June 2, 2008
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:
More…
Posted by
DanM at 7:10 am
May 24, 2007
According to his voicemail, James McDaniel was in Shreveport for the WSOP as police were looking for him. He said something about a satellite — so I dunno, maybe true, even though the current WSOP Circuit event was being held in New Orleans. But according to WSOP sources, he was not registered for any tournaments there.
OK, sorry … am burying the lede. Point of this post is that McDaniel, one of the more notorious figures in mid-stakes Dallas poker, was arrested last night at a University Park apartment. He was unconscious at the time (?) and transported to Parkland Hospital. More info here.
McDaniel’s arrest was not directly related to the death of SMU coed Meaghan Bosch, but was for parole violations and an alleged sexual assault in December 2005.
UPDATE: More detailed telling of this story here.
Posted by
DanM at 2:14 am
May 21, 2007
Police busted through the doors of another Dallas poker room on Thursday — this time not to round up a bunch of low-stakes misdemeanor offenders, but rather to serve a warrant on a convicted cop-killer wanted in connection with the death of Meaghan Bosch, the 21-year-old SMU coed whose lifeless body was found disposed of in a portable toilet last week.
Click here to read the kinda scary story by Jason Trahan in The Dallas Morning News.
James McDaniel, who ran what Dallas players knew as “James’ Game,” admitted to having lunch with Bosch around the same time she sent her friends a text message saying she was with her drug dealer, shortly before she disappeared. Not sure who conducted the raid on McDaniels’ poker room — the Texas Rangers are taking the lead on this investigation, not DPD — but he was not there, nor was he at his house in Pleasant Grove, and is now apparently on the lam.
So much more to this story … developing.
CLARIFICATION: McDaniel was convicted of killing an ex-Dallas police officer in 1978, not one on active duty.
TO BE FAIR: Sources of unknown reliability are telling Pokerati there may be evidence supporting claims of innocence for that crime. Hmm, a black man falsely convicted of murder some 25+ years ago in Texas? Yep, certainly plausible enough … just as it would be that an assertion of “didn’t do it” is a bluff.
Posted by
DanM at 1:28 pm
