Cuong in Texas writes in with some beefs about a casino poker room in Oklahoma:

I was hoping you could shed some light on the Terrible Competence of Choctaw Casino. First, they lie about the numbers at the Choctaw Open, then will not publish results in Card Player, Etc or Send any other results to Poker groups on there Large Tournaments. I have contacted Managers and was told they were busy???WTF..Winstar always takes care of this quickly. I need results listed so my Investor can verify numbers. I will never play other Tournament at Choctaw Casino again. Please write a story on Choctaw so I can get others stories. Thank you,

Thank you … Can you tell us a little more about the numbers they supposedly lied about?

I do indeed have a story about Choctaw that I sadly haven’t finished writing yet. The last time I was there, I ran into Black James and his crew, who were extra-friendly with the poker room management. They took their seats at a 1/2 table (unable to convince us to play 2/5) and proceeded to remove more than half the money from the table in 45 minutes by doing a hyper-bet-collusion hit-and-run. That was obvious to me, and I suspect but can’t prove there might have been a little more than collusion going on when James’ no-look bet got an all-in reraise from my pocket queens and he pretended to be shocked to discover he had pocket kings.

Not at all suggesting Choctaw was in on any unethical behavior, but poker room operators were watching the action, so if they weren’t part of it, then what does that say about their ability to notice/put a stop to cheating. (James McDaniel, of course, is now back in prison for a parole violation connected to the deaths of a police officer and SMU coed.)

Anyone else have any Choctaw stories?

In the meantime, Cuonger, below are the results for the 2008 Choctaw Open, held last month in Durant, sent in by a fellow Pokeratizen:
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Aaron in Carrollton also writes in inquiring where to find a good low-stakes limit game to develop his chops:

I know this isn’t something you want to write about via email so you can text or call if you want, but I’m trying to find a decent limit ca$h game, maybe 2/5 or 5/10 limit. I’m going to Vegas twice next year (if the schedule lets me of course), once in January [...] and in the summer for the WSOP. But I need to primer my game here, so to speak, and really get better at a limit 5/10, maybe even 10/20 then go out there and see how I do vs. the better players.

I dont really want to go to card rooms since they’ve obviously been getting busted a lot, but shit maybe I have to, to get good. Let me know what’s up or who I should call, etc. Any advice on this? Thanks Dan.

Even though my first games I ever played in Dallas were 3/6 limit, really, as far as I know they are all gone now. Your best bet? Oklahoma. Or maybe Louisiana. I’m not positive of what they are spreading — but I am almost certain you can find a good 3/6 or 4/8 table at Choctaw, WinStar, and a few others to the North. Likewise for the Horseshoe and Eldorado in La.

Therese in Las Vegas Fairview writes in with her own report on the Choctaw Casino in Durant, OK:

Dear Dan,

I am so happy going to Oklahoma instead Louisana. I paid the $25 for the trip. One hour on the bus. Better than 4 or 5 hours. They gave me $20 cash & the Buffet $9 was free. Lots of machines. Very friendly. In an half hour played $10, $40 ahead. Of course I couldn’t stop. I could, but I couldn’t find the Bingo room. I did asked & the person didn’t know. Finally later I asked at the lobby, it was in another building. Next time (Mar. 3 another trip) I’ll play Bingo. I think I lost about $10. I’ll be able to go with Uncle Ray & Aunt Sue or Aunt Marcie & Uncle Bob.

Love, Grandma

Sounds like you had a fun trip, Grandma, despite the negative bankroll impact. Thanks for letting us know. I’ll mark my calendar for March 3, in case you need a ride. And don’t forget … Bingorati! … just sayin’ … I know people who can hook you up.

Re: Over the River and through the Woods

Tim in Plano writes in with an Oklahoma bustout story that begs the question, should it ever be possible to lay down Kings pre-flop when the Aces push on the third raise?

Oh, and he also lets us know that Choctaw (in Durant, OK) is now running some good $5/$10 Omaha (and $1/$2 NLO?):

—–Original Message—–
From: Tim B
Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2006 2:32 AM
To: danm
Subject: a sad poker tale of woe

first, let me describe the situation:

friday night, 9:30pm. jonesing for poker, i decide to meet some friends up at choctaw in durant. make the hour-ish drive, talk to the brush, and get on the board for some $1/$2 NL action. about 10 minutes later, im seated at a full table of 9 and buy in for the max ($200). about 4 short stacks (under $100) all directly to my left, 2 middling stacks ($150-$250) directly to my right, and two deep stacks ($500-ish and $600-ish) across from me. all things considered, a pretty favorable distribution.

i take my first hand from two off the button. im planning on being pretty conservative for the first several orbits while i get a feel for the opposition. i take my first hand two off the button, have crap, muck. repeat 7 more times…

then, the train-wreck:

8th hand. im on the cutoff. UTG limps, UTG-1 (with roughly $500) makes it $12 straight. this is the third hand he has raised to $12 pre-flop, nearly half of the hands ive seen so far. folds to me. i squeeze my cards and find two red kings. woo hoo! i kick it up to $35 to go. folds around to the original raiser, who announces “all in”.

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