Creek Entertainment Gretna Poker Room Review

The Creek Entertainment Gretna poker room is one of very few Florida panhandle card room options. We decided to check it out as we journeyed from Jacksonville to our recent stay at Santa Rosa Beach. Our visit proved convenient, if not earth-shattering. It was quite a departure from the bustle of Florida poker rooms in South Florida or Tampa with bustling rooms such as Seminole Hard Rock Tampa.

Setting and Non-Poker Amenities

The Creek Entertainment Gretna poker room is located right off Route 10, the major east-west route from Jacksonville through the Florida panhandle. It’s about half an hour west of Florida’s state capital Tallahassee. The area is pretty remote. However, it could not be a more convenient stop off the highway. The card room entrance is only a half mile from Route 10, and there is a clear sign at the entrance. There is a large cotton field across the parking lot and a muddy horse track in the back. And that’s about it for immediate surroundings. Gretna’s exterior is a plain beige with a couple of nice architectural features. The building appears well-maintained.  There were plenty of parking spaces for a facility of this size.

This is not a full-service casino, as it has no slot machines or table games except for a few tables of faux poker. However, it does host simulcast dog and horse racing in two rooms alongside and in the back of the poker room. There is a small grill/bar at one side of the poker room that offers snacks and appetizers, sub sandwiches, burgers, chicken tenders, salads, and a couple of dessert options. Beer and wine options are pretty limited, but there are some decent whiskey options as well as a few other spirits.

Creek Entertainment Gretna Poker Room Comfort

The Creek Entertainment Gretna poker room is small with 11 poker tables and four faux poker gaming tables. It is a non-smoking facility.

The tables are well-spaced, the room is a bit dim (although the tables are well-lit), and there are high ceilings. The beige/brown decor in this large square room is inoffensive. There are TVs on all four sides of the columns in the center of the room, and a wall of small TVs behind the registration counter. None of the TVs were huge, so it is a bit difficult to see from many seats at the tables.

The chairs are the strangest I’ve seen in a card room. They are fairly comfortable with wheels on the front legs only (odd feature #1) and thick padding. But they are not adjustable, and the lowest seats to the ground (odd feature #2) that I’ve seen at any poker room.  The tables seat eight players and currently have plexiglass dividers both in front of and between players.

The tables feature auto-shufflers and padded rails, but no drink cups or USB ports. The room is quite clean, as are the tables. The chips are very clean. Some even look a bit worn from the cleaning process. The cards are not branded and have small faces.

Poker Room Staff

The front desk and floor staff at the Creek Entertainment Gretna poker room are low-key but polite. I was put on a waiting list when I registered, but got a seat within 10 minutes and the floor gave me my pick of seats as three had opened at the same time. My first dealer was very fast and skilled, as well as gracious and polite. The second was slower and a bit cranky at times. There was one waitress serving this small room and she seemed to be doing a decent job. However, she seemed more passively moving through the room, not asking each table if anyone needed anything.

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Players at Creek Entertainment Gretna Poker Room

Players at the Creek Entertainment Gretna poker room represented a variety of ages and ethnicities. There were three or four women playing in the room also. Play, however, (like the chairs) was a bit disjointed and strange. While there were certainly limped pots, the fairly standard opening raise in this $1/$2 game was $10-$15, generally with at least a couple of callers. 

In one hand there was a pot-size flop bet and call on a straighty draw board. Both players had missed, as the bettor had an open-ended draw and the caller a gut-shot (which won with king high). The guy to my right was in nearly every hand. This included limping once without looking at his hand as he stacked chips from his previous hand, then blind calling a $15 raise. He also snap-called a $45 all-in on a flop (with $40 in pot), when all he had was a gut-shot straight draw.

Players tended to be very quiet and serious but polite. The room, in general, was fairly subdued, but what banter I heard seemed congenial.

Cash Play Activity

There were 4 $1/$2 tables running on the Saturday afternoon we played at Gretna. A $5/$5 PLO table also started shortly after we arrived. According to PokerAtlas, on weekday nights they get 1-2 tables of $1-$2, and sometimes a PLO table. On weekends, Gretna generally gets 2 to 4 tables of $1/$2, and again occasionally a table or two of PLO.

Tournament Structures

There are no regular tournaments running at the Creek Entertainment Gretna poker room at this time.

Overall Assessment of Creek Entertainment Gretna Poker Room

The Creek Entertainment Gretna poker room in a remote area of Florida is a decent little poker room without a lot of bells and whistles. The room is well-kept and the dealers were a typical mix for a free-standing small room of this sort.  The atmosphere of the room was somewhat subdued however, players seemed a serious and not very talkative. The play was similarly a bit uninspiring, marked by lots of passive play with highly questionable calls. If you happen to be on Route 10 in Florida, Creek Entertainment Gretna is a very convenient stop to take a break and play a few hands. Definitely not a destination room, but a solid experience overall.