Choctaw Casino in Oklahoma: A Poker Room Review

Choctaw Resort and Casino located in Durant, Oklahoma, about 90 miles from the Dallas area, offers an 18 table room running 24 hours a day, seven days a week running limit and no limit Texas Hold 'Em.

The standard game at Choctaw is $1-$2 limit Texas Hold 'Em with a $1 to $2 blind. They run a no limit table if there are enough players with a buy in at $100. The house rake is 10% on all games. The table play here is pretty limited, but they offer 600 in free chips to anyone who plays at a live table at least three hours from a tournament.

Choctaw offers a full range of limit and no limit Texas Hold 'Em tournaments through out the week. They have a Shoot Out tournament every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday that goes twice a day at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. The buy in is $50 plus $10 kept by the casino for promotional expenses with blinds starting at $25. The chips start at $1,500 a player. The tournament has a maximum of 70 seats, but they rarely fill up.

Every Friday they run the TGIF No Limit Hold 'Em Bounty Tournament at 7:00 p.m. The buy in is $100 plus $15 for promotional expenses. There is a 70 person maximum. Players start with $2,500 in bonus chips, and earn a $20 bounty for each player they knock out.

Every Saturday and Sunday they hold The Rush tournament from 2:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Cash payouts are awarded to players based on their hands. 4 of a kind is worth $200. A Straight Flush receives $500, and a Royal flush receive $1000.

Choctaw also runs two monthly tournaments. The fist, a no limit Texas Hold 'Em tournament held on the last Saturday of the month at 11:00 a.m. The minimum buy-in is $225 with blinds starting at $25 and going up every 30 minutes. There is a 100 person limit and each player starts with $5,000 in tournament chips. The second tournament is an invite only Free Roll tournament. Invites are given out to the top two players in each of their tournaments for the month. The minimum buy-in is $100 with $25-$50 blinds raising every 20 minutes. The tournament has a guaranteed $10,000 prize pool.

The room is a small non-smoking area that is glassed off from the rest of the casino. For being small it is very spacious, and you can move around comfortably. There are limited cocktail waitresses inside the room and they only offer non-alcoholic drinks. Food can be brought upon request. Despite it's size and game play limits, Choctaw is the preferred playing room for many of the locals. For this reason, the room is typically filled with sociable players interested in chatting as much as playing.

Overall, playing at Choctaw is an enjoyable experience. The daily tournaments usually have a seat open, and the staff is friendly and accommodating.