Derby Lane Poker Room
Times Correspondent
Derby Lane Poker Room. Facebook; Twitter; 5 4 3 2 1. 10490 Gandy Boulevard, St. Petersburg, FL 33702 (Directions) Phone: (727) 812-3339 ext. 216 Visit Website @derbylanepoker Minimum Age: 18 Poker Tables: 51 Tables Hours: Sunday-Thursday 10am-4am Friday 10am - Monday 4am. Patron evaluation procedures for Poker room. All patrons, guest and vendors will have their temperature checked prior to being allowed to stay on property. Patrons that refuse this evaluation will be asked to leave property immediately. Security officers will be responsible for temperature checks at the card room entrance.
Gary Joerres, a retired restaurant owner, missed the Derby Lane Poker Room during the shutdown caused by the coronavirus. The St. Petersburg resident is a regular at the Texas hold ’em tables at the Poker Room, which opened with a limited capacity May 20. Joerres, 69, plays about five days a week and has for 15 years or more. His tip for not going broke, he says, is to limit the amount you’re willing to lose. Joerres said he likes Derby Lane’s measures against the virus, including checking the temperature of everyone, requiring masks and restricting the number of players at tables.
- Poker, 7 Days per Week Events and Promotions. Check Back for Updates More Info. Dining Events and Promotions. View Ways to Save. The Circa 1925 Buffet. Visit Derby Lane. Derby Lane, the St. Petersburg Kennel Club, is the oldest continuously operating greyhound track in the world.
- Re: Derby Lane Poker Room (Tampa, FL) 2 Card Poker is a table game in which you play 2 card poker vs the other players and the house takes a rake from the game. The dealer is not dealt any cards as in blackjack.
So you’re happy to see the place again.
Exactly … We didn’t think it would be two months. We thought maybe it would be 10 days or two weeks. We knew it was serious, but we never knew it was this serious.
Did you get up any games with friends at home during the shutdown?
Nobody really wanted to get out and about and get together like that. It’s something you’ve got to be very serious about. There’s still a lot of people dying; we definitely don’t want to be one of them. We can always play cards. We don’t want to rush into it.
Is this a hobby, or is this the way you make a living?
Oh, no, I’m not a professional. I just like to have fun.
What’s the best hand you’ve ever had?
A royal flush (the highest hand) … How many times? In spades, twice, but I’ve had other royal flushes. I had clubs, hearts – matter-of-fact I’ve had all four of them already ... I just had a straight flush a little while ago, a nine, 10, jack, queen and king of clubs.
What is largest pot you’ve ever had?
The largest one? It was that spade royal thing – about three grand.
How long do you stay?
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If I’m having a good time, I’ll play four, five, six hours. If I’m not having a good time, I’ll get up and leave in an hour and a half … Just not my day. Why stay and give money away?
(Interviewed another day.) I stayed almost seven hours today … didn’t have to reach into my pocket once. I was quite happy …
How much did you win?
Almost a thousand.
Your system is to fold hands that you don’t have confidence in.
You could play every hand, but you could, like, just give money away. A bad hand you don’t play. But people do. Believe me, I saw them today.
When you hit something like a $1,000 day, do you go celebrate at Bern’s Steak House?
I go out for a steak, but maybe not to Bern’s. That’s (near) downtown Tampa. I live the opposite way.
Does wearing a mask help with the poker face?
I’d have to say definitely. The poker face would definitely (be helped) with the mask. … Some people walk in with that, and I’ve been playing with them for years, and I go, “Is that you?’’ It really covers everything up but the eyes.
Can you tell by looking at fellow players’ expressions whether they have a good or bad hand?
Sometimes you can’t; sometimes you can. Some people have a little give-away. You’ve just got to watch them a little bit. And some people are really good at it and don’t give anything away.
How are you at it?
I try to be steady. Like I mentioned earlier – that big royal flush, you don’t get up and get excited. You just try to keep that way all the time.
What is your usual game pot?
It could be 20 bucks sometimes. Sometimes it could be 200 bucks (if) you get some aggressive players at the table.
How much does it cost to get in the game?
The $1-$2 (ante) game – $60.
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You say you feel comfortable playing now because of Derby Lane’s precautions?
Very much. That’s what I like. Also, they have cashiers that run around and take care of dealers with change and get people stuff. And when they’re not busy, they’ve got a towel and a spray bottle in their hands, wiping things down. Someone gets up from a chair, they wipe down the chair and the table in front of them before the next player sits down. I like that a lot.
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The COVID-19 outbreak and resulting shutdown of society has resulted in changes across the board. Poker, on a live basis in a casino or card room, has been closed for the last two months. Now, as rooms and casinos are beginning to open, one segment of the game – tournament poker – is slowly beginning to emerge from its slumber at Florida’s Derby Lane Poker Room.
$150 Tournament Set for Sunday Afternoon
Derby Lane, located in St. Petersburg, FL, has been running cash games for the past week with precautions for its players. They are enforcing a mask rule on both the employees and the players and play is limited to six handed across the floor, but there are no partitions between the players to separate them into cubicles. These rules will also be in place as they get ready to have their first multi-table poker tournament since the COVID-19 outbreak.
The tournament is a $150 buy in event that will be limited to 80 players. $135 of the entry fee will go into the prize pool and, for an additional $5, players can get a 5K top-off to their initial 20,000 chip starting stack. Levels for the tournament will be 20 minutes, meaning that the action should wrap sometime in the early evening on Sunday night. At 80 players and $135 players per pop, the prize pool would be $10,800, presumably with the six handed final table divvying up that booty.
Because the tournament is limiting the number of players that can come to the felt, there is going to probably be a rush to hitting the cage to register. To combat this, Derby Lane will be opening the registration for the tournament at 9AM on Sunday morning, with the tournament kicking off at 1PM. What isn’t clear at this point is what Derby Lane will do if they don’t get enough players to support the tournament or, on the good side, what will happen if they have more player support than the 80-player limit allows.
Tournament Poker Slowly Coming Back?
Derby Lane is moving forward with tournament poker, something that many thought would be a long way off with the rules being enforced on poker across the States of America. The limited players at the tables – as low as four players in Las Vegas and six players in most locations – plus the extra distance between tables (limits multi-table usage) doesn’t exactly lend itself well to multi-table tournament poker. But some are trying to bring back the format of poker in some manner.
One of Derby Lane’s competitors in Florida, One-Eyed Jacks Poker Room at the Sarasota Kennel Club, has had tournaments scheduled since they reopened on May 22. There is no indicator on their website that these tournaments have been conducted, however.
The news in Las Vegas has not been quite as good. Still closed nearly three months after Governor Steve Sisolak shut down the entirety of Nevada’s casino system, the poker rooms have some stringent rules being put on them before they can reopen. Under the current system, which will have casinos reopening next week, poker rooms can only have four players per table, putting a tough decision to the rooms throughout Sin City.
Will the poker rooms open if they can have only four players per table and fewer tables in action? Only one room has committed to opening at this point, The Venetian, which has said it will offer both cash games and single table tournaments. These single table tournaments have been rumored to have a $100 buy in, making it a pricey way to get your tournament fix.
The 800-pound gorilla in the room is the running of the WSOP, however. Poker’s most prestigious event has been on hold since it was postponed in April and no indication has been given that Caesars – or, perhaps more importantly, health officials in Nevada – will allow for the large throngs of people that the WSOP brings. While an 80-player tournament in Florida may not seem important, it is a creeping return to tournament poker that might be the impetus to see what the WSOP can do.