Florida Doubles Its Bet On Poker

Roger Bull, Jacksonville.com

Out in Las Vegas, they've almost wrapped up two months of the World Series of Poker. Card players from all over the world gathered there to play, to watch, to talk.

But the talk in that holy shrine of gambling has been about Florida, said Josh Zuckerman, who just got back after a week there and is director of the two poker operations in Northeast Florida.

That's because the stakes at Florida poker rooms have been raised, and those in the industry are expecting the state to become a much bigger player in the world of poker.

With new laws that went into effect July 1, three significant changes have been made to the 26 poker rooms in the state:

- Buy-ins, the amount of chips a player starts a game with, were limited to $100. Now, they're limited only by the room itself.

- Instead of being limited to 12 hours a day, poker rooms can now be open 18 hours Sunday-Thursday and 24 hours on Friday and Saturday, though the two poker rooms here won't go for the full 24.

- Tournaments were limited to an $800 buy-in; now there's none.

Zuckerman said he's already seen an increase of about 15 percent at poker rooms in St. Johns County and at the Orange Park Kennel Club.

"We're really just giving the players more options," Zuckerman said. "Five-dollar poker wasn't a very interesting game."

Although the state sets no limit on bets, pots or buy-ins, the poker rooms themselves set some limits on each table. At a 2-5 table, for example, the small blinds (kind of like ante) are $2, the minimum bet is $5 and the buy-in is a minimum of $100, maximum of $300.

(The reason the house still limits buy-ins is that if someone sits down with $5,000 at a table where everyone else has $100, he can dominate the action.)

The 2/5 and 2/2 (buy-in of $40-$200) are the most popular games. On most days, the 5/10 table is the highest-stake game. That requires a buy-in of at least $300 and no more than $1,000.

Some night, Zuckerman will have a 15/30 table, with a buy-in of $1,500-$3,000.

The games haven't changed. Texas Hold'em is still the most popular, but there's still Crazy Pineapple, Omaha, Seven Card Stud and others.

Kenneth Williams said he's seen some change in the way people play. He's a 45-year-old Navy retiree who plays poker at the Orange Park Poker Room about five days a week.

Having more money on the table means the players aren't betting on just anything.

They're not throwing down bets on the slim chance of drawing to an inside straight.

But they are more likely to bluff.

"You're starting to see real poker now," he said. "You've just got to know how much you want to lose."

Williams usually brings $300, he said.

Jason Collins, 33, drives down to the Orange Park Poker Room once a week from Hilliard, where he teaches high school algebra. He's not sure how much longer he'll have the time - his wife is expecting twins in November.

He usually brings $200 ("I am a schoolteacher," he said.) and plays at a 2/5 table.

"It's a little more stressful when you've got more money," he said. "But this is a pretty calm table. There's not a lot of bluffing going on."

"The vibe has changed because players are getting what they want," said Debra Mosely, who has been dealing poker in Orange Park for a year and a half.

"There's more excitement," she said. "In the bigger games, they'll have a couple thousand in front of them."

"They're still staying the same, they're staying with their instincts, " she said.

The biggest pot she's seen in the first few weeks has been $3,500, but other dealers have had larger ones, she said.

The Miami Herald reported the professional poker players were already starting to rent apartments in South Florida, but Zuckerman said he's seen none of that in Jacksonville.

And Florida may not be ready to challenge Las Vegas as the place for tournaments - more than 7,000 entrants paid the $10,000 buy-in for this year's Main Event.

But Zuckerman did have 300 people pay $800 apiece to enter a poker tournament under the old laws.

Next month, he'll host one with a $1,500 buy-in and see how that goes.