sometimes the weirdest and unexpected things are what brings in the most money

 overall, i hadnt been doing too well the 3 weeks ive been staying at Choctaw, and the nicest thing about being here was no transportation is needed to get back and forth to the casino, since im living on property for about $425 a week. (thru the poker rate, although now my cost per week has been lowered, since im finally receiving 2 free nites a week thru my non poker play, and Bill Potts is paying half the costs of the room). but for the most part, the games suck in the poker room. too many pros, too nitty, and im just not a good 6 max player. weird since this casino isnt subject to any state gaming laws or regulations, being a soveriegn nation unlike all the other non indian casinos in OK, which would be under the gaming commissions regulations. so why they do 6 max ive no idea. its not like the virus is actually around making people sick, or we wouldve heard about it by now. there would be local news stories all over dallas about people getting sick from visiting Choctaw if so. 

and i find it difficult to even make money during the hours of 5-10 am monday thru friday, when they give u $25 an hour for playing, (or being in the poker room on the list waiting for a seat). 

this blog has long been needing updated, so im doing it this morning while im washing my laundry (thank God theres a guest laundry in the hotel) and ive finally got some news to talk about. other than the fact my tooth is getting in worse shape. the one i didnt have pulled when i only had one done that day in march and the dentist said i should either then or in the next 3 months. Houston charges too much at their dentist office. only vegas was reasonably priced. 

ive put in a lot of points on my card in the 3 weeks ive been here. about 120,000 points. and about half of them is from poker, and the other half from playing the VBJ machine, which is why bill potts is here. its been figured by Bill Potts that it will give u $99.86 without counting, plus the 20cents back on your players card in freeplay, which brings it over 100 percent. and added to that is whatever u gain by making the big bets and the small bets at the correct times. ive never seen a vbj with such good rules and though im not down on it overall ive still had some bad sessions. there are no APs on it because they are not willing to trust anything in an Indian casino to be honest. 

so that means ive got a lot of tier points, and the drawings in this place (where a random player currently on a machine anywhere in the casino with their players card inserted and actively playing) on various days and times, i finally got called yesterday. people with more tier points have more entries and a better shot. 

so first i was put into a slot tourney where only 10 enter, and 9 of those 10 receive $125 in free play, and one person gets the entry into the tourney at 6pm where u are guaranteed $1000 or higher. 

i got very lucky to win the shootout, so i was guaranteed at least $1000, and i was to return in an hour for the finals. and then in the finals, i took second for $5000. first wouldve been $10,000, third wouldve been $2000. and last place in the finals is still $1000. it had only 10 people in it also. 

thats not where u would expect almost one third of my entire net worth in life to come from would u now? but that puts me back to 17k slightly above it. 

sad thing is it means ive got a 3rd w2 in the last 2 months. i asked if i could get it in free play instead but they dont do it. 

i really shouldnt stay here as lousy as the poker games are for action, but my room costs are really low now. but i need to get my teeth fixed. and i want to be where i can find looser action. im worried i might drop a lot on the VBJ and Bill Potts will drive me to the closest bank of america atm in texas today, which is about 20 miles away but google maps is often wrong on this. it claims bank of america atms exist in shreveport and once u investigate u find out they havent been in operation in years there. same way with toledo ohio, Ray and i discovered that too. had to go up to michigan to deposit. 

all i know is when i have too much cash on me like i did when staying and playing at the eldorado shreveport after the hurricane, thats when i have all the big size blackjack losses. 

some of the players and some of the dealers are assholes here too. they will either refuse to chop, make a big issue about adding $20 to my stack and claim its a short buy, when the floor said it isnt as long as it brings my stack to over $100 or is already over $100. if i only had $50 and it brought it to $70 then it would be disallowed. a short buy is only when u are broke and u only receive 1 for the whole day and then it must be at least $50.

one dealer who said he was going to quit his job and go back to construction really made a big deal, and believed an asian guy who lied the other day who told him id originally sat with $50 when i sat with $100 and my stack had slowly dwindled to $50. and he is the same guy who never ever tells me thank u although ive seen him tell others when they toss him $1. most of the pots are so low with $1 auto taken out for the jackpot u cant tip, and so i tip more on the really good pots. 

never once seen Jason C here who moved from vegas to texas, or cdizzy11. 

whats good and whats not good about Choctaw casino durant.

 Good

1. when u go to the cage at choctaw poker upstairs, u can also get rid of slot tickets. most places require those only to be cashed at the main cage, so that helps when buying or cashing in chips, doing it all together and especially if a ticket is all someone has left who wants a rebuy. 

2. the button straddle is not allowed in games smaller than $2-5. only the UTG straddle

3. hotel rooms are available (and include a refridgerator and microwave) for $49 weekdays, $99 weekends and holidays. without getting in 5 hours of poker, rooms are $139 weekdays and $319 on weekends. so its critical to not quit without being sure u have 5 hours properly credited. 

4. the promotion of $25 per hour 5 hours a day, 5 days a week is worth $125 times 5 for $625 a week if u time your sleep schedule correctly. u can even get paid while waiting for your seat if theres none open for quite a while. which surprised me. 

5, there is a VBJ machine (which offers other games too) made by a manufacturer called NOVO flying blackjack id never heard of them before, they mostly sell overseas and were around in 2009. its a much better vbj than the ones in shreveport. they pay 3-2 $2 minimum $500 max, and stand on all 17s. u can split more than once, and it shows u when it shuffles at the halfway point of an 8 deck shoe. i would bet u herbie knows about it but never wanted to tell me. u get points too on both that machine and the craps machine but very little, only 10c back on every $100 coin in. 

6. people in the poker room get free bottled water and coffee. the casino is way more willing to give it out when u lose to other players and not the house. 

7. the gift shop sells burritos and chicken burgers for the microwave and they have a gas station in walking distance too. also they sell soup for the microwave in the gift shop. and on weekends its 24 hours. 

Bad

1. no phone chargers underneath the seats. 

2. the shuttle to durant hotels is no longer running, and i was lied to by their social media person (DM) on facebook. the host office told me that they discontinued it when i was asking about going to walmart and back. 

3. there is never ever an uber or lyft driver nearby, no matter what u find on google search or facebook. closest drivers to get me out of here are in like denison, sherman or gainesville TX, quite a ways off. and the walmart in durant is almost 6 miles on google maps. too far to walk regardless of the fact google maps claim its less than a 2 hour walk. 

4. the games are nitty and tight as hell especially during the promotion in the early morning. none of the dealers are making anything, and a lot of them are former winstar dealers. and if the flop is seen even on a $5 pot, $1 comes out. some dealers take it if u steal the blinds and claim they are supposed to in games under $2 5 NL. although most just let it go and push u the extra $1.

5. the vbj on the other side of the casino in the nonsmoking section is $1 min and shuffles every hand. no way to beat that one. and usually its a lot easier to get a seat there too, but id rather play the better one in the smoking section. the one in nonsmoking hits soft 17 too

6. people losing big money to the house downstairs cannot get bottled water without paying $3. only tap water. 

7. the buyin structures arent that good. the $100 minimum is way too high in the $1-2 (when almost all rooms elsewhere such as florida, reno, and detroit and atlantic city had much smaller buyins). and the $400 cap is too low in the $1-3 NL. the reason the casino does this is so there will be no difference between the $1-2 and $1-3 NL games and not having a difference causes way less table changes between $1-2 and $1-3 saving the staff a lot of hassle.