Poker News

United States of Poker: Michigan

Many states across the country, including several in the Midwest, have experienced the same growth in gaming and poker that the rest of the United States has over the past decade or more. Some states offer casinos on native American reservations only; many others, including the subjectof this edition, Michigan, have approved gaming in other parts of their states as well.

Poker and casino gaming first appeared in Michigan more than ten years ago, as native American tribes began opening casinos on reservation land. Then in 1997, according to the Michigan Gaming Control Board, a group of citizens placed an initiative on the ballot that year seeking to allow a maximum of three commercial casinos in Detroit.

Voters subsequently cast their ballots in favor of the initiative, which became the Michigan Gaming Control Act, and the three casinos have since opened in Detroit.

Today, two of the three Detroit casinos along with several native American casinos scattered throughout both the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan offer live poker to their patrons.

There are no wagering limits in Michigan’s poker rooms; most of the rooms offer live no-limit Texas hold’em, as well as various limit games ranging up to $10-$20 or higher. Omaha and various versions of dealer’s choice games are popular in the state, and a few rooms regularly feature stud as well.

The poker room at the Greektown Casino in Detroit, like many other casinos offering poker across the United States, has been in the midst of expansion over the past few years, according to poker room manager Glenn Arana.

“The Greektown Casino started about three or four years ago with eight tables, and then expanded to 16,” Arana said. “In the last year we’ve grown from eight to 19 (tables).”

According to Arana, the recent surge in poker’s popularity has meant some changes in what’s been traditionally popular in poker, both in the type of games played as well as the types of wagering available.

“I always had two stud games going; I haven’t seen a stud game in 4 or 5 months,” Arana said. “It’s not that we don’t have a table available if they want, and we have a list, but there’s just not enough demand for the game.”

“I instituted $3-$6 hold’em and now a nolimit $50 minimum buy in, blinds are $1and $2, $100 max game that turned into one of my most popular games. I probably run five to six of those a day, so that’s a steady core game,” Arana said. “The $5-$10 game seems to have disappeared also. $3-$6 has taken over greatly, and then jumped right over to the $10- $20.”

While several of Michigan’s poker rooms offer dealer’s choice games, a few, including the Greektown Casino poker room, offer a variation called “round by round”, which Arana said is one of many popular types of higher limit games he offers.

“That’s a very popular game,” Arana said of round by round. “I run that on a daily basis. It’s a $20-$40 game, and we run a round of Texas hold’em, and then we run a round of Omaha high. Two or more days a week I run a potlimit Omaha high game, and the game is growing in popularity.”

Arana said with the recent growth in poker’s popularity, his clientele has grown younger, and they have progressed in their knowledge and skill of the game as well.

“My market here is pretty diverse, but I would venture to say probably 60 percent of my market is (age) 21 to 35,” Arana said. “The online poker industry and TV has just made everybody want to play poker. I have different levels of no-limit in the room all the time, and you can see on the weekends the guys who were playing on the lower limit ones are now getting their courage and their bankrolls up, and moving up into the next level. They progress very quickly.” Like many others in the industry, Arana said he sees nothing but growth in the immediate future of poker.

“I think it can only go up for the next few years at least,” Arana said. “I think it’s going to be pretty much of a mainstay. The larger portion of the market is that younger market, that 25 to 35 year old age group and younger. They play online, it’s easier for them to get into the game, but of course it’s so impersonal that eventually they want to say, ‘Hey, let me get to a casino and really try and really play,’ and once they get it with the interaction of real people, it just keeps growing. So, I think it’s very healthy. There’s no end in sight for the next five years at least.”

Filed under: Poker News