S04E36 - Win! Derby St Pete - Room Review - Low Limit Cash Games

Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Hello, and welcome into another episodeof the lowd Limit Cash Games podcast.
This is a podcast I've designed exclusivelyfor you, the lowest limit no limit
hold'em players. Today, it's goingto be a little bit different. I'm
doing something that has been requested byseveral people over the past year. I
would say, so I make itpretty clear that I travel a lot and

(00:24):
play poker. I play in alot of different poker rooms. Don't play
in as many different poker rooms nowas I did several years ago, Like
five years ago, I think Iplayed in forty five different poker rooms the
first that first year or five yearsago, I was doing a lot of
traveling and playing, and then thenext year I think I did around another

(00:44):
forty and between the two years combinedit was well over sixty rooms because some
of them I visited twice. Ido continue to travel and play, and
I get a lot of questions aboutthe type poker rooms, the conditions,
the action, the promotions, andall these type things. So per your

(01:06):
requests, and I would say overthe last year, I've probably had twenty
people or so message me and askwhy don't I do poker room reviews.
This is for you today, we'llbe reviewing Derby Lane and Saint Petersburg,
Florida, or as they're known byWind exclamation Point Derby. We'll get into

(01:27):
it next. This poker podcast isspecifically designed for the one two and one
three no limit cash game player,whether this be your local home game or
poker room. I Taylor of thecontent of my poker training and podcast specifically
to you, the low stakes pokerplayer. If you want to guarantee I
continue to crank out high quality pokeradvice specifically for one two and one three

(01:51):
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For the cost to buy me in, I smoke a latte every month,
you'll be keeping me motivated to keepproviding these targeted and actionable strategies for low
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something back. I give all fansof the pot an extra private episode every
month. You can also check outmy full blown advanced poker training. My

(02:15):
training plan is half the price ofother poker training sites out there, and
unlike them, I focus one hundredpercent on strategies to help you crush one
two and one three to limit.There's also a private coaching option as well.
It's available at lowlmitcashgames dot com,Lowlimitcash Games dot Com and you can
find this link in the information anddescription section of the podcast on your podcast

(02:38):
app. So today we'll be reviewingthe Derby Lane Poker Room. The big
sign on the front of the buildingssays Derby Poker Club. The official name
is Win exclamation point Derby, whichis a weird name. Derby Lane is
a historic, well known one ofthe top of the top ground tracks of

(03:01):
all time. Of course, groundracing was shut down in the state of
Florida. As a matter of fact, I think there's only maybe three or
four or five graund tracks left evenrunning in the entire United States now,
and they're probably on borrowed time themselves. Nevertheless, we here to talk about
poker, so we're gonna get intoit. Another thing, just quickly let

(03:25):
me say, is that my interpretationof what's good for room may not be
your interpretational what's good for room insome instances, and probably right out the
gate will be one of those.One of the first things I noticed is
that they have tall tables. Thepoker tables are tall and they're also really
large. Now. The last dayI was there was a huge promotion day.

(03:49):
It was probably their biggest promotion dayof the week, and I wound
up on a table I hadn't playedat before the other entire two weeks I
was there. It was a tablethat rarely opened for the one three game,
and it was actually a short table. We were very cramped. They
played nine handed, which I don'tlove, but a lot of rooms do.

(04:11):
I like playing eight handed, whichalso a lot of rooms have started
doing since COVID. But other thanthis one table that I played out the
last day I was there, thetables are huge. As a matter of
fact, even the tallest dealers havetrouble reaching from end to end. So
it's a little bit worse on thedealers, but it's way better for players
because even nine handed super roomy atevery table. And then, being a

(04:34):
tall person as I am, Ireally liked the fact that the tables were
taller because most rooms I go to, the tables are short for me and
it causes me a lot of backpain. I'm hunched over a lot,
and it's very difficult for me totry to sit in a good position.
So that's just two observations that areprobably specific to me because I'm a tall

(04:59):
guy. I'm a big guy,so big tables and tall tables was a
good thing for me. That's verygood dealers, and they had some very
good food. I'll mention one dealerin particular. His name is Randall.
He's one of the best dealers thatI've had at any poker room I've ever
played at. Ever, doesn't talk. He's not rude, but he doesn't

(05:20):
get into conversations with you. Hedoesn't feel like he's there to get into
conversations with the players. He's thereto deal. He does it very well.
He deals very fast, and Iwould say on average, I mean
over the course of an hour,he's probably getting in maybe four or five

(05:40):
more hands an hour than your regulardealer is, which is a person who
plays for profit. I genuinely appreciateRandall, excellent dealer. And then I
would say their food was good.So their menu not a crazy extensive menu,
but it covered all the basics andthe food that I have there.
I eat limited food because because ofthe way I eat, but I will

(06:03):
say that the food that I atethere was all good, and I thought
that was all that pretty pretty reasonablypriced. It was probably about standard for
poker room fair I would say.So. The game that I played is
called the one three prime game.So they do have a one two game.
I'll talk a little bit about it. I didn't play it, but

(06:25):
I could talk a little bit aboutit, I guess, but I mainly
talk about the game I actually played. It's called a their prime game,
and it's a one three game twohundred dollars minimum buy in fifteen hundred dollars
cap. So it played pretty deep. It played like a two five,
and some night days or night it'sa big two five. It's raped very
high. It's raped incredibly high,but they give you almost all of that

(06:49):
back, if not more. Itried to do some rough math on it,
and I think you're actually coming outpaying a net less rake with all
the benefits that they give you back. If you're a person who always has
a drink beside you, and thatyou do eat at least one time while
you're at the poker room, ifyou do those things, then you probably

(07:13):
come out ahead net on the overrake. But it's a seven plus three,
so they take seven dollars in rakeand they take three dollars in high
hands promotions, you know, promotionaldollars, the three dollars jackpot, they
collect one dollar at ten, onedollar at twenty, and one dollar at

(07:34):
thirty, So it's a I mean, it's pretty much ten percent up to
thirty dollars. And the seven dollarrake is a pretty aggressive structure as well.
It's one dollar at five, onedollar at fifteen, one at twenty

(07:54):
five, one at thirty five,one at forty five, one at fifty
five, and one at sixty five. So it's actually a little bit more
than ten percent as well up tosixty five. So if I could talk
about rate just for a second,like there's the nuts and bolts of it,
but if you want me to speakfrom a strategy and a profitability point

(08:16):
of rake, there's two key thingsto beating rake in general, and then
beating higher rake as well. Sohow big the pots are is a big
pot of it, a big bigpot of it. It's a big pot
of it. And then a functionof that is how deep you can play.
So if a game is raked alittle on the larger side, but

(08:39):
it's runs deep by ends and thepot sizes are generally large, then you
can overcome the rake. It's notthat big a deal. Where big rake
becomes a problem is rooms like BestBet Jacksonville. Their two two game is
unbeatable in my opinion. Now asix dollar rake, they do a I

(09:03):
believe they do a two dollar jackpotdrop or high hand drop, promotional drop,
and maybe one I'm not sure onthat. I have to remember it.
And then and they're two two game. You can only buy them for
three hundred dollars, so the gameswill aren't deep. And then they also
do a drop preflop, so ifyou raise pre flop and you get everybody

(09:26):
to fold, even the blinds,which doesn't happen a lot in two two,
but it happens occasionally, they dogo ahead and drop a dollar.
So it's pretty egregious. Nevertheless,I don't want to get too oft in
the weeds in that. I justdid want to touch on it briefly.
So what are the benefits of thisextra rake you're playing? What makes it

(09:48):
prime? So this is where weget into the juicy part of this one
three prime no limit game, whichplays really deep. It plays like a
good two five, sometimes a reallydeep good two five. The one dollar
extra jack pot is just for primetables. So if you're playing the one
two game, there're they're going todrop two dollars in the jack what I
call jackpot. It's the promotional drop, the high hand drop or whatever.

(10:09):
The one two tables drops two dollars, the one three prime game drops three.
So what's the extra dollar for.Well, anytime you get quads at
one of these prime tables, youinstantly get paid five hundred dollars. Doesn't
matter what high hand promotion is goingon in the room, doesn't matter,
if there's no high hand promotion goingon in the room, if you have

(10:30):
to be there at the time ofday where they're not doing a high end
promotion, doesn't matter. Anytime youget quads, any quads, you get
an instant five hundred dollars. Andthat's what that one extra dollars for.
The other thing that to their creditthey do is they allow for this particular
high hand promotion that's only exclusive tothe one three game. They do allow

(10:50):
you to have three of the threeof the four cards for quads on board
as long as your kicker plays,which a lot of rooms don't do that
anymore. So now this is onlyfor the instant five hundred dollars pay out
on the one three games. Ifyou're doing the room high hand, which
the entire room, the one twotables at all are involved in that they
do during promotional hours, you haveto have the pocket pair in your hand

(11:11):
for that. But just for thisfive hundred dollar instant pay on the prime
tables, you could play ace nineon a nine nine nine board and you'd
have quad nines with an ace kickerand it would count. You didn't you
wouldn't need pocket pairs. The othertwo dollars promotional drops. Remember it's a
total of three, so that onedollars just for that. The other two

(11:33):
dollars is the same two dollars theentire room is playing, so at the
same time you're always eligible for thisfive hundred dollars instant payout. Anytime the
room is having a high hand promotion, you're you're dropping two dollars just like
the one two tables are. You'rein the running for that as well,
which puts you in a really interestingposition during high hand hours because their high
hand qualifications as quads are better.Every day I was there, it was

(11:56):
quads are better, and they havesome really good promotions Now, granted,
I wish they just wouldn't take anyhigh hand drop because I'm a for profit
player and I'm not there to playbingo to try to hit high hands.
But I understand it brings people in, so I understand it. I think
it's a necessary evil, and Ithink it keeps the games going. It
keeps recreational players coming, so it'sa net benefit overall. But if I

(12:20):
had my brothers and we could keepthe room running without it, I'd rather
than not take money from me tobegin with. But I digress on that.
All the rooms do it, andI get it. I see the
point in it. The interesting thingis is like, since quads is the
minimum for the room high hand,if you hit good quads on your one
three prime table, you're gonna instantlyget paid five hundred, and then you're

(12:41):
also going to have the high handon the board for the room high hand.
So probably the goodest goodest. Thebest example I can give of that
is the last day I was there, which was a Saturday, they gave
away a thousand dollars every thirty minutesfor the high hand. Had to be
quads are better and it rolled over. So if there was no quads in

(13:03):
the first thirty minutes, it rolledover and now you're one thousand, became
two thousand, and if there wasno quads that thirty minutes, it rolled
over again and was three thousand,and I think it was two different times.
That Saturday it got up to threethousand. Now, if you're on
the prime one three game and youhit quad aces, then they hold up
and it's rolled over to two thousand. For the room, you get the

(13:26):
five hundred instant for being on theone three prime game, plus you get
the two thousand for the entire roomjackpot. I mean it's you couldmit pretty
good. Just for the record,I didn't hit any high hands when I
was there. The other benefit isall the drinks at the table are free,
even alcoholic drinks. So this bringsthe poker room into the same world

(13:50):
as the casino room, which isone thing I wish poker rooms did better
because most poke rooms you pay foreverything. You don't get anything free.
And why is that a benefit.Well, again, recreational players love to
show up and talk about the freedrinks they get, and also drinks are
good for recreational players. It makesthe game better. So if recreationals can

(14:11):
show up. They're like, ohyeah, my drinks are free here,
and the drinks are flowing, whichmakes the bad players play even worse,
and the games are juicier, andthe gambling is happening. It's good.
It's a win win for everybody.And so I'm just gonna be honest with
you. I'm not a big fanof higher rate in general, but look,
if we can add another dollar andgive and get let everybody have free
drinks, I think it's a winwin, win, win win. So

(14:35):
I actually liked that, and asa person who I would say, during
the course of a six hour session, I'll probably buy three drinks, and
it's usually always some kind of carbonatedwater, sparkling water usually, but occasionally
I'll have a diet drink or something. You know, most rooms I play
at, it's almost three dollars forthe drink plus tip. I usually tip

(14:56):
a minimum of two dollars to theserver. I know that might seem excessive
to some, but I just do. That's just the way my grandmother raised
me, because she worked her wholelife in the service industry, and so
I'm paying like five dollars a drink. I mean now that the drink is
free, it's costing me two dollarsa drink because I'm giving the server two
dollars, so I think i'm actually, you know, I'm probably net breaking

(15:20):
even with that. On the onthe you know, the extra of rake
that they're doing. And then finallyyou're accumulating three dollars in rake back towards
food, so you have to playfive hours minimum to collect it, but
it accumulates three dollars an hour,So after five hours you've got fifteen dollars
in food comp which will buy prettymuch any of the normal meals they have

(15:43):
on their chicken fingers and fries,hamburger and fries, you know, meat
loafing aside. They're all around thefifteen dollar marks. So if you play
five hours, your meal is free. Now, if you're a person that
doesn't eat at the poker room,this probably isn't net and anything. It's
not saving you money. But Ialways eat one meal at the poker room.

(16:04):
I don't cook. Every meal Ibuy is purchased from somewhere, and
when I'm playing poker, I alwayseat one meal there, and during really
long sessions, I'll sometimes eat twicethere. So for me, this was
a net win as well. Andthen here's the big one. How you
come out. I think ahead,if you're a winning player and you drink

(16:26):
at least two or three drinks duringthe time you're there, and you eat
your meal there, if you addthis final benefit into their prime game,
I think you're actually beating the raketo the fact that you're probably netting your
net positive over games to have lowerrakes at other rooms fifty hours a month.
If you logged fifty hours a monththe next starting the next month,

(16:48):
you get to redeem five hundred dollarscash. So it's a five hundred dollars
rate rebate if you hit fifty hours. Well, now I was only there.
I was there. I was therethirteen days. I played twelve sessions,
and I had almost seventy hours,So I mean, you know,
I wasn't even there full two weeks. I played twelve sessions, I hit

(17:11):
seventy hours. Now I'll have towait till next month to go back and
get my five hundred dollars cash.But I asked the dealer. Now I
didn't ask the floor I didn't aska manager. I'm assuming the dealers knew
what they talked about. They seemedpretty confident about it that five hundred dollars
is there next month, but youdon't have to claim it in the next
month. I can go back threemonths from now and claim it. It's

(17:32):
days on my account. So Iwon't be able to go back next month
because as the time I'm recording this, I've just left Derby Lane Saint Petersburg,
taking a few days off and thengo into Austin for a month,
So I won't be able to claimit next month, But the following month
I enjoyed Derby Lane so much Iwill definitely be going back. So think

(17:52):
about all the things you get.Drinks are free, fifteen dollars food.
If you play five hours, playfifty hours a month to get five hundred
cash back, you're pretty much eitherand breaking even or even getting ahead on
the rake when compared to other rooms. So when I initially heard about the
seven and three, I was like, Wow, that's gonna be tough to

(18:15):
beat. But actually seeing it inaction and seeing everything you get, I
think you beat it pretty easily.It provided you, again, you are
a person who already buys drinks.I know some people don't. I have
several pro friends who they keep waterin the car and they bring their own
food, and they'll sneak out afterthree hours, and you know they're going

(18:38):
and drinking free water, and youknow they aren't paying for anything. So
for those people, it probably youwould probably come out worse. But if
you're a person who eats a meal, drinks two or three drinks during the
game, then you're getting all thembenefits. You're coming out even or ahead.

(18:59):
I just the math on it somany. I think almost all Florida
rooms are six and two. Nowit's six dollars eight two dollars high hand
drop, and I think when youcompare this to them, comes out way
ahead. And then when you addin the fact that rooms like Jacksonville they
drop a dollar even if there's noflop, which is again it is highly

(19:19):
egregious, and the reason that Iprobably just won't go back and play Jacksonville
anymore. And I love that room, I love how it's run. Their
food menu is outstanding, but I'mjust it's just too egregious, They're too
greedy. I just probably won't gothere. So Derby is no flop,
no drop, So I mean,overall, it's better off. Every time
there's a new dealer, they doa bomb pot. It was usually ten

(19:41):
dollars, although as the day wenton, especially into the early evening hours,
they would start making it fifteen dollars. Because it's not set in stone,
players can make it whatever they want, but it was almost always ten
dollars. I think I played twodifferent times when they wanted it to be
fifteen. Again. I don't lovebomb pots, but I think I've gotten
much better at THEMS my time inTexas, And if you like bomb pots,

(20:04):
you get to play one every dealerdown. I have a little bit
more to say about bomb pots atthe end and some of the cons,
but we'll skip that for now.The one thing I will say about the
one two game before I move onto the cons, and just the general
description of the room and the actionthere. The one two game, they

(20:25):
also do get an instant high endfor quads are better, so it's not
like only the one three gets it, but the one two gets it,
and it's only one hundred and fiftydollars. So if you play a one
two you do get an instant highend payout for quads, but it's only
one hundred and fifty dollars, soI think we've covered most of the things
that I really liked there. Peopleask me all the time, what's the

(20:49):
absolute best tool to improve your gamequickly? And I always tell them the
same answer, advanced poker training.With Advanced Poker Training, you can simulate
play versus highly technical and accurate AIplayers that play exactly like the players you're
going to encounter in your local onetwo or one three poker game. You
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(21:12):
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(21:33):
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(21:56):
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(22:21):
you'll get a twenty five percent discount. Or for easy links and information to
just click through, you can checkout the description and information section of this
podcast. There were some cons Imentioned the name. I don't like the
name. I don't understand who cameup with win exclamation point Derby, dumbest
name ever, but whatever, Isuppose they wanted to keep Derby in the

(22:42):
name and differentiate it from it beinga ground track. I guess I don't
know. This next con is quiteegregious. I took a picture this and
posted it on my Instagram, Soif you want to go to low limit
cash games on Instagram, you'll seepictures. They have five different iterations of

(23:03):
chips there, so over the courseof how long they've had a poker room
there, you know, they startedout with their first iteration of five dollars
chips, and they looked a certainway, and they were a certain type
of chip. Either they were eitherceramic, they were a ceramic clay composite,
or they were the old metal slugin the middle type. They have

(23:23):
all three of those in play.They all have different designs on them.
They all are different shades of colors, they are different thicknesses, and it
is just a hot mess. There'sfive different not just chip designs, but
different actual types of chips. Therewas a full blown ceramic chip, one

(23:48):
full blown ceramic chip in play.There was two ceramic slash clay chip composits
in play, and there was twoof the old metal slug ugs wrapped.
And I don't know how they dothose. I guess it's maybe it's a
plastic around the old metal slug AndI think those were the oldest ones there
because they were the most beat upand they were chipping away, so that

(24:11):
on many of the five dollar chipsyou could actually see the metal slug in
the middle it would be showing.So when you're looking at this hodgepodge of
chips, it's so weird. Now, add to that, some of those
five dollar chips had a real pronouncedtwite ring around the very outside that extended
to the side of the chips.So when you were looking at the chips
and a chip stack, me beingused to seeing one dollar white chips,

(24:34):
it it just looked like I hadwhite chips one dollar chips in my five
dollars stack. The first day I'mI would tell you this, the first
three days I was there, itwas a nightmare. I didn't know what
chips I had. I was constantlylooking to make sure I had the right
ones. And that's just five dollarchips. Now, let's talk about the
one dollar chips. They had aoff white or egg white one dollar chip

(25:00):
that was pretty easy distinguishable. Butthen they had another one dollar chip that
had a red slash purple coloring toit with a little bit of faded eggshell
white mixed in in places. Itlooked so much like a five dollar chip
that two different times while I wasthere, people would like bet a hundred

(25:25):
and they would put one hundred dollarsstack out there and the dealer would count
it down and you know, you'dcount it down, it's four stacks of
five, you know when they countedout, And two different times players at
the table caught the fact that oneof the chips in the stack was actually
one of those weird one dollar chipsrather than me a five dollar chip.

(25:48):
Like the dealer didn't even catch it. And the dealers deer that deal there
all the time. And it alsowasn't players in the hand that caught it.
It was standby players who weren't inthe hand that caught it. I
mean, if they hadn't caught it, somebody would have just it wouldn't have
mattered. If if it's your chipand you win the pot, you know
you risked four dollars less to winfour dollars more. But if you're the

(26:10):
person that loses the pot, youknow you're losing an extra four dollars If
one of those chips in there andit's not caught, it's unacceptable. I
mean, Derby Lane is a bigplace in a big city, and while
I was there, they had plentyof action, plenty of tables running.
There's no excuse Derby Lane, fixyour chip situation. All your chips should
match. I mean, cheesus,come on, pick the best of the

(26:33):
best chip five dollars chips designs thatyou have, which I would I would
say would probably be that clay composit, one of those clay composite chips.
Keep those, throw all the otherones in the garbage or burn them or
incinerate them, and then buy chipsthat match those best chips so that you
do have an existing supply to startwith and fix your chip situation. I

(26:53):
mean, I don't mean to beharsh about it, but it's unacceptable.
It look makes you look low rent, low budget, looks like you don't
care. It was really bad,really really bad. Again, if you
want to see those chips, I'mnot exaggerating. I took pictures of them.
They're on my Instagram page. Anothercon, several days with eight and

(27:15):
ten tables going, there was onlyone waitress. There was just one waitress.
Their name was Jennifer. I.Weaver tipped her twice because I swear
to you she was working her buttoff and she was amazing. But it
would just take forever to get adrink. It would take forever, and
then you know, I know,every business is different, and the way
different waitresses and servers and wait staffdo their schedules and how they operates different.

(27:41):
But they did a weird thing herewhere when they were delivering, they
didn't take orders. So if theywould come around and take orders and then
you'd see them again ten, fifteen, twenty minutes later and they'd be delivering,
but they wouldn't take orders while theywere delivering, so they had to
deliver all the food, all thedrinks. They would walk all the way
around the room dropping off all thedeliveries and stuff, and then once they

(28:03):
were done that, then they wouldstart back at the first table and go
all the way around the room takingorders again. So you literally could go
I mean there's times it would belike forty minutes, but you wouldn't You
just wouldn't be able to order likeyou would see a waitress, but they'd
be on the delivery schedule and they'relike, I'm not taking orders right now,
And they weren't being rude. That'sthe way they were trained. Not
holding it against them. It's justa weird system, Like I think that's

(28:26):
the only place I've ever worked wherea waitress wouldn't take your order while she
was delivering from the previous order.It was very bizarre. Anyway, Jessica
was amazing. That's two employees Iwant to point out there if anybody for
Derby Lane is listening, Jessica wasa phenomenal server. She was amazing.
And Randall is one of the topfive dealers I've ever played at in any

(28:51):
room in America. You should givethat kid a raise. He's making you
extra money, He's getting four orfive extra hands in for you every hour,
and he's doing it in a fast, efficient, accurate way. He
was just a Randall was incredible.Back to Jessica before we move on.
I was there one day and Iplayed and I played a fourteen hour shift.
For whatever reason, it was theone day I played a really long
shift because they had this crazy promotiongoing and I had been running a little

(29:15):
bad and I was trying to ginup some run good and play a plow
through it. She did a fourteenhour shift, and then when I went
back the next day at eleven am, she was back fourteen hours. For
a waitress or server or whatever thename they use is. It's crazy.
So anyway, hats off to her. Here's another just little con It didn't

(29:37):
happen to the very end of mytrip, and once again Jessica was involved.
She's amazing. They made the decisionto charge you for an entire meal,
even if you just ordered the protein. Now I just eat protein like
I cut vegetables out of my diet. I've been working towards that for a
few years, and the more researchI find on it, and the better
I feel as I've eliminated more andmore vegetables, I'm to the point now
I just don't really eat vegetables anymore, so I just want the protein.

(30:00):
If I ordered the salmon, Ijust want the salmon. I don't want
your stupid car high carb, highprocessed carbs and stuff on the side.
You know, If I do eata burger, I don't want the bread
and I don't want the fries withit. I just want the hamburger patty,
maybe a slice of cheese on it, and that's it. Anyway,
All the days I was there,I would order like I ordered salmon.

(30:22):
One time, I ordered the sirloinsteak, one time I ordered the hamburger
patty itself. A few times,ordered chicken breasts, a few times grilled
and blackened and I would always sayno sides, and they would cut me
a break on the price, soinstead of it being the fifteen dollars meal,

(30:44):
they would charge me like eleven dollarsor ten dollars ten or eleven dollars
or something. The last day Iwas there, I put in the order
for the for the chicken, andthis Jessica, who was amazing, came
out and she said, they toldme in the back, we're not allowed.
We can't just put it in asa just a protein anymore in charge
for it. We have to chargethe whole meal, she said. But

(31:04):
I did get them to do itthis time, but they said that they
were letting me know, and forme to let you know, it was
the last time. From now on, if you order the grilled chicken breast,
you're gonna have to pay for thewhole meal, just as if you'd
gotten the two sides with it.I'm like, I mean, that's fine.
I guess whatever. Come on,Derby, win Derby, do better.

(31:26):
Why are you Nickel and Diamond yourcustomers to get to death. That
makes no sense. Your cook ishaving less work to do, You're putting
out less food. I'm making everybody'sjob easier. I'm willing to pay it.
I'm willing to pay way more thanwhat the chicken breast is worth.
But don't make me pay for thewhole meal. I mean, why are
you nickel and diamond me. That'sridiculous. For the record, not to

(31:51):
beat up on Derby Lane too much, but every poker room does this almost
that I play. At a matterof fact, I think all of them.
I mean my homeboker room. Isit if I order just say a
Hamburger patty with cheese on it there, it's like eleven dollars or something.
It's some crazy insane amount for afor a piece of hamburger meat. Anyways,

(32:15):
it is what it is. Partof It's my fault for being weird,
I guess, and not wanting toeat garbage. But you know,
you could do a little better.One other con, I talked about how
they do bomb pots at the beginningof every dealer down, so basically you're
doing two bomb pots an hour.They have this weird rule there where during
promo hours, in other words,where the whole room is giving away high

(32:37):
hands every They've given them away everyfifteen minutes or every thirty minutes or every
hour. I don't think I eversaw him do it every hour there.
They either did it every fifteen minutesor every thirty minutes during those times a
day when those high hand promotions arerunning. If any one person wants to
refuse to play a bomb pot,they because you know they want to.

(32:59):
They don't want to miss that handbecause they're trying to, you know,
hit bingo and hit the high end, and your double board bomb pot hands
aren't eligible for high end. Sothat's one hand you don't have a shot
of winning because you're running two boards, and you know they could change that,
but they don't. They don't dropany they don't drop any high hand

(33:19):
brake chips during double board bomb pots, so they're not eligible to hit the
highend. If any one person atthe table says, nope, I don't
want to play the double board bobpot, and I don't want the table
to play it either, then thetable can't play it. And I thought
it was kind of weird, LikeI can understand you. You could sit
out anytime. You can sit out, right, You could just say now
I don't want to play it,and you can sit out that hand,

(33:42):
and I'm fine with that of course, you shouldn't be forced to play a
double board bar pot. You canjust sit out. But to give that
one person the power to force thewhole table not to be able to play
the double board bar pot one,I think that's a weird rule to have.
And two, it just makes allthe gamblers want to leave the table.
And this actually happened to me oneday while I was there. There

(34:04):
was this gentleman there who was Iwant to say it was a nice enough
guy, but he really wasn't allthat nice. I played with him two
different days. I showed up atthis table and we opened the new table
that day. It was like atnoon, we opened a new table all
of us. He immediately announces nohigh hands. I'm not agreeing to any
high hands. Within forty five secondsto a minute, everybody on that table

(34:31):
except me and him had put infor a table change, request to a
different table. These were all gamblersthere to gamble, and slowly but surely,
they all got transferred off the table. Me and him were stuck at
the table and guests who replaced themtight knits o MC's pros made the game

(34:53):
horrible. That was the worst dayof poker that I had anytime I was
there was that day, and Iput on the transfer too. I just
didn't do it fast enough. Iwas the last person to get on the
transfer, and by the time Ifinished my session, I still hadn't made
it to transfer, so I wasstuck on that table all day. I
think it's a dumb rule. Ithink they need to change it, but
they that's them in their business.I'm not trying to tell them how to

(35:15):
do their business, but it definitelya con Their brush staff did was a
pretty egregious two different times that Iwas there. The worst time I won't
talk about both eyes, but theworst time I was there, the staff
literally cleared our entire table out withtransfers. We were sitting with a full

(35:36):
table one minute. A minute later, there was three of us left there.
They had transferred everybody off of ourtable to other tables. And I'm
not talking about other tables that onlyhad two or three players. I'm talking
about other tables that only had oneor two seats open. They decimated our
table, transferring players out because theywanted to transfer, and left just there

(36:00):
with no players, and we playedshorthanded for the longest time until new players
finally came in. It was prettyegregious. One final con which again I
think is egregious, and then we'llgo back to the positives because I don't
want to end this podcast on whatthe horrible stuff was there. There was

(36:22):
one instance while I was there wherethey did not pay a high hand out
because the floor didn't make it overto the table until two minutes after the
high hand period had ended. Soto explain this so that we're clear on
what happened, it was thirty minutehigh hands. There was a minute left

(36:43):
and the thirty minute period and somebodyat the table hit a high hand.
The dealer raises his hand, announces, I have a high hand. I
have quad whatever I don't remember whatit was. I have quad queens,
I have a high hand. Dealerraises his hand, and this is their
protocol there. Dealer of screams announcesloudly, I have high hand, raises
his hand. Then the floor willcome over and confirm it, call it

(37:06):
in on the walkie talk here orwhatever they do, and then that's the
new high hand. So there wasa minute left. It was actually a
little more than a minute, maybea minute and a half left on the
clock. Player at the table hitsa high hand. Dealer raises his hand,
announce high hand, doesn't get areply back again, announces high hand

(37:28):
table whatever high hand. Dealer's gothis hand in his nailer, and the
floor announces back high hand coming orwhatever the floor says. He says something
back to him, and so nowwe're sitting there waiting. Well, it
takes the floor like two to threeminutes to get over there. When the
floor gets finally gets to the table, it has rolled over past that high

(37:51):
hand and the floor goes, it'stoo late you did. It's too late.
You didn't win that high end.And it was the last high hand
of the day. Like they couldn't. In other words, they couldn't even
though they didn't put it in thelast hour or last thirty minutes. If
this was a new thirty minutes,they could it would have been the high
hand for this thirty minutes. Butit was the last high hand of the

(38:13):
day, which I want to saywas six six o'clock, I think it's
when it ended that day, andthey was noon to six. I think
most days it was noon to sixor noon to eight. The Saturday one
was like noon to ten. PM, but I think it was six pm.
So the floor doesn't get over intime for whatever reason, and the

(38:34):
guy just loses the high hand.Now, if you're paying that extra rake
and the guarantee is their commitment toyou, is that we're dropping an extra
jackpot dollar. But you get paidon instant high hands and you get room
high hand, right, you getto hit the room high hand as well.
You're involved in all those promotions.Then by golly, if you hit

(38:55):
it, you should get paid.It's not the player's fault or the dealer's
fault or anybody's fault that it tookthe floor long enough time to get over
there. If the dealer says,yes, this happened before the high end
period ended, then one, believeyour dealer. What do you think your
dealer's lying? And then two,if you believe you have lying dealers you
can't trust, which is the onlyreason I can understand why you wouldn't pay

(39:17):
the high end out It is becauseyou just don't trust your dealer. Then
you have cameras that the cameras aretherefore, go review the film and see
what time it happened. So thatwas the worst thing that I saw happen
there. It was completely unacceptable.This is a horrible way to run a
business. It's a horrible way totreat your players. It's shows you have

(39:39):
no confidence in anything your dealers say. And so, with all due respect,
when exclamation point derby, you needto out of all the things you
need to fix, you need tofix that one quick. I mean,
what are you trying to do?Piss people off so they don't come back.
I mean, you live in anarea where people have other options at
one of the biggest, well knownpoke rooms in the state of Florida not

(40:02):
far from you. Maybe you've heardof it before, so you know,
just saying I'm gonna say the nameof it, because that's not what this
review is about. There's the consto recap the good, to recap the
positives. I liked the prime structure. I've benefited from the higher rate because
I'm a profitable player, So notonly did I make money, I also

(40:25):
get five hundred dollars in rate backnext time I go. I guess unless
they hear this review and think thatI'm a horrible person and they want to
ban me or something, hopefully youdon't do that. I'm just giving you
honest reviews of stuff that happened inyour room. That's on you. I'm
giving you an overall positive I plannedto go back. I planned to play
your room a lot. I likedthe action. I liked the buy in

(40:46):
structure for the one three game.I like how big it played. I
liked your staff. I thought allof your staff was either good, at
least confident, or really amazing asthe few that I mentioned. Jessica the
servers should get credit. You shouldgive her a bonus. And Randall the
dealers should get Dealer of the Monthevery month because he's one of the best

(41:06):
dealers I've played and played within inthe entire United States of America. I
really like the you know, thedrink thing. I think it's good for
the game. I think it's greatthat players can get free alcoholic drinks while
they're sitting and playing, just likeif they're playing Blackjacket a casino. I
think it fuels the recreational aspect ofit, which is good for the poker
room. It's good for the forprofit players, it's good for dealers,

(41:28):
it's good for everybody. Your foodis good. Every food I ordered there
was good, didn't matter what itwas you didn't really like you want to
charge me for a whole meal,went on protein. But that's fine.
You're not the only room that doesthat. Overall, Derby Lane was amazing.
Now I've gone on record in thepast that this other room that's in

(41:49):
Tampa, that's the big Room,the well known room. For some reason,
I don't like playing there. I'veplayed there a few times. I
don't hate the room. It's justnot my favorite. I guess I like
cozier feel rooms. I like nuancedrooms. There's just certain things I like.
And then I also have a rouletteproblem. So any poker room that's
not in an actual casino was awin for me. Do I recommend playing

(42:12):
at Win exclamation Point Derby, AbsolutelyI do. It was a great experience.
I wouldn't play the one two gamethere. If I could only afford
one two, I would just playsomewhere else. But for the one three
game, I think it was agreat I think the action was great,
I think the atmosphere was great.I think the way they run that prime
is great. It was a winwin for everybody, and thus concludes my

(42:36):
really long review of Win Derby inSaint Petersburg, Florida,

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S04E36 - Win! Derby St Pete - Room Review

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}S04E36 - Win! Derby St Pete - Room Review