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Poker rooms in South Florida have loyalty programs
Twenty-four hour poker rooms make a difference to people like Harvey Factor.
The retired Aventura developer pops into Mardi Gras Gaming a couple of mornings a week now and sits down to play $2-$4 limit Texas Hold 'em.
"I'm glad to have that option," he said.
The expanded poker room hours at Mardi Gras apparently are drawing plenty of players like Factor: The card room's revenues are up 20 percent since going to a 24-hour format July 1.
Poker rooms based at horse tracks, dog tracks and jai-alai frontons have 12-hour licenses and usually operate from noon to midnight. But Mardi Gras has two racing permits, and this summer the state decreed that Mardi Gras could stack the permits and go to 24-hour poker.
The result: Mardi Gras' action has increased, while poker action a mile away at Gulfstream has dropped.
Gulfstream and The Isle also have two permits and are considering going to 24-hour poker. Dania Jai-Alai, which also has two permits -- but no slot action and thus an overall smaller crowd -- has gone to slightly expanded hours, keeping the poker room open from noon until about 3 a.m. on weekends.
Card rooms are trying to get you to be loyal. Three venues now have plans that reward you for playing there more:
At the Palm Beach Kennel Club, players can earn tickets for a $35,000 giveaway on Oct. 25. Each day between now and Oct. 25, the first player to get four of a kind or a specific straight or royal flush gets a drawing ticket.
From 2 to 8 p.m. Oct. 25, the card room will draw five $500 winners each hour. (So that's $2,500 per hour times six hours = $15,000.) The grand prize drawing is $20,000 at 8 p.m.
The fine print: only one winner each for the first four of a kind or straight flush each day is issued, i.e., the first person to get four deuces, for example, gets a ticket, all the way through four aces. Same goes for the straight flushes: one ticket for the first A-5 straight flush, one for the 2-6, etc., through the A-10 royal. Some of the higher hands get two tickets for the drawing, instead of one.
Dania Jai-Alai is logging players' time at the table (live games, not tournaments) from now through Oct. 31. The player with the most time gets $1,850. Players two through 10 get $250 to $450.
Gulfstream is holding "qualifying rounds" each night at 6:30 p.m. for a big tournament on Dec. 7. The top 50 point earners between now and Dec. 6 will gather on Dec. 7 and play for a 2009 Mercedes.
NICK SORTAL began playing 3-card "gut" and "Indian poker" on high school band trips, early training for his...
