractions, and Buffet Dinners. Qualify for the World Series of Poker My Poker Blog Update May 5th 2009. I have not felt like updating my poker blog recently due to the poor health of my 88 year old mother. I left Florida in late February and traveled to the Cherokee Casino on the outskirts of Tulsa for the series of Oklahoma State Championship Hold Em Poker events. I only played in one where I was dealt more than my fair share of good starting hands. Unfortunately I could not hit any flops whilst my opponents seemed incapable of missing. I did last five hours during which I had to make some very big lay downs. The rotten weather which plagued the south this winter caused me to hightail it out of Oklahoma due to an approaching ice storm. I headed for California where I played at five different casino's including The Bicycle Club and The incredible Commerce Casino with it's 240 poker tables. The trip was cut short as I had to head home for my mothers sake. Sad to say she has ended up in a seniors long term care facility because she cannot cope on her own anymore. I have not played any poker for about six weeks now but will soon return to the tables and continue writing about mt poker adventures. That is my poker blog for now My Poker Blog from Florida - February 1st 2009. I played my first decent Hold Em Poker Tournament of the year yesterday at Derby Lane in St. Petersburg Florida. The buy in was $220 with 10,000 starting chips, 40 minute blinds starting at 25-50. The field was limited to 140 players with payout to the top 14. I was able to maintain an average stack for more than four hours when I ran into four rounds when I was not dealt one playable hand. The blinds and antes ate into my stack. I have said many times before, I will not go out on the bubble and this day was no exception. I managed to steal the blinds a few times with less than stellar hands. My final all in move was with A7S in late position, which attracted calls from the cut off the button and the big blind. The button prevailed with pocket Jacks and my day was done after five and a half hours. I finished in 28th position. If I had managed to win this hand I would have been catapulted well into the top ten. It was really nice to get back into tournament action. I hope to make it to Tulsa Oklahoma next week for some of the Oklahoma State Championship events which I did well in two years ago. That is my poker blog for today My Poker Blog from Florida - January 2009. A great deal of money and effort has been put into building many terrific poker rooms in Florida. In the Tampa Bay area I visited four card rooms. The nicest is the new poker room at the Derby Lane dog track in St. Petersburg. The noisy Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa and Tampa Bay Downs horse racing track in Oldsmar are also very pleasant. All three offer a good mix of games and daily tournaments. As I tourist I cannot recommend Lucky's Poker Room at the old run down dog track in Tampa. The "in your face armed security" is obviously there for a good reason. I traveled to the Fort Lauderdale area on the Atlantic coast with Molarman a poker playing friend from Onario. We visited a few poker rooms and found some really nice places to play. The Isle Casino at Pompano Park had been touted as the best place to play. We arrived at the start of a three day packed house tournament and did not stay. We went the poker room at the beautiful Gulfstream Park Horse track. It has a large poker room and many slots. Still under construction is what appears to be a replicated old fashioned downtown shopping area. If you like top class horse racing and poker you will not be disappointed. There is a nice poker room at Dania Jai_Alai. It was not very busy on the evening we played there but we were assured that it is very busy on the weekends. It should be noted that the dealers in the Florida poker rooms that I have played in are very good to excellent. Each dealer keeps their own tips resulting in the aforementioned standard of excellence. For a really good place to keep up to date with the entire Florida poker scene visit ANTE UP – Florida's Poker Magazine. You will find a map there that shows you where all the poker rooms in Florida are. Unfortunately the buy in for any level of play is restricted $100 maximum by law. This means that Florida is not on the radar as a poker destination. Most jurisdictions that limit buy ins base it on a multiple of the big blind. The 5-10 no limit poker offered in Florida means that players have only twenty times the big blind in their stack to start with. If you watch tournaments on television you will see players with very short stacks, relative to the blind, having to resort to lady luck to survive against much larger stacks. In Florida if you enter a game, that has been going for hours, where the survivors have much larger stacks than yours, you are little more than fresh fodder for the table. Unless you gamble and get lucky your money will not last long. I find it sad to see players get frustrated and angry that they lost four hundred dollars ($100 at a time) because lady luck was not smiling on them. Had some of those, good players, been able to enter the game with their four hundred dollars in the first place, they often would not have lost it all because their poker strategy would have been quite different. Well meaning legislators, with little or no understanding of the skills required to play poker, actually hurt many players with the arbitrary limited dollar buy in. I am not totally opposed to restricted buy ins as they prevent players sitting down with extraordinarily large stacks with which to overwhelm the table. With a stack size of 200 times the big blind players are able to utilize all of the considerable tools and skills of the game. At 100 times the big blind players can still play poker without have to resort solely to lady luck. I believe that this is the minimum buy in level restriction that should be imposed. Until Florida changes the law, regarding poker game buy in levels, neither the State nor the card room operators will reap the full substantial financial rewards that true poker destinations achieve. I for one, would stay in Florida all winter long if there was some decent poker offered. I will be headed west come February. March Madness is here and if you like to place a dollar or two on the outcome of the games you can do so here Sports Interaction. That is my 2009 poker blog from Florida. Poker Blog >> Canada Shopping Home Page
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