Choctaw Casino (Durant, OK)

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.