Player's Stories

Our Visit to Alabama-Coushatta (A-C), December 15-16, 2001
By Rio Rita

Joe and I left home around 4pm on Saturday (slept late after Friday night poker until 7am...). Arrived A-C around 8:30. It's about 215 miles from Austin, and we stopped to eat along the way. We went through Brenham and Navasota and Huntsville, so there were lots of little towns and stop lights to go through.

Anyway, we arrived at the A-C casino and got our temporary membership cards, and we were all set to play poker. Although there wasn't a "line" to get inside the casino when we got there, we were told that sometimes you have to wait just to get in, as there is a capacity cap of 500 people. That wasn't the case on Saturday night; we walked right in.

The place itself has been described as small and, compared to a Vegas casino, it is. It's about the same size, area-wise, as Kickapoo Lucky Eagle (not counting the bingo room), but it's a beautiful structure located in the piney woods of east Texas. All raw pine, with high ceilings and pretty, bright carpet on the floor. They play raucous music over the sound system, and it's not as good a mix as Kickapoo plays. You might want to take along your own music and headphones to block it out. The casino is open 24-7.

Anyway, we made our way to the "poker room" (not) and there was ONE poker table (full), and about 6 blackjack tables (full)...in the middle of the casino, with all the noise and hustle and bustle in your face. There is smoking at the table, but it didn't seem to be a problem, as they have a good ventilation system and really high ceilings.

We put our names on the poker list and were told that there were 20 people ahead of us. Sheesh. At that point, we decided to go back to Livingston and get a room and a little more much needed sleep, and check in with the pit boss later. He kindly gave us the pit area phone number after we told him we'd been trying to call for a week and the main number was always busy.

Stayed at the Econo-Lodge in Livingston...$54 plus change, including tax; it was clean, with no frills. We picked up some Taco Smell and then slept for about three hours. I checked in with the pit boss at 1:30am, and he said we were next up on the list. So...we got up and hooked 'em to the casino. Of course, when we got there, we were told that there had been a mistake and that, due to someone's name being mispronounced earlier, there was actually one person ahead of us on the list. (RATS!) That guy sat down and played for about 30 minutes, decided he wasn't running well (disciplined poker player??), and got up. I sat down at the table around 3:30am.

The game was full of "regulars" and was a real grind. I bought into the $5-10 game with $200. There was only one $2 blind, and the rake was $3.00 per hand. I asked somebody why there weren't two blinds, and one of the regulars informed me that that's what the players had decided they wanted. So, with 7 or 8 people seeing every flop (but most folding on the flop), the pots were medium-sized, generally, and every conceivable hand would be out there. There were a couple of good players on the table, several real rocks, and a couple of idiots. Also, during our play, a couple of people totally new to hold'em sat down, asked what a flop was, what are the blinds for, etc.; they didn't last long. Joe got on the table a little while later, and the game was on. (More about the game later.)

A Little About the Place

There were free soft drinks, and the "food" was nominally priced. It was also nominally prepared and flavored. Their menu at present consists of hot dogs (not too bad, but the bun was stale; hardly an issue if you're starving to death), deli sandwiches on large buns, nachos, potato chips and...and...that's about it. Oh, there was also barbecue, but I was afraid to try it; looked kinda scary. The deli sandwiches were served on a large bun with meat and cheese only. No lettuce, no tomatoes...nothing but mustard or mayo and a access to a large container of onions that had been sitting on the counter for God knows how long. So, either take along an ice chest with emergency food, or go with a full stomach. (I had to laugh at one player who, during the course of the game ordered and ate two plain mustard "sandwiches.") Rumor has it that they will expand food services and add a bar in the coming months.

They plan to add one poker table this week, and they also have plans to open up the side of the building by the current poker setup to add even MORE poker and blackjack tables. If they actually do, it will be an OK place to gamble. Right now, though, be prepared to get there early and wait a long time to play. One woman said she was on the list from 9am until 9:30pm that day.

"Darla" (Named changed to protect the idiot) Sneaks Up on Us Newbies

The staff were nice in general, but there is a dearth of good dealers. There were a couple of guys that weren't too bad, and one female that was ok. However, the main dealer at the hold'em table was "Darla." She'd deal for about 45 minutes and take a 10 or 15 minute break; then here she'd come again. Darla, Darla, Darla. Good goddamoddy. A sorry excuse for a hold'em dealer if I ever saw one.

She is a large woman with dyed-red hair and a very friendly demeanor; a really nice person to have as a co-worker or next door neighbor, but not as a poker dealer. She started out on the right foot by bringing 2 dozen donuts for the poker table around 8am when she came on duty. Since THE SNACK BAR CLOSED BETWEEN 4am and 9am (What the heck?)...the donuts were a Godsend (and I hate donuts...). Anyway, I thought that was a nice gesture and, as I said, she was very friendly. She asked our names and told me she tries to get to know all the poker players. The ramifications of this facet of Darla's personality was to become painfully clear to me in the coming hours.

The farther we got into her shift, the more I steamed. She is slow as all get out, and her mouth runs constantly, and I do mean constantly. Incessant chatter to all the players she knows, all the staff, and many passersby. I'll bet we didn't get in 20 hands an hour! She'd shuffle the cards and then maybe decide after getting them cut and the cut-card placed on the bottom that, well, they need scrambling again. Slooowwwly. Imagine seeing a decent dealer moving in ultra-slow motion...that's Darla. Smiling all the while and chatting everyone up. Oblivious to the steam coming out of some of the players' ears. I spoke to several regulars about her, and they acknowledged the problem, but said that she's the only game in town right now, and they just have to put up with it.

Darla miscalled hands, indicated action to the wrong player often, and failed to move the button once (I got it twice in a row, and the regular to my left didn't force the issue, but just paid the blind twice...even though it was mentioned as she began to deal the hand.). Another time, she failed to have a player call the full bet until the players howled about it. Misdealt at least three hands and, of course, with each mistake...the slooooow re-shuffle and re-deal. Man, it was irritating. Silly me, I thought the dealer was supposed to run the game, but at Darla's table, we were all taking a turn at it.

After a few hours of this, I yanked the pit boss aside and complained heavily. He acknowledged the problem but said that she was the best they could do right now. He said they are working on it. (I don't know what the real problem is...maybe she has pictures of him with a goat or something...) There were some excellent blackjack dealers, fast and efficient; it seems like they could teach a couple of them to deal hold'em.

That was PROBLEM #1 on this trip. Darla's slow dealing and mistakes combined with the fact that all the poker chips are run from the table (requiring a slooooow count and money change each time a player needs chips) made for a very irritating session overall. And a re-fill of the dealer's chip tray seemed to be required about every half-hour or so; again, a painfully slow process. We spent as much time waiting for the dealer to jack around than we did playing poker; no rhythm and no flow to the game. There were a couple of players there on Sunday afternoon who had been playing since Friday night. We were amazed at their stamina until we finally figured out that they were napping between games...

The Game

As I said, we started playing around 3:30 or 4:00am. Around 11:00, we realized that we had foolishly neglected to bring all our junk from the hotel room, requiring that we either pay for another day or that one of us give up our seat and go check out. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem but, when I asked the pit boss what their policy was about players getting up from the table (two dealer shifts, one hour, or what?) he said that they don't really have a policy yet, but that 15 minutes would be the (obviously arbitrary) limit of time a player could be away from the table. Wonderful.

Since Joe was somewhat stuck at that time and I was up $150, I offered to get up from the table and go check us out. (Hahaha...when I got to the room at 11:55, I was locked out!! The desk clerk said that since check-out time is 12:00, the keys expire at 11:30...huh? Living on Livingston time...)

When I got back to A-C, I was 4th on the list. Finally, a player got up, and the other three people on the list ahead of me had apparently either died of old age, or had given up and gone home. I got back on the table (unfortunately). That was about 1:30pm.

Joe was up and down at that point, and finally went down to about $65 (from $300); I saw him take some bad beats from the suck-outs on the table. With the slowness of the game (hurry up, jerk, some of us are stuck here!!) and his steam level at about 110%, he decided to get up from the game. He didn't see any possibility of grinding out a win at the rate we were playing and the amount of time we had left to play.

I stayed a while longer to see if I could recoup some of my re-donated money (about $85), but didn't manage it. Joe, however, got on a really "hot" blackjack table. Within about 30 minutes, he turned his $65 into $415, recouping his poker losses and then some!! It actually sounded like a "surf's up" situation, as various of the blackjack tables would erupt with hoots every few minutes, especially Joe's. Although I couldn't watch all the action from the poker table, I could see Joe's stack. One minute he had a few reds in front of him and, when I looked back a few minutes later, he had a big stack of greens AND reds. YEEHAA!! Go figure...He said that for a while, all the players and the dealer were surprised when a hand didn't hit for everyone. He took his profits and got up from that table.

I was going to play around to my blind and get up (big mistake since I had gotten back to even again at that point), so Joe sat down at a different table and took another $100 off them.

Meanwhile, back at the world's slowest poker table...Rio Rita manages to severely overplay a pair of queens, get a couple of good flops and bad rivers, and donate back the $85. Finally, at 5pm, delirious and starving to death, we bid Darla adieu (she was on duty until 6pm...wouldn't you know it?) and headed for home.

I found out on Monday morning that there had been a tornado on the ground in Point Blank as we were driving through. That would explain why I thought we were going to be blown off the road at one point (seriously). We did manage to drive out of the bad weather, and got home around 10:30.

A good trip, all in all, but some improvements are needed at Alabama-Coushatta before I can really recommend it to anyone.