Seabrook Poker Room Seabrook New Hampshire

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SEABROOK — When Nevada-based Eureka Casino Resorts purchased the worn and tired Seabrook Park in 2019, the new owners vowed to breathe new life into the 75-acre property and 90,000-square-foot. See 13 photos and 2 tips from 345 visitors to Seabrook Greyhound Park and Poker Room. 'Looks huge and fun' Casino in Seabrook, NH. UPDATE July 15, 2020.

* NOTE: Seabrook poker room has been sold and is under new management. Please see our updated review of the GreyHound Casino and Tavern at Seabrook Park *

New Hampshire, for such a small state, boasts a remarkable number of bustling poker rooms. While it does not have a single large casino, there are multiple vibrant charity card rooms. Poker is the primary focus of these rooms, although each has a few table games as well. Even more striking: two of the largest poker rooms in New Hampshire are a mere two miles from one another! I have reviewed the Hampton Falls room already, now I’ll take on its bookend, the Seabrook Poker Room.

Our Life as Seabrook Poker Room Regulars

Seabrook poker room was our go-to poker room for about 3 years. Mostly because it has a weekend tournament that fit our schedule and budget. The $50 tournament starts at 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays. For such a cheap buy-in, 20 minute blinds with a starting stack of 15,000 chips is a bargain. Or, at least it seemed so. The 4:00 tournaments generally last about 6 hours, although they devolve quickly at the end to shove fests resulting in multi-way chops. But what could you expect for $50?!

Seabrook hosts more tournament than cash action. A couple of cash tables are usually going in the late afternoon and evening on weekends. However, the cash game volume pales in comparison to Chasers and Hampton Falls just up the road every day of the week. As I write this on a Tuesday evening, there is 1 table running at Seabrook with no waiting list while Hampton Falls has 5 tables and waiting lists for both $1/$2 NL and $2/$4 limit games.

There are a number of excellent floors and dealers at Seabrook. Although there were a few weak spots, personnel were generally friendly and skilled and created a laid back environment. A wide range of personalities play at Seabrook, and the staff there made all feel welcome. Another plus is that the food is remarkably good. Nothing fancy, but Seabrook offers really good pizza and chicken quesadillas, and a number of other solid options.

The Times, They Are a-Changin’

In addition to poker and table games, Seabook hosts simulcast racing. Go there on a Triple Crown event afternoon, and you’ll wade through hundreds of eager folks playing the ponies. Rockingham Park in Salem, which also hosted poker and simulcast racing, closed in 2016. Seabrook then became the only option for those who want to bet the ponies or dogs in the state.

The poker players from Rockingham also needed to find new a new home. Salem is about half an hour from card rooms in Nashua, Manchester, and Hampton Falls/Seabrook. Nashua had recently added the Boston Billiards Club and Casino cardroom into an existing pool hall and The River poker room moved to Nashua. Players from Rockingham gravitated towarad rooms based on convenience or the type of atmosphere and play they preferred.

Leaking Roofs and Poker Quality

Seabrook always had quirks. During a heavy rain, trash cans caught water that would drip through the porous roof, although the cardroom proper stayed dry. Suffice it to say, a stroll around the facility with stained and missing ceiling tiles and a trash can obstacle course was not scenic. But for a time, that seemed part of the rugged charm of the site.

Seabrook also has one of the widest ranges of poker player quality I have seen. There are a few good skilled players, a fair number of rocks who would never bet unless they had a monster, and a wealth of bad players. The bad players range from loose aggressive maniacs to loose passive players who see gold in every gut shot draw. For a time the balance was good, with plenty of players to take advantage of, but enough stability to feel you weren’t just playing bingo.

However, Rockingham’s closure fed many more wild players into Seabrook. In fact, some of the new players put the old maniacs to shame. Suddenly at the 50/100 blind level players would open for 3,000…blind…UTG. This had the dual effect of goading the existing maniacs to greater heights and pissing off the rocks and solid players. Tournaments became free-for-alls. Seabrook always hosted a set of cranky older players and a few explosive young men. With this new dynamic, it felt like Seabrook needed more security guards at the ready. Although we don’t play a lot of cash, those games seemed to follow suit and became crazy, loose games of raw machismo.

Competition from other sites continues to burgeon. In Salem, a new room, Chasers, opened in late 2017, filling the cash play vacuum left by Rockingham. Of course, there are only so many experienced dealers and floors to go around. All of these rooms have drained some of the best talent from Seabrook. During our waning days as regulars, the ratio of poor to good dealers just got too high. There were too many slow and mistake-filled blind levels. Pair that with conflicts between the old and new guard of players, and it just become unpleasant. A shame, as we still have an affection for the place and some of the people.

• Comfort
• Tournament Structures
• Personnel

Summary

Seabrook is a small charity poker room in New Hampshire with some solid tournament options, but little cash action. The facility is aging rapidly and the players tend toward the wild. However, the food is excellent and the dealers are generally friendly and welcoming.

Seabrook Poker Room Seabrook New Hampshire Rentals

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UPDATE: As of June 2020, Seabrook has rebranded itself once again as “The Brook” now that they have finished their next round of renovations. They have also absorbed many of the staff from the recently closed Hampton Falls Poker Room. It is rumored that once tournaments return to The Brook, they will incorporate some of Hampton Falls’ most popular structures as well. We will update our review once the current health crisis has passed.

The old Seabrook Park poker room needed a facelift like no other poker room in New England. Seabrook’s glory days had passed long ago, and the physical plant was crumbling down. From a roof that leaked even when it wasn’t raining, to chairs that felt like torture devices, Seabrook poker had seen better days. Earlier this year, new ownership came in and immediately announced plans to renovate the building. Unlike most construction projects in New England, their “immediately” actually meant “now”, and their initial timeline lasted weeks, not years.

The renovation is still ongoing, with the next wave scheduled for August 2019. Tournament poker will ultimately move to the other half of the building, next to the racing simulcast. However, the first wave is complete, and boy, what a difference. Out of the ashes, the Greyhound Casino & Tavern at Seabrook Park has risen. We have banished our old review of Seabrook Park poker to the archives, now irrelevant. We will update the current review once Phase Two renovations are complete.

Casino Setting

Seabrook Park is conveniently located less than a mile off Interstate 95 (exit 2) in New Hampshire. The site housed live greyhound racing before it was banned in New Hampshire and still features indoor stands facing a long abandoned track. There remains a very active, simulcast racing area (the last remaining simulcast site in New Hampshire). There is a massive parking lot out front, so finding a space is never an issue. The exterior remains pretty humble and worn, but belies the quality of the new poker room inside.

If you are wrapping poker into a wider experience, Seabrook Park is just a few miles from several of the largest beach communities in New Hampshire. About 20 to 25 minutes north on 95, you can enjoy one of New England’s best small cities, Portsmouth. Or you can head a bit inland to one of our favorite towns, Exeter. Finally, just up the road is another New Hampshire poker room, Hampton Falls Poker.

Seabrook Park Non-Poker Amenities

The cash poker area features several blackjack and Mississippi Stud tables, a roulette wheel, and about 12 stations of electronic table games. The current cafe style “tavern” has been completely refinished with a nice faux wood floor, several high-top tables and seating around the bar area. In a nice touch, the tabletops are embedded with old Seabrook Park poker chips. The beer options have been significantly expanded and improved with the addition of nice IPAs and regional microbrews. Seabrook Park fortunately retained its long-time cook who makes some of the best card room food we have experienced. While we have not eaten from the redesigned menu (which has a nice range of reasonable price options), other patron reviews are mixed.

The simulcast racing room is always hopping on weekends. Several poker players split their time between race betting and intermittently playing their hands.

Seabrook Park Poker Room Comfort

The 12 table Seabrook Park tournament poker room’s physical transformation has been phenomenal. From a broken down and uncomfortable environment, the room is now warm and inviting. The room features subdued but rich paint and rope-wrapped columns. The new cartoon “classy greyhound” logo provides a playful effect. Rooms are carpeted and currently in great shape.

The tournament area used to have the bright, institutional halogen lighting that made you feel like you were in a carpeted high school cafeteria. The new recessed lighting in the sloped ceiling creates a softer tone (some complain it’s too dark, but we liked it). The tournament chairs are better than in the old room but not great in terms of comfort. Tables sit close together and ten handed play feels pretty tight around the table. All felts are brand new, although the chips remain the same. There are several small TVs mostly featuring racing.

Greater attention has clearly been paid to the cash poker side of the house. There are about 7 cash tables sharing space with the tavern and game table area. The cash chairs, while not adjustable, are well-padded. New tables offer drink holders and USB ports. Large TV screens play various sporting events, and there is a lot of energy in the room in general.

Seabrook New Hampshire Map

Note that you can no longer eat food at the Seabrook Park poker tables. While inconvenient for some, this rule will help preserve the quality of carpets and felts. Seabrook offered a small $10 all-you-can-eat buffet (coconut shrimp and mac-and-cheese the day we visited) during the first 15 minute break. Of course, it is all-you-can-eat in 15 minutes, so hardly a relaxing dining experience.

Poker Room Staff

One of the reasons we stopped playing at the old Seabrook Park room was the uneven quality of dealers. Dealers also rotated far less often than in other rooms. If you started with a bad dealer, sometimes you were stuck with that person for almost two hours. Seabrook Park did and does feature some excellent dealers, but the ratio of excellent to weak had slipped. Fortunately, Seabrook Park’s transformation appears to have prioritized retaining the best dealers. These skilled dealers are also among the best poker people we have encountered. During our most recent visit, we did not encounter a bad dealer in the bunch. Polite and attentive wait staff at Seabrook circulates frequently.

The one downside of Seabrook Park’s current staffing lies with floor personnel. While some are excellent, others are very inattentive, particularly during tournaments. During two recent tournaments, calls for the floor were ignored while multiple floors chatted among themselves. At one point we were well below the number of players required to break the sixth table, with multiple tables being down several players. However, the table break did not occur until the end of the next break, with players scrambling for their new tables as dealing resumed.

Players at the Seabrook Park Poker Room

The players at Seabrook Park encompass a wide range of both age and ability. They tend to be tight passive or loose passive. Most players are long-term regulars, so a sense of familiarity and camaraderie predominates. Seabrook Park also features a number of “characters” – most very pleasant and entertaining. However, a contingent of players who seem to be miserable playing poker frequent Seabrook as well.

Tournament Structures

Seabrook Park offers a couple of weekday tournaments (Tues/Thurs $60, 20 minute blinds, 16,000 chips, no rebuy/reentry). However, the tournament mainstays have always been the late afternoon tournaments on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. All three of these tournaments feature 20 minute blinds, 15,000 chips, and no rebuys or add-ons. While the Sunday tournament remains $50, the Friday and Saturday games increased to $75. The price increase has resulted in decreased turnout. The Saturday 4pm tournament regularly topped 100 players last year. Recently 60 to 80 players appears more typical.

The former Friday and Saturday evening tournaments $40 entry/$40 rebuy/$40 add-on doubled to an $80/$80/$80 format which has also dampened turnout. Likely these increased buy-ins are smart economical choices for management – more rake per person with less dealers needed – but many long-time players are clearly not fans. Tournament rakes are set at the state-mandated 20% (part of which goes to charity). While a 20% rake may not seem great to some, they are nothing compared to what we encountered in South Florida.

Cash Game Activity

Seabrook Poker Room Seabrook New Hampshire Map

The Seabrook Park Greyhound Casino poker room remains at the lower end of cash poker activity compared to its immediate New Hampshire competition. Weekdays offer at most 1 to 2 $1/$2 tables, and rarely anything else. Saturdays, typically feature 2 to 3 $1/$2 tables. Hampton Falls and particularly Chasers (about half an hour west in Salem, NH), offer much more cash action.

Overall Assessment of the Seabrook Park Poker Room

Seabrook Poker Room Seabrook New Hampshire Restaurants

We admit to an emotional component to our embrace of Seabrook Park’s rebirth. Despite its former challenges, Seabrook was our first regular poker room. We feel great affection for many of the dealers and other players. When the dealer quality declined and Seabrook’s other challenges became more glaring, we sought other options. Kudos to the new ownership for Seabrook’s rapid transformation.

The Seabrook Park facility has come far from the fading relic it was just a year ago. The environment and playing experience have been enhanced immeasurably. With consistently strong dealers and a warm, inviting physical environment, Seabrook Park should now be more competitive with other New Hampshire rooms.

• Comfort
• Tournament Structures
• Personnel

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Summary

Seabrook Poker Room Seabrook New Hampshire Nh

The Seabrook Park facility has come far from the fading relic it was just a year ago. The environment and playing experience have been enhanced immeasurably. With consistently strong dealers and a warm, inviting physical environment, Seabrook Park should now be more competitive with other New Hampshire rooms.