Poker Road Trips

I played a few hours at Cherokee Tulsa Saturday.  Played too long, ended up losing more than I should have because of it.  I’m to old to be playing more than about 4-5 hours but I ended up playing 8-9 hours.  I’ll never learn.

I’ve played here before, I like the room.

I’m not sure what the comp limits are but you can at least get a comp ticket for enough to pay for a sandwich.  Without a comp poker players get 20% off menu prices.

Espresso is available but you have to walk to the other end of the casino to McGills, the high end steak house.  A double espresso (to go) is $5.  You can probably get a comp ticket to cover that, but since I didn’t know what it was going to cost I didn’t get one  Next time I’ll get a comp ticket before I make the trek (It’s a long walk).  The espresso is pretty good though — lots of creme, tart but not bitter at all.

The 1/2 nolimit game has a max buyin of $200 which I think is a little too small.  And the rakes are high.  I think it’s $5 on $40.  But the games are good.  Saturday any game I was in was a good game.

Higher blind nolimit games don’t have a max buyin (I think, I only played 1/2 Saturday).

A tournament was going on and they spread PLO during tournaments (1/2, 2/5, 5/10, and 5/10/25) but I got there about noon and they hadn’t started any PLO yet so I got into a 1/2 NL HE and just stayed when they called my name for the PLO.

They are having a seniors event Monday and I might drive over for that.

Creek Casino is in South Tulsa, 81st and Riverside. 

I’ve been there before but not in a while.

They have a 9:30 am weekday tournament, $50 buyin.  I’m not sure how much of that is juice, I didn’t even ask.  They managed 4 tables.  Of course I was an early bustout and they didn’t have any side games going (it was almost 11 am when I busted out).

A double espresso is $1.75.

They have a morning drawing if you sign up at the slot card desk (you might need to be over 55, I’m not sure about that) at 11 am.  I didn’t win anything.

I like this room and I’m sure I’ll be going back.  It is usually low stakes — 1/2 no limit and 3/6 limit is pretty much it.

The last time I was in El Reno somebody asked me if I knew anything about poker in Ponca City (not far from where I live).  I didn’t, but have since seen a sign on hiway 177 south of Stillwater advertising hold’em and PLO being spread at Paradise Casino near Ponca City.  Ponca City is just a little bit north of Stillwater.

So, Monday night I took a drive up to Ponca City.  Paradise Casino is easy to find.  The table games room is not so easy to find, but I found it.  The casino is something of a maze, a former bingo hall with slots added, food added, everything with cheaply constructed building additions, kind of like a trailer house that has a bunch of sheds tacked on as extra bedrooms.

When I found the table games room (In Oklahoma the permits needed for poker are the same as permits needed for blackjack) there was no poker.  Half dozen blackjack tables and some slots.

I asked and was told they’re planning on spreading Texas Hold’em in mid-July.

Stay tuned, I guess.

Overall MGM properties aren’t doing as well as the stock market would like to see, but the Gulf Coast crown jewel of MGM, Beau Rivage in Biloxi is performing pretty well.

LAS VEGAS — Casino operator MGM Mirage said Thursday its first-quarter profit climbed 17 percent on strong results from its Las Vegas Strip properties and its Beau Rivage resort in Mississippi, but results missed Wall Street estimates and its shares slid more than 3 percent in early trading. 

Channel 23 in Tulsa used a feature story on casino security to announce an online forum on casino cheating