Back in the Saddle by Johnny Hale | Carol, this Wednesday, I am joining my friend Roland Waters,
director of poker operations up at the Wildhorse in Pendleton, Oregon for the
Summer Poker Rodeo.
It is in Pendleton where I plan to introduce a new poker game,
Oklahoma Hold’em, which I mentioned in last week’s column.
Anyway, the game is trademarked.
Oklahoma Hold’em can be played limit, pot limit or no limit
and works the same as Texas Hold’em. Each player gets two personal cards. The
flop is three and the turn one. It’s all the same except there is no common
river card. Instead, it becomes an Ocean card or Okie card.
All players still active in the pot at the time the old river
card would have been turned up receive a third personal card – making it three
personal and four common cards. From those you make the best five-card poker
hand anyway you wish.
Again, all is the same except for the last card, which will not
be common and only those players still active in the pot will receive one.
After the Oregon trip, we will rest up to visit The Oceans
Eleven in Oceanside, California where my daughter “Oklahoma Sarah will sing
and dance at The Seniors XV World Championship of Poker.
We had the inaugural Oceanside Seniors WCOP when OK-Sarah was
only 10, and she sang at that event. Bob Moyer, resident partner of Oceans
Eleven, will host the tourney that is set for Sunday, Aug. 24.
When the Oceanside event concludes, I will be looking forward to
my 81st birthday poker tournament in September. The site will either be in Las
Vegas, Los Angeles or back home in the new Downstream Casino in my native
Oklahoma.
Kathy Raymond, director of poker operations at the Venetian,
hosted my birthday poker party last year. Wherever the poker party is, everyone
is invited. At 81, I will be happy just to be anywhere playing a little poker
with my friends.
Prior to leaving for Oregon, we took part in the Orleans Open
poker tournament.
“Oklahoma” Sarah hosted the Whippersnappers and I
greeted ‘The Seniors” during the “Battle of the Ages” that was
part of the annual tourney.
The game was a little different. OK-Sarah and I were tag team
partners with the other teams comprised of one Senior and one Whippersnapper.
Each team received $5,000 in tournament chips with no re-buys in the No-Limit
Hold’em event for charity.
For this charity tournament, both the Orleans poker room and
upstairs management took no money out of the players’ prize pool. Instead, the
Orleans poker room and Boyd Gaming generously donated one half of their fee to
“The Seniors” Charity.
The “Battle of the Ages” event was designed for us by
James Milkowski at the Orleans. Garrett Okanara, director of poker operations
and Boyd Gaming are always very cooperative with “The Seniors”
Charities. Through their efforts, IRS approval was obtained for charitable
contributions by the poker players to be deducted from the contributors’
income tax returns.
The Orleans put a $1,000 bounty on OK-Sarah and me with the team
getting the last of our chips earning the cash. During the summer, I completed
hosting the largest ever “The Seniors” WCOP at the World Series of
Poker, where I hosted 2,218 players.
OK-J Tip of the Week:
Columnist and novelist Kathleen Norris once wrote, “Life is
easier than you’d think. All that is necessary is to accept the impossible, do
without the indispensable, and bear the intolerable.”