Information about the Choctaw Casino in Durant, OK. Zero poker hand information.

Me and a buddy went up to Durant, Oklahoma this weekend to check out the casino there. We'd been to Winstar and wanted to see what the Choctaw had to offer.

Durant is pretty easy to get to from Austin. Just go up I-H 35 and go on the east branch and then take 75. It's slightly farther than Winstar, but not by much. There wasn't much traffic on Friday morning when we left, so we made good time. Took about 4 and a half hours to get there.

The casino has an attached main hotel and an Inn. The main hotel is pricey, over $100 a night. The Inn is attached by a walkway and $90/night. We booked a room at the Microtel (now called Magnuson) that is just across the parking lot from the casino. Rooms there are $80 a night with a variety of discounts. All these prices are before taxes. Our room was $88 after tax. There are also rooms in town for about ten dollars less.

The Microtel was a great deal. It's very close and you can easily walk to the casino. There is also a free shuttle that will pick you up as needed. The Inn is attached by a walkway on the side of the casino. And the main hotel is on the far end with an interior hallway.

The poker room is way in the back. It's on the second floor and right next to the buffet. There is a nearby diner/cafe called Blue Moon and that's open all of the time. Pretty okay food.

The casino has lots of slots and table games. But because of Oklahoma laws, they cannot use dice for craps or a ball for roulette. They run the games with cards instead. They charge a rake for all of the table games. Superficially, all of the games and slots look like the "real" thing. But they are different in that the slots are like scratch and win lottery tickets instead of the lotto.

The interior is very nice. Lots of marble and wood. Reminds me of a nice, mid-level Vegas casino.

The poker room is non-smoking and pretty quiet. There are 14 tables in the main section, 4 tables in the high limit section, and 12 tables on the side that are used when there is overflow and for special games. Drinks are not free.

You can get comps if you sign up for a player's card. It works out to be about $1/hour. We had problems getting our actual dollar value from the card. You can use your comps in any of the restaurants or the stores.

There were NO limit games running when we were there on Friday. They had 1/2 NL HE and 2/5 NL HE. They had a 1/2/5 PLO8 half and half game. They had some other games for higher stakes. I didn't get the details for those games. Overall, it seems like a more "serious" poker room than Winstar. In other words, people are there to play poker and find bigger stakes and are not casual, "drop by" types.

There is a series of tournaments running now and those games are held in the ballroom that is downstairs. This may have influenced the poker room.

While there, about 15-18 tables were in play at the various stakes. I tried to start a limit O8 game, but for some reason the front desk put me off on that idea. They suggested that I start the list for the 4/8 limit HORSE game. That game runs at night and is usually populated by dealers. It's not actually HORSE, but a set of five games that's chosen by the players. I didn't get to play it, but talked to regulars about it.

The buy in for the 1/2 NL HE game is $100 to $300. There was an interest list for 1/3 NL HE where the buy in was up to $400 (I think). The drop is 10% to a max of $5 with a jackpot drop of $1.

The tables all had automatic shufflers. The dealers were a mix of skills. No one was really bad, and most all were pretty good.

You can get drinks from the waitstaff or grab a soda at the self serve station. There is a bathroom in the poker room area. The lights were a bit dim in that they were not pointed at the center of the tables for some reason and were skewed to the side. If you side on the left side and against the wall, there is a problem with glare off of the cards.

The jackpot was incredible tough to hit given their rules. For Omaha you needed Quad Tens beaten by a Straight Flush. For HE, you had to have quads beaten. They usually have a "Mini Jackpot" that is easier to hit, but that was suspended during the tournament run.

The players seemed more saavy than those at Winstar. At Winstar, you get a bunch of young collegiate guys, but they were in shorter supply at Choctaw.

Summary - TL;DR

Choctaw is classier looking but not as large (30 tables), as busy, or as loose as Winstar. The room is more comfortable, the lodgings are cheaper and closer, and it's a bit farther than Winstar from Austin.

I would have to agree with you on everything except the quality of play there, i think the players at Winstar are better, at least in my experience, i feel like there is more loose play here. AT Winstar, all ive run into is a bunch of nut hunters, and old regs that know what they are doing, Choctaw has a good mix Regs, and gamblers, and some donks. Ive only had a couple of winning sessions at Winstar, and ive never had a losing session at Choctaw. Dealers, front desk people, and floor people are a lot friendlier at Choctaw than at winstar. It seems like if they dont know you at Winstar, then you are a nobody, at Choctaw, its the complete opposite. Sure its a longer drive for me too, but well worth it.

Oh, and ive stayed at the Microtel thats nearby, id rather stay at the Inn any day, i was not impressed with that place. But the front desk chic has a nice rack, and even flirted with me while i was there.

I know a lotta people here say Winstar>Choctaw, but for me, id have to disagree

Thanks for the report, OP. I have heard (roughly) the same from my relatives in Dallas.
Therefore, I will stick with the Winstar when I am in the area.

As for the slots, I believe you're half correct. There are some slots that act as lottery style (bingo, keno kind of slots). These are referred to as the Class 2 gaming slots. They are scattered throughout the slots area.

There are also Class 3 gaming slots which are your normal slot machine.

The 1-2-5/2-5 plo8 game is the softest most valuable game ran at choctaw. The tournaments are better than winstar but as for cash play id say its a little looser at choctaw.

I just noticed there was no specific thread about Choctaw Casino in Durant, OK in B&M.

Thought I would open the thread with a gripe about how Choctaw was doing their must move tables last weekend. They had six 2/5 games. One game was designated the main table and every other table was a must move. When one person left the main table they moved one person from the second must move to the main table. Then a person from the third must move moved to the second must move. Then a person from the fourth must move moved to the third must move and so on. It was a never ending string of moving.

A lot of times when someone told they were moving they just picked up their chips and left. This ended up breaking tables. Enough people griped that they changed it so when there is four 2/5 tables three of them will be designated "main" tables with the additional tables as feeders. But on Sunday night they had three full tables. One main and two must move. Rather than just have the last table feed into the two tables you had to must move to the must move table and then to the main.

Whenever someone at the first must move was told to move to the main after they were just told to move they picked up their chips and left. So, it ended up breaking another table because people were tired of moving twice in an hour or two. (Literally one person left the main--the next up on the first must move didn't want to move so he left. Then the next on the list left as well as the next person. The fourth person moved to the main and they went to move three players from the second must move. This took the third table from 8 people to 5 so they just broke.) So rather than having three 2/5 tables, one feeder and two mains, Choctaw's policy broke a perfectly good table with this policy.

There was quite a long thread on Choctaw a while back. I have been out of town so I haven't been checking the forums either. Sure do wish I could have made it back this month for the games.

To your comment....Yea, that does seem ridiculous. I usually play there every Friday night and most of the time they are only spreading one or two 2/5 games so having a must move is necessary. With all the Tournament action they are not used to having as many players and apparently not adjusting as they should.

The manager there is very experience and well respected. I am surprised he would let it go like that.

I have been on Monday Nights to the Choctaw a few times and I am curious how this compares to the weekends?

Also, does anyone now exactly how to compute the comp system for your player's card at Choctaw?

$1/hour for the comps.

Monday is slower than the weekend, but busier than the rest of the week due to the cash drawings they have for playing Fri/Sat/Sun.

Thank You beachtrader.

Also, is there a way to see how much money in comp's you have accumulated, or are you just supposed to keep track of the amount of hours you have logged?

Can the comp dollars be used for anything related to the property or are there limitations?

They refuse to tell you how much you have in comps. They can see it on the computer but will not let you know. It's an absurd rule.

As for using it throughout the property I believe so. You just get a written comp and then take it to the place you want to spend it.

Thanks for all the help man. Seems like all of the dealers are nice and good at what they do. However when I first walk up to the front desk they seem annoyed that I am there. I mean I get it, you hate your job like everyone else. Or almost everyone else. Anyway I just see no reason why this poker room is not more successful than it is. It has decent traffic, but it could be so much more.

Hopefully the last question I have to ask, but do you get the written comp from the poker room? It just seems like they want you to spend more money than you have in comps, good business model I guess? lol

Also this,

If the action is looser at the choctaw then I am afraid what many are saying is ture. the games are drying up a bit. I had 3/8 players at my table last visit wearing headphones. 1 had on headphones and was reading a book. This does not bode well for a 1/2 NL I would think.

Front desk must have had a bad day. They smile each time I come up.

Ask the front desk about the comps. They used to do it there but I've been told they can't anymore and it moved to the customer service center downstairs.

As for tournaments I have not met anyone who says Winstar has better tournaments than Choctaw now. Choctaw's Saturday Noon tournament is one of the best raved about tournaments around. That being said I do not play in them, this is just what I hear from people in Dallas and from what I have seen on Saturdays.

I hears a rumor the 2/5 games were NFND. Can anyone verify?

I'm officially dumb - what does "NFND" stand for?

No flop no drop.

That is true. Although, the games have been pretty wild the last two weeks and I have only seen 2 or 3 chops in my last 30 hrs.

A pot one pre flop and a chop are two different things. I am refering to action preflop such as a raise and a reraise and a fold with no flop. Does choctaw rake in theses situations? Do they take a BB drop if there is no flop?

Im personally more of a Winstar player, mostly because it is my comfort zone and it is closer. I enjoy the action alot more at Winstar mostly because they spread more tables at all times. However, when it comes to tournaments Choctaw is the nuts. Winstars tournaments, even the bigger buy ins are not advertised as turbos but that is what they are, if you get lucky enough to make it deep, you will be lucky to have 10+ big blinds. Choctaw has wonderful structures even for the dailey's. I have played at more tournaments at Choctaw this year than Winstar, mostly because of the WSOP but everyone of them have been great, even the 130 Sunday is a good structure for a buy in of that size.

no they do not take the BB drop, some still do cause its still kinda new, but if you catch them you just tell them and they wont

Thanks for the info. I dont live in the area anymore but i have relatives there and will make that my new poker destantion when I am in town.

Sorry, I only thought of chops when I read "NFND". But yea, either way no drop.

Heck, I am finally getting called enough when I 3 bet that I don't have to do it as often.

Yes I must have caught them on an off day. The last two times I have been this particular gentleman has been very helpful. I retract my statement. Also I would like to add, all of the dealers have been very good and patient with the players. I really like the Choctaw wish I could make it here even more than I do, I also wish that more people knew what a great card room this is.

Starting tomorrow the rake changes at Choctaw.

The rake will be 4 + 2. First promotional dollar dropped as normal. Second dropped at $20.