Red River Rumble

On the second weekend of October, the Texas-Oklahoma football game took place at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. These teams historically have a great rivalry. However, this year Texas was ranked No. 2 in the nation at the time they played, and they trounced Oklahoma 45-12. That same weekend, the Cherokee Casino and Resort in Tulsa hosted the Red River Rumble, a poker contest between Oklahoma and Texas, which I attended. This match was a much more competitive event; the Okie poker players proved to be a lot tougher than the Okie football players! Let me tell you all about it.



The event was organized by my friend Bobby Sadler, who works for the Cherokee Casino chain in Oklahoma (there are now five Cherokee casinos). Indian casino poker was legalized, along with blackjack, by a vote of Oklahomans in 2004, and the Indian tribes have wasted no time in gearing into action. After the vote passed, the tribe built a magnificent hotel, and a casino that contained 35 poker tables, nearly all with automatic shuffle machines.



It is not unusual for poker to take a back seat in casino planning. However, poker is highly regarded by the Cherokee Casino. First of all, there are fewer casino games to compete with it for space than in a casino located in a place like Nevada or New Jersey, where games such as craps and roulette are legal. Second, poker is booming these days. Third, the top executives at the Cherokee Casino realize that the game should be evaluated by more than just casino bottom-line income, and that it is a valuable marketing tool for any gambling establishment.



The weekend of the Red River Rumble, a group of Texans in a specially chartered bus from Dallas, plus a few who traveled on their own, arrived at the Cherokee Casino. Three special poker events were held: a Texan-Okie match comprised of heads-up play, a celebrity match between two Texans and two Okies, and a $500 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament to end things on Sunday. There also were some nice non-poker events, such as a golf outing on Friday and a tailgate party during the football game on Saturday. There also were plenty of cash games to play, including $2-$5 blinds no-limit hold'em, $10-$20 limit hold'em, $10-$20 Omaha eight-or-better with a full kill, and $5-$10 blinds pot-limit Omaha with a straddle allowed. In this last game, which was my favorite roosting place, the big winner on Saturday hauled in at least 15 grand. Of course, there were also many smaller poker games from which to choose.



The Texas-Oklahoma poker contest featured a starting field of 16 players on each side in heads-up no-limit hold'em matches, with victory going to the state whose player won the event. The semifinals came down to two players from each state (which Sadler and Card Game Director Rick O'Connell were happy to see). The finalists were Norman Hays from Texas and Robert Sanders from Oklahoma. On the key hand between them, Hays flopped a set and Sanders a straight. The board failed to pair, so Sanders won the event, and also the match for Oklahoma.



I was the referee in the poker celebrity contest, which was two heads-up matches conducted simultaneously. Texan "Team Captain" Amarillo Slim played against Oklahoma Johnny Hale, with Texan "Co-Captain" Ray Wolford matched against Berry Johnston of Oklahoma. Slim was the 1975 world poker champion and Johnston the 1986 world poker champion.



The Johnston-Wolford match was the first to conclude. The key pot was exciting. The players got all in before the flop with Berry holding A-10 and Ray 9-9, a close contest, with the pair a slight favorite against the overcards. An ace came on the flop, putting Wolford down to two outs twice, about a 10-to-1 dog. A blank came on the turn, but the last card was a 9, which won the match for the Texan. In the other match, Slim lost a big pot when he put Hale all in on a flop of Q 6 2 while holding the J 8 against Hale's A-6 (middle pair). This gave Johnny a 9-to-1 chip lead, but Slim clawed his way back into the match with aggressive play and eventually won.



Sunday's $500 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament was won by Mark Hight from Tulsa, netting him a trophy and $12,875 in prize money. The runner-up was Ray Wolford of Dallas, who earned $9,875.



During the Texas-Oklahoma football game, the casino was very generous with us. Every time someone scored a touchdown, the casino had a drawing, and five poker games in the cardroom were selected to have $100 put into the pot at each table on the next hand. For a field goal, two tables were selected for this $100 bonus to the players. Once it became obvious that Oklahoma was not going to win, most of the Okies in the cardroom started pulling for Texas to run up the score! It turned out that there were seven touchdowns and three field goals scored in the game, so the casino shelled out a total of $4,100 to the players. This handout was not a one-shot deal for the Red River Rumble, as the casino offers this promotion for every Monday Night Football game, plus the Oklahoma-Nebraska game. (I would love to see other cardrooms use this type of wonderful promo for us poker players – but I am not holding my breath.)



Having someone toss $100 into the pot in a $5 or $10 big-blind game is a good lesson in favorable pot odds greatly affecting the betting. (You guys who think that eight players tossing in $10 apiece to make an $80 pot creates a great gambling situation need to rethink, as there is no dead money in the pot and you have seven other players to beat.) Here are some hands that came up with $100 added by the house to the pot before the cards were dealt.



My initial encounters with the $100 added came while playing in a $2-$5 blinds no-limit hold'em game. In the first hand, I held J-5 in the cutoff seat. The pot was raised to $25 and there were several callers. Of course, this hand is a pig, and I would fold it quickly under normal conditions. But here, with good position and enormous pot odds, I called. The flop was a pretty good one for me, J-7-4 rainbow, giving me top pair. The first player went all in for $50, and two players called. I elected to raise $200 more, and my opponents folded. However, the all-in player had a bigger kicker, and his hand held up, so my efforts were wasted.



The next time an extra $100 was added to the pot by the house, I had A-7 offsuit in early position. Should I call or raise? (Folding was out of the question, as there was now $107 in the pot and it cost only $5 to play.) I decided to put in a small raise, since my hand would be happy to thin the field, so I open-raised for $35. There were two calls, and then a player in late position raised $400 more. I had to fold, and the other two players with live hands abandoned ship, as well. The winner flashed his cards, A-8 offsuit, while dragging in a nice pot. As can often happen in poker, he was bluffing with the best hand.



I had moved to the $5-$10 blinds pot-limit Omaha game for all the rest of the $100 house gifts. Since the advantage of a good starting hand over a mediocre one is much smaller in Omaha than in hold'em, the extra hundred bucks from the house built a huge pot every time. Here is an interesting hand from a sweetened pot: I had A-7-6-5 double-suited on the button. Three other players and I managed to get $300 apiece into the money-added pot before the flop, which came J-7-6 with a two-flush (not one of my suits), giving me the shaky hand of bottom two pair. The first two players checked and Bruce Holt bet $1,300. I had only $1,370 in chips left, so I decided to go all in. I thought there was a decent chance that my hand was the best, and that Bruce was either drawing or being aggressive with top pair, so I called and then went all in. I would not have done this except for being able to go all in for about one pot-sized bet. Randy Hailey, the first player who checked, now came over the top with a $4,000 raise, which Bruce reluctantly called. It turned out that I had the only made hand, as Randy had the nut-flush draw plus a gutshot, and Bruce a big straight draw with a flush draw. But as luck would have it, the flush came, and Randy won a monster pot.



I did not win a single sweetened pot the whole day. However, I am still appreciative of the Cherokee Casino cardroom's generosity – and I did get a lesson in the effect of huge pot odds on the play of hands.

Bob Ciaffone has authored four poker books, Middle Limit Holdem Poker, Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Holdem Poker. All can be ordered from Card Player. Ciaffone is available for poker lessons: e-mail [email protected]. His website is www.pokercoach.us, where you can get his rulebook, Robert's Rules of Poker, for free.