With extensive safety protocols in place, the Palm Beach Kennel Club is set to welcome the CPPT as their first poker tour since reopening in late May. The eight-event series is sure to be an. Cards being thrown away frequently. When the Palm Beach Kennel Club re-opens on Friday, its poker room will have a drastically different look — and could share a glimpse of what table games might.
The Palm Beach Kennel Club Poker Room in West Palm Beach, Florida has been closed since March 16. Now, over two months later, they’re slated to reopen on Friday, May 22 with procedures that have elicited praise from many in the poker community.
Starting at 9 a.m., the poker room will spread cash games, while the rest of the property will open up at 11:30 a.m. Upon entering the premises, which will operate at 50 percent capacity, guests will be required to sign a waiver and have their temperature checked.
In addition, they will need to adhere to the following poker room procedures:
- Games will be played with a designated number of players to be determined by management
The waiting area will not be utilized. Players will be seated upon arrival and games will commence when the designated number of players is achieved. - Players will not be granted table transfers. The table you are seated will be your table for the duration of the day.
- Players will be required to purchase their initial and buy-ins at the cage.
- Dealers will not rotate from table to table. Dealers will be assigned to one table only.
- Chips will be isolated to a specific table. Once chips have been introduced to a game, they can only exit in the following manners: Drop Boxes, Dealer tip boxes, Cashed out at the cashier.
- Once chips are removed from play, they will not be recirculated until after they are sanitized.
- Paper cards will be utilized and discarded at regular intervals.
- Eating food at the tables will be prohibited.
- Drinks will be served with tabletop cup holders; cup holders will be sanitized prior to being issued to a new customer.
- Hand sanitizer will be used in lieu of a dealer button. When a player has the sanitizer, they are encouraged to use it.
- Dealers will sanitize their hands after arriving at the table.
- All players will be required to sanitize their hands upon initially or subsequently arriving at the table.
When word of the procedures hit Twitter, users seemed receptive.
“Interesting, sounds functional, especially that hand sanitizer will be used as the dealer button,” said Michael Miller.
Joe Hebda added: “If these rules tay permanent I may play live poker again.”
Director of Poker Weighs In
In addition, PBKC has established a “PBKC Clean Team' to ensure the frequent cleaning and sanitization of all public spaces.
“PBKC was one of the first properties in Florida to close its doors due to the Corona Virus. It was a pretty rapid decision, but times like these require companies to react fluidly,” Director of Poker Noah Carbone told PokerNews. “PBKC held off as long as feasible before having to furlough over 400 employees. Employees were paid for six weeks and their medical benefits were continued prior to the furlough. We are currently in the process of bringing back our employees.”
He continued: “We held weekly Facebook live meetings to keep everyone in the loop during the pandemic. This was our most valuable tool as we were able to openly communicate with the employees and see if they had any needs or concerns to address during this time. It also reassured the employees that they were still part of the PBKC family.”
Regarding the poker chips, Carbone added: “Each and every one of our chips have been cleaned and sanitized. Moving forward, we will be sterilizing all our chips prior to being reintroduced into play. Basically, our chips are now one-use chips. Once they enter a game they cannot enter another game or circulated prior to being sanitized.”
Finally, Carbone weighed in on the recent introduction of tables utilizing plexiglass dividers — such as the Hard Rock Tampa that is also reopening — something PBKC doesn’t plan to do.
“PBKC did take a close look at plexiglass dividers. However, we determined that game containment was the best way to provide the most sanitary environment for the group as a whole. Game containment is defined as isolating each and every person and object in one game from another game.”
The PBKC is prepared to amend its rules as necessary and will announce any changes on its website and various social media channels.
*Images courtesy of PBKC.
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After two months of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Florida’s poker rooms and, perhaps more importantly, the Seminole Indians casino system will begin the slow process of reopening their properties. In these reopenings, there is an extreme importance placed on the cleanliness of the properties and keeping the players distant from each other. For the Florida poker rooms, some plans are ideas that should potentially be used in other poker rooms around the world.
Palm Beach Kennel Club Poker
Seminole Hard Rock Tampa to Open Thursday Night
Per an e-mail from the property, the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tampa will be the first property to open for the six-site conglomerate. The Seminole property in Tampa is their second largest behind their location in Hollywood, which (because of its location in Broward County) is still currently being shuttered. The e-mail was quite thorough in the direction of the Hard Rock Tampa, covering the entirety of the hotel and casino grounds along with the poker room once it reopens on Thursday night at 7PM.
The new Seminole “Safe & Sound” program is introducing a plethora of new features, including special cleaning teams around the casino area that will be expressly tasked with cleaning and sanitizing surfaces. An air purification system, the AtomsAir bipolar ionization system, will be utilized on the property with the goal of “(destroying) virus particles in the air and on surfaces” of gaming equipment. Although they do not state how they will do it, social distancing measures will be “enforced throughout the casino, (at all) walkways, gaming devices and tables.”
Here are the areas that poker players might be interested in. Not only will the employees of the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa be required to wear face masks, all guests and players will be required to wear facial coverings or masks. The poker room itself will operate at half capacity, or 23 of the normal 46 tables that would normally be in operation, with a max of six players per table and (for the month of May) a cap of $3 on each hand’s rake. The tables at the Hard Rock Tampa will also feature plexiglass dividers, giving the appearance of a cubicle, while the poker rooms states that the cards and chips will be cleaned on a “regular basis.”
Palm Beach Kennel Club Goes a Bit Further
Palm Beach Kennel Club Poker Room Reopening Date
The Palm Beach Kennel Club, one of the top dog track/simulcast outlets and poker rooms in the Sunshine State, has been much more forthcoming on what their procedures will be when they open on Friday. First, the games will be played with a certain number of players to be determined by the management. There will be no waiting for a game on the property; they will have to purchase their chips and immediately head to the tables, where another change will greet them.
Instead of possibly being able to move to a different table or a different stake (as players are wont to do), players will have to stay at their seat for the duration of their play at the casino. Dealers, likewise, will not be rotating between tables anymore. Instead, the dealer will be assigned to a table and stay there for the entirety of their shift. Chips also will be table specific; they will only leave the table through either the dealer drop box, the dealer’s tip box or cashed out by the players and these chips will not reenter play until they have been sanitized.
Some of these changes by the Palm Beach Kennel Club would potentially be great ideas for other poker rooms. Eating at the table is prohibited now and drinks will be served with a cupholder that is removed and cleaned before another customer uses it. And, in an innovative move, the dealer button will be replaced by a bottle of hand sanitizer; when the “button” reaches a player, they will be “encouraged” to use it (as they will be required to once they come to a table).
The casino openings and the Florida poker rooms opening are sure to offer some insights into how other casinos and poker rooms elsewhere might handle their openings. The Seminoles haven’t given any indications as to when their other properties might open, however, and other poker rooms in the state are handling their openings in their own manner.
The casino openings and the Florida poker rooms opening are sure to offer some insights into how other casinos and poker rooms elsewhere might handle their openings. The Seminoles haven’t given any indications as to when their other properties might open, however, and other poker rooms in the state are handling their openings in their own manner.