Poker News

United States of Poker

Growth in popularity of the game of poker has coincided with and aided the game’s spreading across the country. It seems everywhere you look, people are playing or talking about poker, and it seems for now there’s no stopping the unprecedented growth. Many states are becoming destinations for poker players of all skill levels, and among the several states of the upper Midwest offering poker to the game’s fans is Wisconsin.

As in many other states, casino gaming in Wisconsin is restricted to native American tribes, who operate several casinos throughout the state; six of these casinos offer poker. All six poker rooms play the most popular game, Texas hold’em, with several offering Omaha and stud regularly as well. No-limit live hold’em is a staple in all the poker rooms, with limit games of all sizes usually ranging up to a maximum of $20-$40 hold’em. Various tournaments are also offered as well, and the bigger rooms are open 24 hours a day for those who want to test their poker skills.

One of Wisconsin’s newer - and larger - poker rooms is located in western Wisconsin in the town of Turtle Lake, where the St. Croix Casino boasts twelve poker tables only about 18 months after first offering poker to its clientele. According to poker room manager Dave Hammond, business was good right away.

“We started with three tables near the blackjack area,” Hammond said. “We were just immediately swamped, our lists were out of control. We added another table right away, but then when we had a new director of gaming come in, Gary Hunter, he suggested that we take advantage of the wave of the poker industry and move the poker room upstairs. We started with 10 tables upstairs, and now we’ve got twelve.”

According to Hammond, one of the keys to the success of the St. Croix Casino poker room has been the institution of tournaments, which began soon after the room opened.

“We run a no-limit tournament every Thursday,” Hammond said. “We also run a monthly bigger buy-in tournament, and we also run a ladies-only tournament once a month. We started them in June 2004 and they immediately changed our poker room. We increased our business by probably three or four times by starting the tournaments. We get players from 100 miles away to come to our poker tournaments.”

The ladies tournament has also proven to be a success, but Hammond said there are differences between that tournament and the others he runs.

“We generally get about 30 to 40 players, and they become regulars for that tournament,” Hammond said. “The difference is, they’re not as likely to play beforehand and afterwards, whereas with our normal tournament, we always have quite a few games before and then we’ll run through the night with tables.”

Hammond also said live games have been very popular in the card room as well, where all types of Texas hold’em games are offered. “We have both limit and no-limit poker here,” Hammond said. “Typically, on a Friday night, if we have eight tables, they’ll be about evenly split or there’ll be a little bit more no limit than limit going. Our $1-$2 blinds, $50 to $200 buy-in no limit games have been very popular. We also run a $2-$5 or a $5-$10 with up to a $1000 buy-in on our $5-$10, but frankly our $5-$10 game very rarely plays, and we’re hoping to draw in some bigger games up here, but it’s mainly $1-$2 and $2-$5 (no limit).”

Hammond said while his clientele runs the gamut in every demographic, different games tend to attract different types of players. “We get people of every walk of life there is up here,” Hammond said. “I find that we have our regular game every day, it’s a $3-$6 (limit) game that seems to get started every morning, and a lot of the regulars play that. A lot of the younger guys like the action of the no-limit game.”

As for the future, Hammond predicted more of the same success the St. Croix poker room has seen over the past year, for both his room and the industry in general.

“I think poker is a type of game that, when a gambler finds poker, he’s really found his game, it’ll keep his interest for a long time,” Hammond said. “It’s a type of game that you can continue to improve at for years, and it can really hold your interest. On the negative side, the weaker players are going to either give up or go broke, so as long as we have enough new players coming into the game, it’ll continue to grow. There’s such a popularity among young people, we get so many young players that are just learning the game. I expect that as long as the young people are interested, we’ll continue to grow.?

Filed under: Poker News