Dania has Gator party, $40K poker tourney Saturday
Dania Jai-Alai is having another of its $40,000 guarantee tournaments at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, while also continuing its UF football promotion.
First prize pays $15,000 (based on 250 players). Buy-in is $250 and players start with 10,000 units. For some other casinos, this is a normal tournament, but it is equal to the largest ever at the fronton, which doesn't have slots -- or as many visitors -- as the other casinos.
Meanwhile, the fronton will show the 8 p.m. UF-LSU game in its new skybox. Barbecue dinner is only $7.90 and a free pitcher of beer goes to folks wearing Gator garb. (If anyone needs beer, it's a Gator fan.)
Final news out of Dania: Mark Theodore of Hollywood took home the trophy in the monthly Dan Le Batard celebrity poker tournament last week. He was among seven who chopped the final prize money, each taking home $1,093.
I got knocked out after being dealt a pair of eights, in a five-way pot. Flop hit 9-8-2, giving me my set. Woman in front raised, another caller, and I re-raise. After a queen on the turn, I push it all in. Lose to a pair of nines/set of nines from the original raiser.
Usual question: Did I mess up?
NICK SORTAL began playing 3-card "gut" and "Indian poker" on high school band trips, moved on to "night baseball" and "pass the trash" during a Dr. Pepper-infused midnight game in the 1980s at the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, and now play in a regular neighborhood Hold 'Em game in Plantation. I have been given the assignment of writing about the gambling life in South Florida casinos for the Sun-Sentinel...which means sitting around watching poker on TV now counts as research.
