Oklahoma: The home of Running Bear

“Anyone who would build a city five feet below sea level, in a hurricane zone, & fill it with democrats is a damn genius.”- Larry the Cable Guy

Oklahoma was nice but nothing compares to Drago's char-broiled oysters, stately oaks, LSU & New Orleans Saints Football, Sportsman’s Paradise, 100% humidity, Harrah’s New Orleans, Rock N Sake sushi, sweet tea, & southern belles. Louisiana may not be the greatest place on earth, but it is where I call home. Maybe one day I will move back to Baton Rouge or maybe even Lafayette where I can belong to a nice country club & get back into golf.

For what I had time to see, OKC was a nice place indeed. The food was different yet surprisingly good. I did have an opportunity to visit Cattleman’s Steakhouse which has been operating in the stockyard district of OKC for over 100 years. This is the same restaurant that was featured on the Food Network on their popular show Diners, Drive Ins, & Dives hosted by Guy Fieri & on Travel Channel’s Man vs. Food hosted by Adam Richmond. The food was phenomenal & you could not ask to get a better quality for the price. They are obviously able to provide their customers with value due to their volume & long lasting reputation. If you are ever in OKC, I highly recommend that you visit Cattleman’s Steakhouse. It may not be the most upscale but I highly doubt you will find a higher quality better tasting steak for the price they charge in OKC than Cattleman’s.

Although the food was good, the casinos & especially the poker economy was an entirely different story. First of all, most if not all casinos in the state of Oklahoma are owned by different Indian tribes. "Running Bear" does not offer craps or roulette. Go figure. However they do rake the table games at a rate of $.50 per hand in blackjack & other table games. That should have been a sign of things to come. The poker room in this particular casino was centrally located yet entirely sealed off from the rest of the casino & was a non smoking room, which is always nice to have. There are no slot machines ringing in your ears or second hand smoke you are forced to breathe in. The rake in the poker room was a 10% pot rake with a $4 max rake & a $1 jackpot drop per hand. However they do drop the small blind initially so there is essentially no chop when action is left blind vs blind & obviously no house rule against a no flop no drop since they immediately drop the small blind in a 1/2 no limit hold’em game.

This is where things just start to get interesting. First of all the games had a max buy in of $200 when starting a new game or not. Minimum buy in was $40 & these restrictions are included when buying back in. This was a major handicap in my opinion & if I had not been 500+ miles from home or would have had a vehicle, I would have went elsewhere. This was supposedly the best games in OKC metro area, so I did not bother. The 2/5 games which I did not have the bankroll with me or have in general at the moment dictated that I could not nor should not buy into. My lack of a bankroll & current ability to overcome the psychological barriers to do so profitably was the ultimate decision maker. I was trying to preserve my fund allocation for the trip without having to put it all in play on one buy in. They played nowhere near as deep as they do in New Orleans or Biloxi. Average stacks were maybe $1300-$1500 at best & the action was nowhere near what we experience here at home. The games were super soft & easily beatable in the long term without a shadow of doubt.

The first game I get into is a 1/2 no limit hold’em. I proceeded to make the obvious buy in. This table could not have been any tighter or more passive with premium holdings, yet would limp in a high % of the time just to see a flop with any two. They were min-raising specialists, & even afraid to shove with the nuts in a heads up pot on the river even after you had lead into them for three streets & then check raised them on the river from OOP. Board texture dictated in those spots that I was obviously ahead of everything in their range other than the nuts. That actually happened several times against different opponents. I can see if he may have thought we had the same hand & were eventually chopping, but when you have position & are not three bet shoving the river in that spot it makes me question their ability.

Other than maybe three players, myself included, the tables post flop play was extremely weak, & adjusting to live 1/2 no limit from higher stakes can be much harder than it appears to be. The players in general are weaker, more passive, & stacks are not super deep. There is no room to play poker or get creative against an opponent. There are fewer opportunities to three bet due to lack of opponents opening pots or just in general my table position relative to other competent & aggressive opponents. My four bet range is obviously a little tighter at this level than my three bet range. If the pot was opened it was more than likely opened by me or two other players with any regularity & with a wider range of opening hands.The play at this level is so ABC & showdown is reached a high % of the time. This will eventually mean at this level with the competence of the average player is rather mediocre & effective stack sizes essentially amount to flips in bigger games. A more basic approach coupled with cards that have showdown value are required to play more profitably at this level. Honestly, with this little money on the table & the buy in requirements, I should have been able to change gears a little more frequently, but for me at this level has not been so easy.

There are mental barriers that I must overcome & adjustments that I must make. I must reacquaint myself with the value of patience & discipline, because they were two of the founding principles of how I have been able to create the success in the past & will undoubtedly be able to do so again in the future. I have lost my belief system & I am slowly working on rebuilding it. To me confidence is the ability to trust your instincts & adapt to the environment. It helps make well informed decisions & allows you to pull the trigger when necessary. Ultimately I must be able to believe in myself in order to succeed & if I don’t then nothing else will matter. I will have to take it one step at a time.

“The body cannot achieve what the mind does not believe.”- Unknown Author

This whole trip I was extremely card-dead & when I managed to make a hand it was almost always second best. The calling stations that were at the table managed to get there what seemed like a high % of the time in pots I was involved with, mostly just horrible spots. I managed to flop several straights or make several hands that were almost un-foldable & in turn they always happened to be the second nuts running into the nuts. I did manage to make quite a few disciplined laydowns, but with the table dynamics being what they were, it just turned out to be one of those trips. It was all part of dealing with the variance that exists in poker. I did not play anywhere near my best, I did make quite a few mistakes. I just have to accept the consequences, take them in stride, & use them to grow as a player.