Miccosukee Casino Poker Room Review

Miccosukee Casino was one of the few poker rooms we had yet to visit in Florida. We had also never visited the Everglades before. So in a single day we got both off our list. Let’s just say that our airboat ride at Corey Billie’s and the sightings of dozens of alligators at the Big Cypress Oasis Visitor Center were the highlights of the day. A little cash play at the Miccosukee Casino poker room wrapped up our day, but we wouldn’t call it a highlight.

Casino Setting 

Miccosukee Casino is located at the intersection of routes 997 and 41 (also known as the Tamiami Trail Scenic Highway). It’s about a half-hour west of downtown Miami, so fairly accessible if you are in the South Florida area. There is not much in the immediate area, but it does abut the Everglades if you want to visit them. Miami, of course has many attractions. We talked about them when we visited a few years ago. If you’re looking for poker elsewhere in Southeast Florida, there are many options, but we’d suggest starting at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood.

Non-Poker Amenities

Because it is on Native American land in Florida, the Miccosukee Casino offers slots. Oddly, it has no table games like blackjack, craps, or roulette. Many card rooms not on Native American land in Florida can not offer full casino gaming options. Micosukee does haves a large bingo hall. There is also an on-site hotel which occupies much of the building.

The casino floor is quite dark with low ceilings. Smoking is permitted in a designated gaming and bar area which is not physically separated from the rest of the casino. The overall effect is loud and dark with poor air quality. The feel is very old Vegas without the personality.

Dining options at Miccosukee Casino are a bit limited, but include a Latin fusion restaurant, casual grill, taqueria, some grab-and-go options in the hotel lobby, and a lounge.

Miccosukee Casino Poker Room Comfort

The 20-table poker room at Miccosukee Casino sits in the back of the casino and is a fully separate room with a glass front wall. When I entered, two tables on opposite sides of the room were doing a loud but seemingly good-natured call-and-response chant in Spanish. I got on the waiting list and a new$1/$3 table opened up within 5 minutes. I was seated there. While I waited, I noticed that this was about the loudest poker room I have ever been in, just based on the people in the room. The music being piped in was not particularly loud, but it was also drowned out by the hearty discussions emanating from every table.

The poker room features decently high ceilings and good airflow. The tables are reasonably spaced. The walls are a grey marbled design and carpets are a brown-orange. A few medium-sized TVs line the walls. Lighting is provided by various attractively designed fixtures which were effective in illuminating the tables.

The poker room chairs have wheels, are adjustable, well-padded, and very comfortable. The tables are clean, but the felts for many are worn. The tables feature padded rails, functioning USB ports, auto-shufflers, and drink cups. The chips are branded, but quite worn. Play is eight-handed, leaving plenty of space for each player.

The poker room is actually one of the more attractive spaces in the casino, but that bar is not high.

Poker Room Staff

The front desk staff got me right on the wait list and started the table quickly. When we started play, I noticed I was the only person not speaking primarily Spanish – including the dealer. The dealer did call actions out in English, but he conversed with players during and between hands in Spanish. The dealer was skilled and maintained reasonable control over the table. Wait staff did circulate at least once when I was there, but there was not a major wait staff presence.

Players at Miccosukee Casino Poker Room

The players at Miccosukee Casino poker room represented a large age range and mostly spoke Spanish. There were a few women playing in the room. My table was consistent with the overall room ethos of garrulous and interactive. Interactions ranged from friendly to surly. Most players were clearly regulars. One player placed his chips and disappeared immediately. After a half an hour, one of the older players called the floor over to complain about the abandoned stack. Nothing happened as a result.

Play was generally very aggressive, with every pot raised pre-flop and generally large action taken on the flop. There was an immediate bomb pot for $15 when the table started and another when the dealer switch occurred. Both hands resulted in one player shoving on the flop. There was clearly a lot of gamble in most of these players. Sadly, it was not the friendliest crew, either players or dealers, despite the high level of discussion.

Tournament Structure

As of this writing, the Miccosukee Casino poker room does not offer any tournaments.

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• What Makes a Good Poker Tournament?
• Map of US Poker Rooms
• An Extended Poker Road Trip Through Florida

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Cash Game Activity

On this President’s Day Monday afternoon, the poker room was running 15 active cash tables, with a mix of $1/$3 NLH, lots of PLO games, and a couple of non-PLO Omaha games. From our tracking of cash games (see our cash game activity update), the Miccosukee Casino poker room is generally pretty active. There can be often 4-5 $1/$3 tables on a weekday evening. That rises to 6 to 9 tables on Friday and Saturday nights. Additionally, there will sometimes be a $2/$5 table but this is more common on the weekends. There is often a PLO table most days, and a mix of games ($2/$4 Limit, $2/$4 Mixed Limit Omaha, and $2/4$ Omaha) usually 2-3 of these on weeknights up to 5-6 on weekends.

Overall Assessment of the Miccosukee Casino Poker Room

If you like aggressive cash play in a loud space, the Miccosukee Casino poker room may be for you. Other than that, there is not a lot to recommend the poker room or the casino at large. The poker room itself is fairly comfortable, other than the noise. But the players and dealers are not altogether friendly despite the non-stop chatter. If you are in South Florida, you have better options, even though we’re not big fans of most of the rooms beyond Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood.