The cards hit the air for the first time yesterday at two West Virginia racetracks as Wheeling Island Racetrack & Gaming Center in Wheeling and Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort in Weirton held the first of several practice sessions yesterday with real customers playing $20 sessions in which the rake went to charity.
Officials from the West Virginia Lottery Commission were on hand at both locations to make sure everything was running smoothly and all the security procedures the commission put in place were up to snuff. If they feel everyone is ready to handle the crush of a busy poker room, the rooms will be open for good starting Friday at 10 a.m.
Another practice session is scheduled for today.
The games spread at both rooms will be Texas hold'em, as well as Omaha and stud whenever demand dictates. They will be spreading limit and no-limit games starting as low as $2-$4 for limit and $1-$2 for no-limit. The rake will be 10 percent up to $5 per pot.
Daily tournaments at both rooms will eventually be spread, and World Series of Poker qualifiers will also take place, starting in January.
This summer, residents in the two counties where the casinos are located voted to allow the tracks to add casino games and poker. Immediately after the vote, Wheeling Island started building a 20-table poker room and Mountaineer began building a 37-table one.
Within a few weeks of the vote, West Virginia Northern Community College began holding classes to teach residents how to deal, and according to Mike Koon, the vice president for the school's economic and work-force development program, the poker classes were the first to fill up.
Koon said that everyone from recent retirees to young adults went through the program (poker classes are no longer available because the rooms hired just about everyone who went through the classes).
The school partnered with Atlantic Cape Community College of New Jersey to quickly offer the courses, which included classes on how to deal craps, roulette, and blackjack, as well as all forms of poker.
It will take at least two more months to spread the rest of the casino games.
