I had a very pleasant surprise yesterday when I walked into the Isle at Pompano Casino poker room in Pompano, FL. It's a magnificent room, located on the second floor, well spread out, with a great atmosphere. I sat down with poker room manager Mike Smith who has been in the business 30 years, and with the Isles on and off for the last decade.

Mike started out as a dealer at the Silver City Casino in Las Vegas in 1978, moved on to the Union Plaza, Dunes, Flamingo, Sycuan in San Diego, and finally to the Isle in Vicksburg, MS. He has been with several Isle properties over the years and worked at the Isle in Pompano on three different occasions.

When I asked him what makes his room special, he was adamant about the fact that it's all because of his staff. He explained what a great crew he has, all the way from the dealers to supervisors, and I must say it was not only a relaxed surrounding but a happy one.

I was happy to bump into an old friend of mine, day shift supervisor Vinny Gatto, who used to deal when I was a shift manager at the old Seminole Casino. Steve Leone is on swing shift, and David Berman rounds out the relief shift.

The poker room is open 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. They are open noon to midnight during the week, and from 1 p.m. to 1 a.m. on weekends. The lively 38-table room stays full most of the day and night. I happened to be there at 1 p.m. and there were 25 tables going already. Mike told me they are completely full on weekends.

Their games are $1-$2 limit and $2-$4 limit with a three-raise maximum. No-limit games feature different blind structures, but the maximum buy-in for any game is $100. You can even reserve your seats online at PTseats.com, a service where you can sign up for tournaments at a specific casino without waiting in line at the poker room. Seventy percent of the games they spread are no-limit.

They also have heads-up tournaments with a $525 buy-in to win $1,000, as well as heads-up tournaments with an $840 buy-in where the winner takes home $1,600. Single-table tournaments range from buy-ins of $60 to $505. They also offer two bounty tournaments; one for $150 and the other for a $350 buy in. All are ten-player tournaments.

On October 3-6 they are running the Isle Open Deep Stack Tournament. It features a $900 buy-in with a $150,000 guarantee. The event features 60 minute rounds, and your buy-in gets you 20,000 in chips. This provides a lot of play for the money, and the event promises to be a lot of fun, with a great prize to boot!

The Isle also runs some great daily promotions. They have a $100 prize for a royal flush, as well as bad-beat jackpots for stud, Omaha and Texas hold 'em.

Monday through Thursday features a spin-to-win promotion, in which lucky players can win anything from a polo shirt to $599 in cash. There are two winners every 2 hours-one from the limit game and another from the no-limit games. They also have a full menu in the poker room where you can eat right at the table.

So go see Mike and the crew at the Isle Casino-Racing at Pompano Park. 1800 S.W. Third St. Pompano Beach, Fl. 33069 1-954-972-2000, ext. 5123 or 5124.

Donna Marks has worked in the poker industry on both coasts, as a dealer, in management, and as a player. She is Poker Player Newspaper's sales rep in the Florida area. Reach Donna at Pokerdonna@aol.com