Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood [VP in SoFla]

[VPMiami]

Here is a basic rundown of video poker offered at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood, Hollywood, FL. It is located about 35 minutes north of Miami and 10 minutes southwest of Ft. Lauderdale. The Hard Rock is the closest thing you'll find resembling Las Vegas in the South Florida area.  The casino is big, and shares its location with a full-service hotel (with pool) and a "mega entertainment" complex housing restaurants and nightclubs.  The casino offers about 2500 slots with at least 100 of them being video poker.  It's also the only casino in the area that offers live table games.  All the favorites are available with the exception of craps and roulette (which are not allowed yet under Florida law).  There is also a separate two-story poker room. This casino is very popular and you can count on it being crowded during evenings, especially on the weekend or whenever a major sporting event is on TV.  They allow smoking here, and it can be very overpowering.  If you spend more than an hour here, you're pretty much guaranteed that you will go home smelling of smoke.  There is a very small non-smoking area of the casino, but it really doesn't do much to shield you from the smoke since it's open to the remainder of the casino and shares the same air. 1.  For video poker, the majority of the machines are $0.25/$0.50/$1 or $1/$2/$5.  Although there aren't any $0.05/$0.10 denominations on the standard single-hand machines, you can get single hand play for nickels and dimes by sitting at one of the Spin Poker machines and selecting 1 pay line for 5 coins. 2.  The Hard Rock is one of the places where it really pays to hunt down the best pay table before sitting.  The machines are scattered all around the casino in groupings of 10 to 30 machines.  All the machines in a single group tend to have the same pay tables, but as you move from one group to another, you'll find that the pay tables will be different from group to group. 3.  I spent about 30 minutes doing a survey of Deuces Wild pay tables on various machines at the $0.25 denomination.  Best table I found was:     1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 4 - 9 - 15 - 25 - 200 - 4000 (98.91%)   I only found this pay table on one bank of 5 machines that were mixed in with a bunch of $1 machines.  All other $0.25 machines had pay tables that were worse, ranging from 96.8% up to 98%.  So, it pays to know what pay tables are good so you can recognize a good machine when you see it. 4.  A good pay table for a game on one machine doesn't mean that the pay tables are good for all games on that machine.  For example, on the same machine that paid 98.91% for Deuces wild, it only paid 96.5% for Jack or Better.  I found JOB machines with better pay tables for that game, but they had the worse pay tables for DW.  So if you the type that likes to sit on one machine and switch between games, realize you may sacrifice optimal expected return for one or more games by staying put. I tend not to visit here often because it's the furthest drive from home, and the smoke is so thick it makes my eyes burn after about 30 minutes.  However, if you want a place where you can gamble like you're in Vegas (well not exactly, but about as close as you'll get until Florida decides to legalize full casinos) - slots and table games - this is really the only place in the area. - D - 

[Tomcat1569]

VPMiami, I play there occasionally and have hit some decent hands in STP. They do have other nickel multiline machines (non-Spin Poker) along the perimeter with crappy paytables as well -- at least they did back in June.

[VPMiami]

Tomcat.  I searched around but couldn't find any nickel or dime stand-alones.  But I'm certain I didn't walk every square foot of the place, so they probably have them, but I just didn't see them during my visit on Sunday.  I think the main point at the Hard Rock is don't just sit at the first machine you find.  Take a few minutes to walk around and insure you're getting the best return on the money you're dropping.I did play one of the 98.81% quarter machine for about an hours and walked away $45 up, so not a bad visit.  VP basically paid for my dinner out later that night. Cheers!

[Tomcat1569]

VP, agreed. The nickel machines were close to the outer perimeter of the casino floor from what I remember. Paytables weren't memorable.

[tedperk]

 VP have you ever gone into the original seminole hall in Hollywood  which is across the street from the Hard Rock.  This is where the Indians had their first Bingo hall. I was there last week, and see that they have several video poker machines.  I wonder what is your opinion ?  Thank you .  Ted

[VPMiami]

I don't go to the original gambling hall.  Been there once, didn't like it and haven't returned.  Sorry, but don't have any opinions to share on that location.