Oklahoma Poker Report

Rake

2005-04-26T19:14:00.000-07:00

The tribes in Oklahoma pay the State about 10% of the 10% they charge the players to run the games. Year to date: That comes to about $853,000 for Oklahoma and $7.7 million for the tribes.

We should have three more card rooms opening here in May.

Thunderbird Takes Off

2005-04-17T19:56:00.000-07:00

Casino hold’em started on the 11th of April just east of Norman. By Friday night,it was really rocking. I forgot to count exactly but it looked like the room had fifteen tables with every table full and waiting lists several hours long on Saturday. The $2/5 No limit game is definitely the most popular game going. They were spreading two limit games as well ($4/8 and $3/6). This is by far the youngest crowd of any of the Oklahoma rooms with the highest percentage of females playing too.

Thunderbird Squawk

2005-04-02T13:04:00.000-08:00

I called the Lucky Star in Concho today and they said that they had no idea when poker would be starting. I’m sure I can get better information than that if I call back at a different time.

Meanwhile, Thunderbird Casino east of Norman says IT will be central Oklahoma’s biggest poker room. They plan to open it in two weeks.

And the Comanche Nation is training dealers to open its second room in Lawton soon. The Chickasaws are training dealers in Davis for the various rooms (Thackerville, Newcastle, Marlow) that they plan to open soon.

The Bad Beat Jackpot is approaching $40,000 at Red River and everyone at a jackpot eligible table will get a split when it is hit.

No Limit Rules

2005-03-19T03:53:00.000-08:00

Things are running smoother now at the Red River Casino. The progressive bad beat jackpot is over $24,000. There is still some confusion on whether it will pay 40% of the jackpot to the remaining players at the table or whether all the players at jackpot eligible tables will get a cut. I hear it explained differently each time I ask. The one man there I thought I could rely on for information like this has left the operation. On weekdays, there is often just one limit Hold’em table running ($4-8) and several small-ante no-limit games. On weekends there may be as many as three $4-8 tables. But there is not enough interest in getting higher limit games going.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the rooms near the Oklahoma City area will be like. I like the $6-12 and $10-20 limit games in Catoosa but it is just too far for me to drive on a regular basis.

Progress

2005-03-04T16:22:00.000-08:00

They’ve got their 35 tables running smoothly in Catoosa. I never really thought I’d see a poker room this nice in Oklahoma. Red River is still running on limited hours. They are supposedly up and running south of Durant and in West Silom Springs. I haven’t been to either of these rooms. But it appears that the Chickasaws won’t have poker until May. So for Newcastle, Ada, Chisolm Trail and Winstar it looks like a couple months until poker is going. Most of these places do have a commission blackjack game going. The Lucky Star in Concho says it should have poker near the beginning of April.

Building a Pot

2005-02-20T08:42:00.000-08:00

I’ve been sitting in the $4-8 limit game at Comanche Red River Casino and getting raked an extra 11.11 cents every hand with no chance of winning a jackpot. You see, they forgot to mention to everyone that they aren’t even paying jackpots yet. They are just “building the pot” . . . at my expense of coarse. And yes, that extra dollar (total of $6) taken out of every pot has significantly effected my earn rate. Fool me once— okay I was the sucker. But, I live very close to this place and will probably play poker around 8 hours a day for the rest of my life. They lost my business.

So, when they finally post the jackpot, it's likely some guy that’s been playing $100 max buy-in no-limit and contributing nothing to the bad beat, will collect my contributions. If you are going to play there, be aware that getting a seat or information (say about the jackpot) is harder if you’re not in the right circle. I had asked for details about the bad beat everyday and people skirted the isssue or lied about it. My take is that the room is filled with members from the area’s poker community (on staff and playing) who are still learning how to go legit.

Durant Poker on February 23

2005-02-15T03:09:00.000-08:00

The Choctaw Casino near lake Texhoma should start poker on February 23. I don’t know how big of a room it will be but I hear that there are already 7 tables set up.

Red River Casino in Devol could double the size of its cardroom if it had the dealers to do so. Ten tables are going in the evenings. Half the room is No-limit holdem with maximum buy-ins and the other half is $4-8 limit holdem. The $10-20 game seems to have broken for now. They will need to hire and train many new dealers just to expand their hours. They open at noon at everyday and close at 11:30 on weekdays and 1:30 on Weekends. The skills of the dealers they do have are somewhat lacking.

Five More Oklahoma Tribes Approved For Poker

2005-02-10T23:09:00.000-08:00

The Choctaw, Chickasaw, Quapaw and Citizen Potawatomi Nations and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe are the latest to have their gaming compacts with the state approved.

There are now nine tribes eligible to offer tournament-style card games and faster electronic machines that include video poker. Eight other tribes are still waiting for federal approval of their gaming compacts.

Dealing Poker in Devol

2005-02-08T22:09:00.000-08:00

The poker room is open from noon to 11:30 P.M. this week at Comanche Red River Casino. Waiting lists start at 11 A.M. They had only planned to launch three $4-8 tables on Tuesday. But as these were easily filled a $10-20 and a No-limit table with $1-2 blinds and $100 maximum buy-in were opened.

They are still building on the room that looks like it will hold around 20 tables. The proper chairs for the tables are on order. Bad seats, a shortage of chips, heavy smoking and the inexperienced dealers made it a quite challenging, yet profitable, first session for me. I'll probable opt to spend more time in the smoke-free card rooms of competitors myself.

They are raking a maximium of $6 per hand on the $4-8 games and $5 on the $10-20 and No Limit games. They don't count the bad beat dollar as part of the $5 that the sign says is te maximum? Anyway there was no bad beat jackpot offered on games other than $4-8, making the rake on those game comparable to other places except you get no jackpot. You have to have quads beaten in a $4-8 game to snag a bad beat on the Comancheria.

Noon Start in Devol

2005-02-07T17:37:00.000-08:00

They’re not giving out many details on the phone, but I expect Mardi Gras might break out at Red River Casino with the start of poker. All I know is start time is 12 P.M. and I expect some suprises. I will not be surprised to see a 5-hour waiting list though.

As of early Monday morning in Catoosa, they are still giving out hats for four of a kind, a wind-breakers for a straight flush and leather jackets for royal flushes. The bad beat is still set liberally and the pool is always $2,000.

There are 12 tribes seeking to expand their gaming offerings in Oklahoma. Most want to add vegas -style slot machines, but poker is going to make the State's initial revenue projections look modest.

Poker in Devol on February 8

2005-02-02T01:43:00.000-08:00

Comanche Red River Casino is planning to start their poker games next Tuesday. For directions see: http://comancheredrivercasino.com/

I just got back from Catoosa and it really didn’t matter what day or hour of the day I played the waiting lists were long for the first week of action. 9 A.M. is probably about the best time to get there if you don’t want to wait too long.

Cherokee Casino is giving out player’s cards but they aren’t set up to give out points for play yet. When they do get it going you will be able to use your points like cash for partial or full payment in their restaurants, lounges, gift shop, hotel and golf course. See their website at http://www.cherokeecasino.com/.

More Tables At Cherokee Resort

2005-01-30T23:23:00.000-08:00

I played at Cherokee Resort Casino from 1 - 7:30 P.M. I think they had a total of eighteen games when I left. They plan to expand to 35 tables soon. I had about a thirty-minute wait to be seated. But by 5 P.M. it was taking people a few hours to get a seat.

All of the the rake was still going toward the player’s pool (bad beat jackpots). I’ll probably play one more session to get a feel for what the weekdays will be like before heading for home. Possibly, I'll be able to post some information on their player's club and hotel amenities tomorrow. I've handed out a few cards as I go hoping that players that I have met might e-mail with reports in the future.

Long Waiting Lists For the Start Of Oklahoma Poker

2005-01-29T15:49:00.000-08:00

Quotes off the AP lead me to believe that there would be 35 poker tables waiting for me at the Cherokee Resort Casino in Catoosa. Had this been the case, I estimate the waiting for a table would have only been about an hour and a half. They did have 12 tables running. They spread one game of stud, a no-limit hold’em with a minimum buy-in of $200 blinds of $2/5, a $20-40, a $10-20 and several $4-8 limit hold’em tables.

I think a dealer shortage appears to be reason that they couldn’t start more tables. They do have their own dealer school and are hiring and have plenty of room for them. One player, who I was talking to in the one-hour line just to get on the waiting list, told me a story from opening day. It seems on Thursday they were putting tables together. Drilling and putting in the shuffling machine and what not, as soon as one was built, they would call 10-players to start a new game.

On Friday, all the rake was going to the badbeat jackpot. And the badbeat was set so liberally that I saw two hit in the three hours that I played. Any aces full beat by quads or better is all it takes. I’m sure that will change. But get it while it lasts!

Poker Starts in Catoosa

2005-01-28T01:00:00.000-08:00

Four tribes had their compacts published on Thursday. Among them (Cherokee Nation, the Comanche, the Absentee Shawnee and the Miami Tribe) , it looks like the Cherokee were the most prepared to start the games.

Cherokee Resort and Casino in Catoosa Oklahoma was scheduled to start dealing poker at 5 PM on Thursday 1/27/05.

Cherokee Casino in West Siloam Springs will try to have their poker tables going by next week.

Comanche Red River Casino has started setting up the gaming tables today. They say poker should be up and running by the second week in February.

I have no information on the others whose compacts were published today. But, I do know that the Chickasaw and Cheyenne/Arapaho are planning to offer poker as well.

Start Of Blog

2005-01-27T01:37:00.000-08:00

As I am having the idea to start this page, poker in Oklahoma really does not exist leagally. But maybe as soon as this weekend the first public Texas hold’em games will be dealt at an Indian gaming facility near Tulsa.

I know of six others that plan to start running poker games by Spring. And amongst the 78 or more other Indain Casinos already in exisience in Oklahoma, I’m not sure how many are going to have poker or how many new casinos are going to be built with poker rooms.

I believe I’d like to know about every legal game being spread in my home state. And with this page I aim to turn that desire into a conviction. Thus begins a quest to discover and stay on top of this explosive growth of poker in Oklahoma.

If you live near an Oklahoma Casino and know something about what’s going on there. Please shoot me an E-mail. I’d appreciate information like: How many tables? What types and limits of games are spread? What are the hours of operation? Do they have a tournament schedule? How long are the waiting lists at certain hours? What kinds of comps are available? I’d like to post it all!

I plan to visit them all too and report what I see.