There will be a 70-player max for Ocala Poker and Jai-Alai’s freeroll on Jan. 18. The following payouts are based on the full field: 1st, $360; 2nd, $185; 3rd, $115; 4th, $85; 5th, $55; 6th, $50; 7th, $45; 8th, $40; 9th, $35; 10th, $30. Players start with 1,500 chips. An optional $5 add-on will get you an extra 500 units. For more info on this event and an upcoming Ladies Event visit Ocala’s Web site.

The Isle’s poker room at Pompano Park is getting in on the Super Bowl fun with its “Big Game Cash Giveaway” on Feb. 1. Each time a touchdown, field goal or safety is scored $1,000 will be given away to a poker player in the room.

Also, the room is now paying $599 for all royal flushes and there deep-stack SNGs are being offered.
Here are some upcoming tournaments:

Jan. 13, 1 p.m., Limit Hold’em, $110 buy-in
Jan. 19, 12:30 p.m., $30K Guarantee, $440 buy-in w/optional re-buy
Jan. 25, 5 p.m., Chip Dale Memorial, $50 buy-in w/$20 rebuys. 50 percent of all proceeds donated to the Dale Children Education Fund.
Feb. 16, 12:30 p.m., $30K Guarantee, $440 buy-in w/re-buy
March 17, 12:30 p.m., St Patrick’s Day, $350 w/$50 bounties
March 23-30, Battles at the Beach
March 23-25, Florida Heads Up Championship, $900 buy-in. 128-player max field
March 26, $550 buy-in
March 27-30, $900 buy-in deep stacks event

At Gulfstream Park’s new Sport of Kings poker room, play in the nightly 6:30 qualifiers and earn points until March 8, when the top 50 point earners will play for a Rolex and $10K cash.

For more info call 954-454-7000.

The “Play Your Way” to free cash promotion at Dania Jai-Alai’s poker room that debuted in October will continue in January, only with a payout change. Just sign up for your free “Play Your Way” card, participate in any live (non-tournament) cash game and earn time during January. If you log 200 hours of play you’ll earn $409; 100 hours = $209; 75 hours = $109; 50 hours = $79 and 25 hours = $59.

And, as always, free admission and free drinks while you play!

Call 954-920-1511 for details.

Derby Lane today officially opened its renovated, $2.5 million poker room, which had been in a soft launch for the past couple of weeks.

A complete story on the new room will be in Ante Up’s February issue, which hits poker rooms on Jan. 14, but the new room features 56 tables split between live game ansd tournament areas, 50 plasma TVs and several dining options.

To kick off the new room, Derby is offering a bevy of new promotions:

BAD BEAT FORCEOUT: Derby has ended its bad beat jackpot, and is “forcing out” the more than $100,000 that remains in it by giving $500 to the highest live game hold’em hand every half hour over the next 10 days.

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER: Players getting a diamond straight flush Sunday-Thursday win a share of $2,500.

MONTE CARLO DAYS: Every day between 4-7:30 p.m., quads or better win $50-$500, depending on the cards.

Derby also schedules three multi-table tournaments every day (1, 4 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 2, 6 and 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday), and pays the bubble in tournaments with 60 players or more and two bubbles in tournaments with 100 players or more.

It looked like it was not going to be an ordinary night at Dania Jai-Alai right from the beginning. After all, it was a birthday party for Dania Jai-Alai, celebrating the 55th year of operation.

The poker room was featuring another Dan LeBatard Celebrity Poker Tournament, guaranteeing a $5,500 first prize. Most concession items were 55 cents. And, there was free cake.

Then, it happened. Twenty minutes before the start of the poker tournament, Pablo Ugando from Hollywood, playing in a no-limit hold’em game, leaped from the table as he hit a royal flush in hearts. The crowd roared when they realized that the hearts jackpot was $11,080.

“I was just killing some time before the start of the tournament,” Ugando said. “This definitely covers my $50 entry fee and now I’m going to try to win the LeBatard.”

But, Ugando’s luck ran out and he was eliminated early. But, the two hosts, Dan LeBatard and Stugotz both got great cards and began accumulating stacks of chips.

Stugotz bowed out at 25th place, the best finish of all his tournaments. With the blinds high after 3½ hours of play, there were 20 players remaining at the final two tables, LeBatard being the chipleader.

Finally, with 13 players of the original 302 starters left, and LeBetard still the clear chipleader, they all agreed to “chop” the pot, each player collecting $857. LeBatard won the troph for his own tournament.

“What would you do,” he said sheepishly. “I have always been against “chopping” pots, I play to win. But, it is amazing that I got that far in my own tournament, it was the right thing to do,” he said.

Want to play in July’s $10K World Series of Poker Main Event? Daytona Beach Kennel Club and Poker Room has your path to Vegas all planned out. For $150 you can play in its WSOP qualifier on Jan. 18 at 1 p.m. Presale tickets are available in the poker room only, and 1-3 seats will be given out. The package is worth $11,500 for seat and travel.

If you can’t make that event, one week later (Jan. 25 at 2 p.m.) the poker room is hosting the inaugural Showdown for Autism charity tournament with its first-place prize being a seat in the WSOP. Second place pays a $500 Visa card and third place is a $250 Visa Card. The buy-in is $120 and seeting is limited. Go to the Web site for more details.

If you’re playing poker at Seminole Immokalee on Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 1, 2009) consider yourself lucky! The poker room will be hosting Super Bowl Splash Pots during the game.

For every score during the Super Bowl, a table will be selected at random to receive additional chips added to the pot. If a safety or field goal is scored, $50 in chips will be added to the pot of the selected table(s), and $100 will be added for each touchdown. The number of live poker games at the time of the drawing determine how many tables are selected. If there are five or fewer tables at the time of the drawing, one table will be drawn for each score. If there are six or more tables at the time of the drawing, two tables will be drawn for each score.

There is no limit to the number of times a table may receive a splash pot. You must be 21 years old to participate. For more information contact the poker room at 239-658-1313.

Nick Sortal, gambling blogger at the Sun-Sentinel, has unveiled his list of the top 10 South Florida gambling stories of 2008.

Poker-related stories made the list at No. 10, 9, 8, 6, 4 and 2.