Florida boasts the hottest tournament poker scene year-round, featuring monthly tournament series and popular daily tournaments at nearly 20 rooms statewide.
For Florida poker players, April is one of the most anticipated months of the year. Among several other events, the World Poker Tour heads to South Florida from April 13 through May 2 for the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown.
Other series lead into April, such as the RunGood Poker Series Jacksonville and Palm Beach Kennel Club’s monthly $100,000 guaranteed event.
More guaranteed events occur throughout the month, including another $100,000 guarantee at Seminole Hard Rock Tampa and smaller events at bestbet’s two locations in Orange Park and St. Augustine.
As for the rest of the month, the schedule is loaded with daily tournaments across the Sunshine State.
April 2023 Florida live poker tournaments
A handful of guaranteed prize pool poker tournaments will run in April, from Jacksonville to Hollywood and Tampa. Outside of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, the largest event runs this weekend at bestbet Jacksonville in the RunGood Poker Series $300,000 guaranteed main event.
WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown
April’s WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown is the largest of all SHRPO events on the calendar. The series, with over 60 primary events, culminates with a $3,500 WPT-branded main event with a $3 million guarantee on the prize pool. Other events on the schedule feature buy-ins ranging from $200 to $25,500.
Notable tournaments include:
- Opening weekend $500K GTD ($400 buy-in) from April 13-17
- Big Stack $150K GTD ($200 buy-in) from April 17-19
- $1 million GTD ($600 buy-in) from April 20-24
- WPT Showdown Championship ($3,500 buy-in) from April 28 – May 2
- Two more $1 million GTD events on April 30 ($10,000 buy-in) and May 1 ($25,500 High Roller)
- Numerous mixed-game events throughout the series
Visit the SHRPO website for a full schedule of events.
RunGood Poker Series at bestbet Jacksonville
The RunGood Poker Series is the three-time reigning GPI Mid-Major Tour of the Year winner for a good reason. Their series are known for some of the best atmospheres in poker, and as a result, they’ve gained a devout following of professionals and recreational players who follow the tour from coast to coast.
The “Checkpoint” series at bestbet Jacksonville began nearly a week ago. It kicked off a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool during its opening weekend. The full schedule contains 10 ring events and runs through Sunday, April 2.
Remaining ring events:
- Friday, March 31: 12 p.m. $300K GTD Main Event Day 1B ($1,200 buy-in)
- Saturday, April 1: 12 p.m. $300K GTD Main Event Day 1C ($1,200 buy-in)
- Saturday, April 1: 3 p.m. HEROS ($300 buy-in)
- Sunday, April 2: The bestbet 500 One Day NLH ($500 buy-in)
Day 2 of the Main Event also runs on Sunday. The final table will be live-streamed on bestbetLIVE’s YouTube channel.
Palm Beach Kennel Club $100K Multi-Flight Tournament
Palm Beach Kennel Club hosts a $100K guaranteed tournament on the first weekend of each month. The tournament has five starting flights across three days before play concludes on Sunday, April 2.
- Thursday, March 30: 11:15 a.m. Day 1A
- Friday, March 31: 11:15 a.m. Day 1B; 4:15 p.m. Day 1C
- Saturday, April 1: 11:15 a.m. Day 1D; 4:15 p.m. Day 1E
Players receive 40,000-chip starting stacks and 30-minute levels. Satellites run March 29-31 at 6:15 p.m. for $65.
Seminole Hard Rock Tampa One-Day $100K Guarantee
Seminole Hard Rock Tampa can hang with the best of them, running several branded Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open events each year to great success. The venue has also hosted WPT Main Events in 2021 and 2022.
With its sister property in Hollywood taking center stage for most of the month, Tampa will run a single-day $100,000 guaranteed event on Saturday, April 8. The buy-in is $500 with unlimited re-entries through the registration period.
The $500 buy-in event begins at 11 a.m., with 30,000-chip starting stacks and 30-minute levels. Registration closes at 3:30 p.m., and unlimited re-entries are available during that time.
Two more guarantees at bestbet complete the trifecta
In case you miss RunGood, bestbet has events later in the month at its other two properties.
The bestbet Orange Park G.O.P.O. 400 runs Saturday, April 22 at 12 p.m. It is a $400 no-limit hold’em event with a $40,000 guarantee on the prize pool. It is a one-day event with satellites on April 17, 19 and 21.
Further down I-95, bestbet St. Augustine will close the month with the St. Augustine Championship.
The “StAC” runs on Saturday, April 29, with a $300 buy-in and $30,000 guarantee. Satellites take place on April 25 and 27-28.
March Highlights from Florida poker tournament series
Seminole Hard Rock Tampa’s 12-event Tampa Poker Classic took center stage in March, featuring over $1 million in guaranteed prize money and $2,161,567 in total prize pools. The $1,700 Main Event nearly doubled its $500K guarantee, hitting $937,500 on its own and paying out $148,010 to the champion, Ryan Brown.
Eleven different players earned guitar trophies throughout the series. Main Event runner-up Fred Paradis was the only two-time winner in the series, taking down the opening event for $91,945 and a $1,100 NLH later in the series for another $36,510
Other winners in March included:
- Israel de la Cerda notched a career-best of $25,980 for his victory in the PKBC monthly $100K GTD.
- Thad McNulty took down Bestbet St. Augustine’s $100K GTD for $43,349.
- Brett Bader won SHR Hollywood’s Event #4 of the five-event Escalator Series for $80,000.
- Aaron Stefansky ($135,733) and Dmitry Savelyev ($134,347) made a deal to chop the final event of the Escalator series.
- Ja Hong Liu reigned supreme in the opening RunGood Jacksonville event for $48,495.
Florida daily poker tournaments in April
Poker rooms throughout Florida run smaller buy-in tournaments on a daily basis. We’ve included a list of rooms and their daily events below, though you can always call ahead and confirm a tournament will run ahead of time.
Please note that rooms may suspend daily tournaments during tournament series, such as this month’s WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown.
bestbet Jacksonville
- Monday: 7 p.m. $100 NLH
- Wednesday: 12 p.m. $100 NLH
- Friday: 12 p.m. $200 NLH
- Sunday: 12 p.m. $200 NLH
bestbet Orange Park
- Tuesday: 7 p.m. $100 NLH
- Thursday: 7 p.m. $100 NLH
- Sunday: 12 p.m. $200 NLH
bestbet St. Augustine
- Monday: 7 p.m. $600 NLH
- Tuesday: 12 p.m. $60 NLH
- Wednesday: 7 p.m. $100 NLH
- Thursday: 12 p.m. $60 NLH
- Friday: 7 p.m. $160 NLH
- Saturday: 12 p.m. $160 NLH ; 7 p.m. $100 NLH
- Sunday: 12 p.m. $120 PL Omaha 8 or Better; 7 p.m. $140 PL Omaha
Bonita Springs Poker Room
- Monday: 11 a.m. $125 NLH
- Tuesday: 6 p.m. $125 NLH
- Thursday: 6 p.m. $225 NLH
- Friday: 11 a.m. $100 NLH; 6 p.m. $130 NLH
- Saturday: 11 a.m. $200 NLH
- Sunday: 11 a.m. $130 NLH
Club 52
- Monday: 6:20 p.m. $60 NLH
- Wednesday: 6:20 p.m. $70 NLH
Derby Lane
- Monday: 11 a.m. $40 NLH; 6:30 p.m. $50 NLH
- Tuesday: 11 a.m. $50 NLH; 6:30 p.m. $125 NLH
- Wednesday: 11 a.m. $40 NLH; 6:30 p.m. $100 NLH
- Thursday: 11 a.m. $50 NLH; 6:30 p.m. $80 NLH
- Friday: 11 a.m. $100 NLH; 6:30 p.m. $50 NLH
- Saturday: 12 p.m. $125 NLH; ; 6:30 p.m. $800 NLH
- Sunday: 6:30 p.m. $50 NLH
Ebro Poker Room
- Tuesday: 6 p.m. $60 NLH
- Wednesday: 6 p.m. $120 NLH
- Thursday: 6 p.m. $220 NLH
- Sunday: 2 p.m. $400 NLH
Harrah’s Pompano Beach
- Tuesday: 6 p.m. $80 NLH
- Wednesday: 5 p.m. $250 NLH
- Thursday: 6 p.m. $80 NLH
- Saturday: 6 p.m. $130 NLH
- Sunday: 12 p.m. $400 NLH
One-Eyed Jacks/Sarasota Kennel Club
- Monday: 1 p.m. $100 NLH; 6:30 p.m. $45 NLH
- Tuesday: 1 p.m. $80 NLH; 6:30 p.m. $100 NLH
- Wednesday: 1 p.m. $60 NLH; 6:30 p.m. $100 NLH
- Thursday: 1 p.m. $40 NLH; 6:30 p.m. $60 NLH
- Friday: 1 p.m. $300 NLH; 6:30 p.m. $45 NLH
- Saturday: 1 p.m. $140 NLH; 6:30 p.m. $100 NLH
- Sunday: 1 p.m. $120 NLH; 5 p.m. $50 NLH
Ocala Gainesville Poker
- Friday: 6:15 p.m. $65 NL Pineapple
- Sunday: 3 p.m. $65 NLH
Orange City Racing & Card Club
- Monday: 7:10 p.m. $125 NLH
- Tuesday: 7:10 p.m. $155 NLH
- Thursday: 7:10 p.m. $105 NLH
Oxford Downs
- Monday: 6:15 p.m. $40 NLH
- Tuesday: 12:15 p.m. $55 NLH; 6:15 p.m. $65 NL Omaha 8 or Better
- Wednesday: 12:15 p.m. $40 NLH; 6:15 p.m. $125 NLH
- Thursday: 11:15 a.m. $100 NL Omaha 8 or Better; 6:15 p.m. $55 NLH
- Friday: 10:15 a.m. $30 NLH; 7 pm. $160 NLH
- Saturday: 12:15 p.m. $55 NLH; 6:15 p.m. $60 NLH
- Sunday: 6:15 p.m. $55 NLH
Palm Beach Kennel Club
- Monday: 12:15 p.m. $125 NLH; 6:15 p.m. $100 NLH
- Tuesday: 12:15 p.m. $130 NLH
- Wednesday: 12:15 p.m. $100 NLH; 6:15 p.m. $125 NLH
- Thursday: 12:15 p.m. $100 NLH; 6:15 p.m. $130 NLH
- Friday: 12:15 p.m. $130 NLH; 6:15 p.m. $500 NLH
- Saturday: 12:15 p.m. $250 NLH; 6:15 p.m. $100 NLH
- Sunday: 12:15 p.m. $150 NLH
Seminole Coconut Creek
- Monday: 11 a.m. $100 NLH; 6 p.m. $200 NLH
- Tuesday: 11 a.m. $130 Limit Omaha 8 or Better
- Wednesday: 11 a.m. $130 NLH; 6 p.m. $130 NLH
- Friday: 11 a.m. $100 NLH
- Saturday: 10 a.m. $130 NLH
- Sunday: 10 a.m. $100 NLH; 6 p.m. $100 NLH
Seminole Hard Rock Casino Hollywood
- Monday: 6 p.m. $150 NLH
- Tuesday: 11 a.m. $150 NLH; 6 p.m. $150 NLH
- Thursday: 11 a.m. $150 NLH; 6 p.m. $130 NLH
- Friday: 11 a.m. $150 NLH; 6 p.m. $150 NLH
- Saturday: 11 a.m. $150 NLH; 6 p.m. $130 NLH
- Sunday: 12 p.m. $150 NLH
Seminole Hard Rock Casino Tampa
- Monday: 11 a.m. $80 NLH; 6 p.m. $180 NLH
- Tuesday: 11 a.m. $80 NLH; 6 p.m. $180 NLH
- Wednesday: 11 a.m. $150 Limit Omaha 8 or Better; 6 p.m. $180 NLH
- Thursday: 11 a.m. $150 NLH; 6 p.m. $180 NLH
- Friday: 11 a.m. $150 NLH
- Saturday: 11 a.m. $250 NLH
- Sunday: 12 p.m. $200 NLH
Silk’s Poker Room/Tampa Bay Downs
- Monday: 1 p.m. $55 NLH; 6 p.m. $150 NLH
- Tuesday: 1 p.m. $55 NLH
- Wednesday: 1 p.m. $55 NLH; 7 p.m. $65 NLH
- Thursday: 1 p.m. $65 NLH
- Friday: 1 p.m. $55 NLH; 7 p.m. $65 NLH
- Saturday: 1 p.m. $110 NLH; 7 p.m. $80 NLH
- Sunday: 1 p.m. $55 NLH; 7 p.m. $65 NLH
The Casino at Dania Beach
- Tuesday: 6 p.m. $130 NLH
- Thursday: 2 p.m. $60 NLH
- Friday: 6 p.m. $100 NLH
- Saturday: 2 p.m. $100 NLH
- Sunday: 5 p.m. $130 NLH
