Thursday, February 12, 2015

What the heck is a kennel club?

Above: This sign greets visitors to the Palm Beach Kennel Club.

World Series of Poker Circuit events (called WSOPC) work like a traveling circus. They put down their gear in a city for two weeks, then move on to the next venue. I recently played at the Tunica MS stop. They had come their from Durant OK, and Atlantic City NJ and San Diego CA before that. I've noticed that when they left Tunica, they moved on to something called Palm Beach Kennel Club. Now what the heck does that mean?

Now that I live most of the year in Florida, I've found out that dog track racing is a huge sport here. What, old people have nothing else to do after retirement? Ha. Yes, the kennel club is actually a dog track (I think all greyhounds) with a poker room.

Wednesday, I got up at the ungodly hour of 8:00 a.m. and drove to West Palm Beach FL to play in one of the WSOPC events (this one). I wasn't very lucky. Example: It folded to me in the small blind and I raised three times (900) with A K and the big blind called. The flop was three low cards. I made a C-bet of 1250 and BB called. The turn was a blank and I checked and BB bet. Arrgh, so I gave up.

Later a player to my right made a big overbet (he had a short stack), and I moved in with 10 10 (I was short, too). He called and turned over J 10, yes, I had him dominated! After the board ran out J-9-8-7-x, both had a straight. And so it went -- enough of that.

I didn't do anything (there were 196 runners, and I busted out somewhere in the middle), but I did enjoy playing there, and seeing what a kennel club actually is. Here are some images:

Above: The poker room is down this hallway and to the left. The tournament, however, was up a level.

Above: Handlers lead some of the dogs. Notice the dog who is second from the left. What is he doing? Click to enlarge if you like.

Above: Staffers work on the dog track.

Above: This image shows some of the booths that betting junkies dog-racing fans use to track and place their bets.

Photos taken with my point-and-shoot.

9 comments:

  1. Our daughter married into a family where the patriarch raised greyhounds for racing. Not a very pretty business.

    And now you've gone to the dogs! :) But if you've got to do that what better place than Florida!

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  2. the 1 in melbourne has a poker room too( Club 52) other than that ,the place is a dump. poker room is nice

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  3. Dog racing sure looks nicer than in the UK ! For the record, I have a friend that on the odd time we go to the track will always bet on the dog that "passes a stool" during the walk around (less weight apparently !)

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  4. and why didnt u go by tampa and say hi on the way?

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    1. y would he do that??????? West Palm is on the east coast and i am assuming Mojo lives in central fl like mt dora or lakeland mayb?? not every1 wants to meet u and b yr personal taxi

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    2. Thinking about the obvious comment: gone to the dogs.

      Result:
      Degenerate Quotient equals DQ+1

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  5. I wondered if you would play that circuit stop. I see it is t-shirt and shorts weather there..I am jealous! We are expecting snow/ice tomorrow. Blah. ~jusdealem

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  6. Poker ... Florida ... dog tracks ...

    You are living a charmed life!

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  7. Keep honing that game - I'm expecting big things from you again this summer... ;)

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