Possible she was watched by a thug winning a large sum of money playing slots. (I'm guessing she was playing slots and was noticed winning a stash.) Followed back, on foot, to her hotel and robbed. The murder might've been out of panic. But anyway, if you are staying at a hotel, such as the Microtel, where you have to walk out to the garage and drive back, it is not likely you'd be followed by car and ganked.

Yes the Microtel is a good option, I've stayed there but was dismayed when the room was supposed to have a refrigerator as advertised, but sadly no rooms actually have fridges. Also the Food Lion is right next door for cheaper eats than casino.

I found another news article that said that she and her husband had driven back from the casino and were going from the hotel parking lot back into the hotel when accosted. It is extremely unlikely that she was followed from the casino. It does seem a little strange that they drove since the Fairfield is right across the street from the casino, but the article said it was raining and that is why they drove (or maybe they were driving around the area and drove to the casino parking garage because it was raining, and then had to drive back to hotel across the street).

The woman was confronted in the hotel parking lot at about 10 PM and the perpetrator tried to take her handbag, and she resisted, and he shot her and left. She was with her husband. Sounded like it may have been right after she got out of the car and her husband was on the other side of the car. They were only in Cherokee for one night on their way back to Indiana. There are a lot of trees and tall shrubs on two sides of the parking lot were he could have been hiding for a long time waiting for someone, and it is not very well lit at night IMO.

I have stayed at the Fairfield Inn about 6 times, and have reservations in another 10 days from today, but not sure if I am going now.

What a tragic and angering story. The husband must feel horrible. I hope they catch this lowlife. Chances are they will because he can't be too bright.

As gruesome as this sad incident is, you can't place blame on Fairfield nor Harrah's nor the town of Cherokee. It was a random act of extreme violence in an otherwise safe and quiet little casino town. It would make sense for Harrah's to spare no expense to assist the tribal police though. I always carry a knife and keep a 9mm in my car when I travel to casinos.

Hope they catch and fry this scumbag.

It really bothers me when casinos have unattended parking lots like Cherokee.

Security everywhere inside the casino if someone tries to steal $5, but make their customers park in a dimly lit lot 1/4 mile away.

South Florida is particularly egregious.

I wouldn't let this one incident frame Cherokee as it's obviously a fairly safe location, but if your choice is a 4 hour drive with a $300 hotel room, or being murdered at a reasonably priced hotel room the choice is an easy one. Stay home.

I don't think the casino owns or has any association with The Fairfield Inn brand of hotels in which the incident took place.

Very sad.

I had an incident where two guys saw me get a decent payout at cage from a tournament and followed me to my vehicle. Luckily I was able to get in and takeoff before they could get too close to me. It was a very eery feeling though. Didn't happen in Cherokee.

I wonder if cash games are going to SUCK again this Friday. Poker room was almost deserted last Friday.

Cherokee's don't own the hotel, but I believe it is on the Cherokee Indian Reservation land, so I presume they have some lease agreement, as opposed to outright ownership of the land by Marriott. I would think that Marriott is primarily responsible for security, along with the Cherokee police department from a government point of view, just like any city or county police.

Here is some additional info from news stories on the web:

Sometime before 10 p.m., they headed toward their hotel, a Fairfield Inn & Suites barely 200 yards from the casino. But as they stepped out of their car, a man in dark clothes and a dark mask grabbed for Barbara’s purse.

She struggled with him for a moment, refusing to hand it over. John, her husband of 50 years, came around the car to her aid.

By then, Barbara, 76, had fallen to the ground, and John, 75, would soon follow. The masked attacker had her purse.

Initial information suggested that the couple might have won some money and the attacker was looking for a big score. But Jamie Preidt [Barbara's son] said that wasn’t the case.

“They had not won big,” he said.

http://www.indystar.com/article/2012...polis%20News|s

Update on Cherokee fatal shooting:

http://www.citizen-times.com/article...text|Frontpage

How was the action on Friday nigh? How many tables? Seems it's been off the last couple months. Is the PLO still running strong on Saturday? Haven't been in about six weeks my self. Maybe the live card action is taking some of the money out of the poker room. Thoughts...

Posted via Harrah's Cherokee FB page. "NFL ticket today in the Essence Lounge! Who will you be cheering for today?"

Friday Night action:
1/2NL - 5 tables at 8PM
3/6L - 1 table started for 1st time at 8:30PM

IMO Live cards in the poker room is not going to be this boon everybody is expecting. I still think people expect 1/2NL to have Live cards and that is not going to happen. The jury is out on 5/10 Limit having Live cards. The 3/6 game is slowly dying. Limit is dying a slow death and I dont know why. The first 3/6 game starting after 8PM is strange.

Question for Cherokee PokerPro players...

We have another room running a .25/.50 PLO game that seems to be growing in popularity.

Thoughts on that game? Want? Don't Want? Min/Max's that would be best for for game?

p.s. not talking about Cherokee persay, as they of course make decisons on what to spread up there, thus is just general market research but since this is most active thread with PokerPro tables, just wanted to get some feedback.

any thoughts would be most welcome.

I kinda like the idea, a .25/.50 table would be good for people like me. I've only dabbled with PLO but I enjoy playing and lower stakes would encourage newer people to play. Theres no way I'm going to sit down for hundreds of dollars when my PLO game is nonexistant compared to NLHE, so this would create a way to still play the game without it being stressful.
Min Max maybe 35/70? or just 30/50.

.25/.50 PLO would be great. I would play that game. It would make too much sense for Cherokee to spread that game. IMO it will not happen there.

how many runners in Sunday tourney?

around 35. decent for first time running

Min: $50
Max: $200

This is one of the issues I am trying to get a handle on. 50/200 was about what I thought game should be and where we started. But this is pretty deep for .25/.50 blinds.

Purpose of the game is to encourage new PLO players to give the game a try. When we lowered min/max we saw a lot more new players. This is just in a single market so small sample size. Do you think such a deep game discourages new players?

No right or wrong answers. just asking for various opinions. Thank you all for the feedback. no 2+2 thread for other room.

Lot of negativity itt isn't helping, of course. I know I've been considering coming up on a Friday and staying through the Saturday tourn, but the posts itt make Friday sound like hell.

Glad this tourn was added though I missed this weekend.

$25-$100 might not be a bad place to start.

If Cherokee ran this, I would be much more likely to make the 3 hour+ drive.

If you keep the same buy-in structure as the other games, 50bb min/250bb max then $25/$125 makes sense. I think it would hurt both games. While the 1/2 game does play deep/big with stacks often being over 2k, many players buy-in for the minimum. Lots of the players at cherokee buy in for the min no matter the min/max buy-in. I have no interest in playing PLO with a bunch of $25 players. It would pull enough of the min buy players from the 1/2 game that it may not run. Saturdays are also busy, I'm not sure if you have enough tables to run NLH, Sit n GO, and two tables of PLO. Maybe .50/1 would be better with $50/$200 buy-ins. Generally I think it's fine the way it is. All tables are $100 min and I think that's an acceptable entry level for the games. Also with a $500 max you can sit at a table and play deep if that's what your comfortable with. It seems the room is slowing down which I hope is not a trend that continues. I have some complaints with Harrahs, more with the company than the poker room, which I think is ran well.

On a side note, how do you change your screen name on PokerPro? Also in an earlier post I was referring to the live card action(BJ, craps, etc.) maybe taking money out of the poker economy.

Saturday night was decent, but there was definitely a bunch of players at my table buying in for the minimum. Mostly new players or broke players. Made for a good night.

I like the $100 min but that probably keeps the traffic down a little. But a 0.50/1.00 game will probably hurt the 1/2 game. Maybe they could restrict the 0.50/1.00 game to one table, and impatient players might move up to 1/2.

The cashier downstairs can change your screen name. Maybe the cashier in the room can do it, too.