So I mentioned that I went to Oklahoma for my high school reunion. I’ll get to that another time. Right now, I’d rather talk about playing poker in Oklahoma. In the past, I’ve visited Oklahoma for one of four reasons: recruiting, visiting family, visiting friends, or because I have a craving for 3.2 beer. Recently, Oklahoma legalized table games in the Indian casinos, including blackjack and poker.

Given that I was driving right by the Winstar Casino on my way to OKC, I had to make a stop to check it out. Winstar, if you’ve never been, is an odd looking “casino”. There’s a reason they don’t have pictures of the outside of the place on their website, because it looks like a cross between a grain silo and a circus tent. Not really an appealing sight. But when you’re 5 hours (driving) from Louisiana and a 3 hour plane ride from Vegas, you can’t really complain.

The inside of the casino is much nicer than you’d expect. The place has doubled in size since I was last in there and the overall feel of the place is now more “casino” than it was last time. Last time I felt like I was in the cheap casino that the Griswolds went to in Vegas Vacation. You know, the one with rock/paper/scissors and “guess what number I’m thinking of”.

As for the poker room, it’s about 15 tables and though not particularly well run, they did a decent job. As far as odd player sightings go, I saw Amarillo Slim cashing out as I was getting in. I assume he was playing the $5/$10 NL Hold’em game. As for the dealers, there were some dealers that were pretty good and others that were downright terrible. On one hand, the dealer (as well as the other 8 people at the table) called the wrong hand, almost giving the pot to a guy with a flush, when there were two pairs on the board. The “loser” of course, had made a boat. The dealer had actually started to push the pot to the flush guy, when I informed him that the hand he had just mucked was a full house.

I’ve been torn on calling hands that I’m not in. It’s definitely ok in home games, but at casinos, a lot of the time I feel like people should take care of themselves. But then again, if I help someone who can’t call their own hand, there’s a pretty high likelihood that they’re going to be giving me that money later. In this instance though, I called it for one reason only: I really hated the guy with the flush. I generally have a high tolerance for new poker players; I think it’s not only rude, but also silly to taunt people who aren’t good at the game. I want them to have a good time and (hopefully) lose their money to me. It’s a win-win situation. Unfortunately, this guy was a pain in the ass and he had to go. Not only did he not know the rules, he was constantly muttering under his breath at everyone at the table including me (as if I couldn’t hear him, since he’s sitting right next to me).

Anyway, as far as the play goes, it was for the most part a weak-aggressive game. A lot of people saw the flop, but were quick to fold when I bet into them. I got stuck early on when I had aces, kings, and jacks torn up by a flush, trip 3s, and two pair. There was one hand that is worth mentioning. It’s been haunting me for the past few days. It went a little like this.

In late position, I get dealt Ac-As. UTG raises, UTG+2 calls, I three-bet, BB calls, UTG caps, and everyone calls. Flop comes out Ah-2d-10d. UTG bets, UTG+2 raises, I three-bet, BB folds, UTG thinks about it for a while and folds, UTG+2 caps, I call. So now we’re heads up. Turn is 10c, UTG+2 bets, I raise, he calls. River is 10s. He bets, I call.

At this point everyone at the table is excited and standing, since this could quite possible be a bad beat jackpot winner. I turn over my AA for aces full of tens and UTG+2 turns over K-10 off suit for the four of a kind. The entire table explodes, thinking we’ve hit the bad beat jackpot. People are screaming and patting me on the back and I’m apparently the only one that’s listening to the dealer (who happened to be a really good dealer) who is explaining that it’s not a bad beat because UTG+2′s kicker doesn’t play (since there was an ace on the board). Very frustrating. Even more so because everyone thought I won the bad beat jackpot, instead I just got killed by an inferior hand. How much was he dominated by? Let’s head on over to CardPlayer.com Poker Odds Calculator.

UTG told me he threw away 2-2, showing that he read my hand pretty well on the flop.

So the hands are:
UTG: 2-2
UTG+2: K-10
gustavo “the unlucky bastardo”: AA

Preflop odds:
UTG: 17,8%
UTG+2: 13.5%
me: 68.8%

Flop odds:
UTG: 4.5%
UTG+2: 5.8%
me: 89.7%

Turn odds:
UTG+2: 2.3%
me: 97.7%

Now I hate really hate bad beat stories, but I had to tell this one just because everyone in the place continually reminded me of it. One particular guy at my table re-told this story to everyone who came by multiple times. It’s now permanently burned into my head. In the end, I had a good night at Winstar. I ended up winning a little over $100, so it wasn’t a bad night, but the $20k bad beat jackpot, would have made my night much sweeter.