Dania Jai Alai Poker Room

Online poker is poker played over the Internet. Originally, it was played on traditional more or less stationary computers, but during recent years smart phones and tablets have also become important tools for playing online poker. Still, many dedicated poker players prefer to play on big screens since that makes it easier to display several tables simultaneously.

Having never seen Jai Alai in person we thought we would make a Friday night of it. It is a huge facility and it could be amazing. The poker room was great and new. The game and players were fun,however the place could use a sprucing up. It was a very interesting sport and I can see getting hooked on it. I wish it would make a comeback. Dania Beach Blvd., Dania Beach, Florida 33004. Tel: (954) 927-2841. Website: www.betdania.com. Simulcast (Off Track) Betting is available in the Simulcast Cellar 7 Days a week starting at 11:30 am. Bet Jai-Alai, Harness and Thoroughbreds. FREE Admission to the simulcast cellar everyday. Children must be at least 39' tall. Jai-Alai is on hiatus and will resume live games at the start of the fall season on September 15, 2020. The Casino @ Dania Beach is located at 301 E. Dania Beach Boulevard, Dania Beach, FL 33004. Follow on social IG and Twitter: @CasinoDaniaB and on Facebook: The Casino at Dania Beach. For more information visit casinodaniabeach.com. Online poker is poker played over the Internet. Originally, it was played on traditional more or less stationary computers, but during recent years smart phones and tablets have also become important tools for playing online poker. Still, many dedicated poker players prefer to play on big screens since that makes Continue reading.

The legality of playing online poker varies, so it is important that you check applicable laws in your particular jurisdiction. A lot of online poker rooms and poker networks block players from the United States, but there are exceptions, such as Bodog, Chico, Winning, Merge, Revolution, and Equity.

The online poker boom

The online poker boom took place in the 2000s, a decade when internet connections got faster than ever before and consumers started getting more comfortable with paying real money for goods and services online, using credit cards, internet bank transfers or any of the new e-wallets.

At the same time, the poker craze was fueled by the advent of the hole card camera, commonly known as the hole cam. The hole cam displays a player’s private cards, the ones he is holding in his hand and is keeping secret from the other players. The hole came made it much more interesting for viewers to watch poker tv-shows, with Late Night Poker on British Channel 4 being the trailblazer, followed by Poker Million and the ESPN broadcast of the 2002 World Series of Poker.

In 2003, an accountant named Chris Moneymaker won the prestigious World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, after gaining free entry to the $10,000 buy-in tournament through a $39 satellite tournament in the PokerStars online poker room. The aptly named Mr Moneymaker leveraging his initial $39 investment into a $2.5 million first prize firmly galvanized the ties between offline poker and online poker. In 2004, four of the players at the WSOP Main Event final table had won entry to the WSOP Main Event by playing online poker.

According to a study carried out by Christiansen Capital Advisors, online poker revenues grew from right under $83 million in 2001 to $2.4 billion in 2005.

How to start playing poker online

To play poker online for real money, you need an internet connection and some way of transferring money into your poker account, .e.g. internet bank transfer, VISA, MasterCard, Paysafecard, Neteller or Skrill. There are poker rooms that accepts PayPal, but it’s quite rare.

You register with the poker room of your choice, confirm your email address and make your first deposit. In some poker rooms, you will get a small (typically $25 or less) welcome bonus even before you make your first deposit.

Most poker rooms will give you a 100% bonus on your first deposit, and some rooms will also give you a welcome bonus on your 2nd and 3rd deposit. The conditions vary, and it is important to always check the terms and conditions before you accept any bonus.

It is good to have a valid photo ID, because poker rooms can require proof of identity for various reasons, e.g. to make sure you are 18 years or older and to comply with laws against money laundering and fraud.

Downloadable poker clients

Today, most poker rooms will offer poker play directly in your browser, but you can also elect to download a poker client and install on your computer. Installing a poker client have several advantages, including using less bandwidth for play since less information needs to be sent back and forth between your computer and the poker server. In most poker rooms, installing the downloadable poker client will also give you access to special features that aren’t available for browser play.

Some of the poker rooms only have a downloadable poker client for Windows, but the situation for Mac users has improved greatly during recent years and several of the major poker rooms are now offering a downloadable poker client for Mac as well.

Playing cash game poker online

Cash game (ring game) is the traditional form of poker, as apposed to scheduled tournaments and sit ‘n go’s which are more recent inventions.

A standard cash game table online will have room for ten players, but smaller tables are available as well in most poker rooms, e.g. 6-max and heads-up.

The poker room makes money from the cash game tables by charging rake. The rake is usually calculated as a percentage of the pot based on a sliding scale and capped at a certain maximum fee. If you have played poker offline, you will recognize the system. Online poker rooms will usually charge a smaller rake than offline poker rooms, partly because they don’t have to pay a poker dealer.

Online poker tournaments

There are two basic types of poker tournaments available online: scheduled tournaments and sit ‘n go’s.

• A scheduled tournament will start at a certain pre-specified time, e.g. 2015-02-10 22:15 CET.
• A sit ‘n go is a type of tournament that will start as soon as enough people have paid entry to the tournament. The most common type of sit ‘n go is a single table with room for nine or ten players.

To participate in a tournament (scheduled or sit & go) you need to pay an entrance fee. This is called tournament buy-in. Part of the buy in goes to the poker room while the rest is put into the tournament prize pot.

Example: The buy-in for a tournament is $10 + $1. This means that you pay $11 to participate. $10 goes into the prize pot and $1 goes to the poker room.

This system means that the prize pot for a tournament will grow bigger the more buy-ins that are made.

It is quite common for poker rooms to have so called guaranteed tournaments in their tournament schedule. This is tournaments where the poker room or poker network guarantee that a certain amount of money will be in the prize pot.

Example: PokerStars is advertising a $10 + $1 No Limit Texas Hold’em $50,000 GTD. This means that PokerStars is promising that the prize pot will contain at least $50,000. If at least 5,000 buy-ins are made, this money will come from the players. If less than 5,000 buy-ins are made, PokerStars will have to put some of their own money into the prize pot to cover the discrepancy.

Example: 3,478 buy-ins are made, building a prize pot of $34,780. This is less than $50,000 so PokerStars needs to add $15220 to bring the prize pot up to $50,000.

Most poker rooms and poker networks will offer their biggest guaranteed prize pots on Sundays, but Fridays and Saturdays are also popular days for this type of tournament.

The Casino @ Dania Beach features one of the newest South Florida poker venues. The casino went through a complete renovation and reopened in its current incarnation in 2016. It has thus far retained the fresh and clean feel of a new casino. This fresh feel, along with a proximity to the Southeast Florida coast, provides an excellent start for the Dania Beach poker room.

Casino Setting

The Dania Beach Poker Room is just a stone’s throw from the Fort Lauderdale airport. It sits at the northwest edge of the massive West Lake Park. Abutting the park and only a mile from the coast, Dania Beach offers great opportunities for strolling around before or after your poker game. Immediately south of the casino on the coast is Hollywood Beach. The town of Hollywood Beach features a long boardwalk with several casual dining options, and a lovely white sand beach. If you have time, explore the Dania and Hollywood Beach communities. If nothing else, the salt air will provide a great balance to sitting for hours in a poker room!

Conveniently, the Dania Beach Poker Room is also a brief walk to more than a dozen restaurants. As long as it is not oppressively hot and humid, you can use the casino as a base to get some exercise and find numerous dinner options.

Non-Poker Amenities

The Dania Beach complex has about 750 slot machines. According to Florida law, as it is not on Native American grounds, Dania Beach cannot have live table games such as blackjack and craps. Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood and Seminole Coconut Creek are thus the only casinos in the area featuring live table games. The Casino @ Dania Beach also houses a jai alai fronton. Dining options are fairly minimal on-site, with Luxe, a gourmet buffet, being the primary offering. But as indicated above, there are innumerable dining options within walking distance or a short drive.

The casino has a large open air main room with two floors (the ceiling vaults above the second floor). Classic rock was playing throughout during the time we were there. The casino has a nice manageable feel: big and airy enough to give you a sense that you are in a real casino, but small enough to maneuver end-to-end in just a few minutes. This reminded us a bit of the Rivers Casino in Schenectady, NY. Also, like the Rivers, Dania Beach is completely smoke free.

Finally, the Casino @ Dania Beach hosts a performance venue that seems to specialize in tribute bands (Queen, Bon Jovi, Pearl Jam, Eagles), but also offers comedy shows and live entertainers like Howard Jones.

The Dania Beach Poker Room Comfort

The 24 table Dania Beach poker room is upstairs and open to the casino (i.e. no walls separating it), but positioned alone on the second level, so there are no slots blaring nearby. Inside, the room is also airy and open with lots of space between tables. There is a distinct color motif in the card room and casino, and that motif is bright orange. Surprisingly, the vibrant orange is more pleasant than it has any business being. The temperature was fairly ideal, cool but not freezing. A large bar holds down the back of the poker room, lined by a sitting area with comfortable couches and stuffed chairs. The sitting area is a very nice touch if you’re playing a tournament with a partner and might have some wait time.

On the downside, the lighting is dim and it is challenging at times to distinguish chip denominations. The chairs are low, not adjustable and not terribly comfortable.

Poker Room Staff

The Dania Beach poker room dealers were very good. Despite a lack of automatic shufflers, they kept the action moving swiftly. The floor was polite and ran this small tournament in a relaxed but professional manner. Despite the fact that we were there on a slow weekday afternoon, the cocktail waitresses circulated frequently and were very responsive and quickly delivered drinks and food.

Players at the Dania Beach Poker Room

The afternoon tournament we played at Dania Beach maxed out at two tables (by design). Before the under-the-wire registrations (see below) there were 13 players, with 9 going into the break. The tournament then ballooned to 20 players at the last minute with several late entries. In the early stages of the tournament most players played a generally loose-passive game. The other players seemed to all know each other, as we were the only tourist drop-ins. However, the players were very friendly, to us and each other, with some good-natured table talk. Heather was the only woman in the tournament.

Dania Jai Alai Poker Room Poker

Both play and table tone completely changed with the flood of buy-ins right before registration ended. The new players came in aggressive and with purpose. This was the biggest shift in table atmosphere and quality of play that we have ever seen in a tournament. Clearly, the serious regulars know that early play in this tournament is of minimal importance when the final add-on is 5x starting stack!

Tournament Structures

The Dania Beach poker room’s highlight tournaments are Friday ($20K guarantee) and Sunday ($10K guarantee). Friday generally gets 80 to 100 players and Sunday 60 to 80. There is a $100 buy-in on Friday ($120 on Sunday) for 15,000 chips. But what really drives the pool up is the unique $100 add-on at break for 50,000 chips. We have never before seen an add-on for over 3x the starting stack (5x in the 10K starting stack tourney we played). Structures for the Friday and Sunday games are not bad. There is some opportunity to play before shove or fold time sets in.

Weekdays there is generally one tournament in the afternoon and another in the evening. Most have guarantees between $2K and $6K, and all tend to have mildly to significantly more aggressive blind level structures. Almost all have the 50K add-on element, which some players will love and others may not. Tournament fields (other than Friday and Sunday evenings) tend to be modest, with between 20 and 40 players.

Dania Jai Alai Poker Rooms

In the Monday afternoon tournament we played, the original buy-in was $60 for 10,000 chips, and $20 rebuys for 5,000 chips. Any time you fell below 5,000 chips you could add on for 5,000 more. Several players busted and/or fell below 5,000 and re-bought multiple times. The tournament had a two table limit, and maxed out before the break at 13 players. At break we were playing two tables, with five players at one and four at the other. However, 11 players bought in at the break for $140 and 60,000 chips, taking us from 9 active players to 20.

Interestingly, the Dania Beach website does not describe the various add ons for these tournments and does not link to structure sheets. You can get the scoop on PokerAtlas if you click on each tournament in the calendar and read the details. Not sure why the casino itself is mum on the specifics. But for the unaware (as we were when we arrived), this can come as quite a jolt.

Cash Game Activity

The Dania Beach poker room has the lowest volume of cash tables in South Florida. On weekday evenings there are one to two $1/$2 tables, maybe one table of $2/$5, and sometimes one table of another game running. Unlike most other rooms, Friday and Saturday nights don’t do much better. Expect two $1/$2 tables and perhaps not much else. Cash clearly is not King at Dania Beach. When we arrived for our 2pm Monday tournament, there was no cash active, but one cash table did open up at 4pm.

Overall Assessment of the Dania Beach Poker Room

Dania Jai Alai Poker Room Games

Unlike most poker rooms, Dania Beach appears to emphasize tournament action over cash games. They offer at least two tournaments every day. On Friday and Sunday evenings Dania’s tournaments get fairly large fields and have good guarantees. But be prepared, the unusual add-on structure will alter play mid-game like few tournaments you will ever experience. If you like wild tournament play, Dania Beach will slake that thirst. Happily, the room specifically, and casino generally, provides a nice, open setting for poker and slot play. The poker room could use some upgrades in seating and chip quality. However, the poker room staff was exemplary.

While not the biggest player in the South Florida poker scene, the Dania Beach poker room’s tournament focus creates a specific niche. But be prepared, that niche offers a wild ride!

• Comfort
• Tournament Structures
• Personnel

Dania Jai Alai Poker Room Finder

Summary

Unlike most poker rooms, Dania Beach appears to emphasize tournament action over cash games. They offer at least two tournaments every day, and on Friday and Sunday evenings they get pretty large fields with good guarantees. But be prepared, their unusual add-on structure will alter mid-game play like few tournaments you will ever experience.