Just when you thought you weren’t getting any more gifts for the holidays, the Silks Poker Room at Tampa Bay Downs has decided to play Santa all year long. The Tampa room is rewarding players throughout 2012 with marketing money rather than taking it out of players’ pockets. Talk about paving the way for casino incentives!
Said director of poker operations Patrick Murphy: “By adding house-funded prizes, we hope to increase the number of players in our daily tournaments. Tournament business is what drives traffic. We want to reward our customers with something a little extra.”
The top-five finishers in tournaments each month earn a seat to a monthly freeroll. This freeroll will be the first Monday of the next month at 5:30 p.m. and it will have a $2,000 starting prize pool, which can grow with optional player add-ons.
In addition, the five highest hands in every weekday tournament will earn tournament buy-in credits that will start at $500 for the highest hand and decrease by $100 for each additional hand.
“I think using house money for these promotions shows our commitment to our client base, new and old,” Murphy said. “We appreciate them and on top of giving the highest comps in the area, we are now funding promos with our own money. This allows us to keep the player fees down and the prize pools up.”
The room also offers numerous other promotions throughout the week, including cash payouts, high hands and quads/straight-flush/royal-flu sh bonuses.
“We hope to continue to be the Tampa Bay area’s best option for new and exciting promotions with great payouts and provide an equal chance for all our players to come away with some extra cash,” Murphy said. There are a few specialty tournaments excluded from these promotions. Please visit tampabaydowns.com for complete details.
WPT DERBY LANE: The World Poker Tour regional series returns March 16-25 to Derby Lane in St. Petersburg with nine events, including an $1,800 main event (Day 1A is March 23 at noon, 1B March 24 at noon). Also, there will be a $365 no-limit hold’em/pot-limit Omaha mixed event on March 20 at noon.
Date Time Event Buy-in Stack
3/16 Noon Mega Satellite $160+$15 10K
7:30p Mega Satellite $160+$15 10K
3/17 Noon NLHE $825+$75 30K
3/18 Noon NLHE $240+$35 25K
3/19 7:30p 6-Max $150+$20 17K
3/20 Noon NLHE/PLO $330+$35 20K
3/21 Noon Seniors $180+$20 15K
7:30p PLO $330+$35 20K
3/22 Noon NLHE Turbo* $180+$20 10K
7:30p NLHE Turbo* $180+$20 10K
3/23 Noon Main (1A) $1,650+$150 30K
3/24 Noon Main (1B) $1,650+$150 30K
3/25 Noon NLHE $500+$20 25K
* Daily double event, call for details
— Garrett Roth is the Ante Up Ambassador for Central Florida and the Where to Play editor. Email him at roth@anteupmagazine.com and follow him on Twitter @GarrettRoth.
