Tampa Bay Down

I got a chance to check out the new Tampa Bay Downs room Monday night. I signed-up for 1/2 NL and was #2 on the list. I was in a game within 5 minutes. The first 1/2 hour I am thinking there is no way to beat the $5 per 1/2 hour time charge and the $1 BBJ drop.

After about an hour the table was filled with the worst players in the *beep* world. I got a little aggressive in a hand with A,J pre-flop and dropped down to $65. I called one other raise to $15 pre-flop and before I know it I am down to $25. I pick-up 4,4 in late position and there is one raiser to $10 and I ship the rest of my stack in and the raiser has A,Q. My hand holds up and I am back to $55 or so.

There is one player at the table who is raising to $15 about 3 out of every 4 hands (showing Q,8 Q,10, etc). OK time to find a hand vs this guy. I get J,J UTG and limp. There are four other limpers and the $15 guy doesn't dissapoint and makes it $20. I ship it in for my $70 or so, all else fold and he actually has a hand this time with A,K. My hand holds up and I get the double-up.

I stick around for about an hour more and end up leaving with $113. Overall I think the game can be beat based on the table. This game has quite a high variance. I'm not going to go out of my way to come back but if I am bored one day I will stop by.

Comments:
- The $5 per 1/2 hour time rake sucks ass. I would recommend they go to a rake per hand. Let the winners pay the rake. If that doesn't happen I would do one of the following:

a) Get automatic shufflers.
b) Have the dealers carry their own tray around. This speeds up the time of them counting the tray every time they sit. Plus they count the cards when they sit down. Complete waste of time.
c) More chip runners. The dealers are constantly asking for a fill.


One other thing that absolutely killed me was the players that won a $50 pot ad were tipping the dealers $5. WTF!!!!! I even think $1 is too high in these games. They do have a $0.50 chip but I guess I might look cheap if I tip that much.