The List - #119 completed

119. Visit the Oaklawn poker room.

This wasn't a hugely noteworthy list item, but I put it on there because they recently updated their poker room and it would be my first time trying out the PokerPro electronic tables. Oaklawn is a horse racing track with gaming, located an hour away in Hot Springs. Last week I left in the afternoon and went to check it out and I was pleasantly surprised with everything.

First off, I was trepidatious about the quality of the place to start with. This was based on nothing, really, just the overall idea that a casino located at a track in remote Arkansas had the potential to be pretty janky. It really wasn't. I didn't spend much time on the floor, but it was on par with non-Vegas casinos I've seen in Tunica and other somewhat small cities. The poker room had seven PokerPro tables and I was really impressed with how they work. They are completely automated and computerized, with every step of the game being run on the touch screen, from buy-in to cash out. You deposit funds at the casino's cashier and after that everything can be done at the table. I found the interface to be quite user friendly, which is good, since this is clearly the direction poker will head in the future. Purists will cling to cards and chips, but eventually it is going to be difficult to argue with the prospects of faster games, lower casino overhead due to no dealers, and lower player costs without having to tip.

I played $1-$2 No Limit for a while and then entered a qualifying tournament that Oaklawn was running--40 players, with the top four getting paid and the top three advancing to a freeroll in February that will include 30 players vying for $5,000 in payouts to the top three. The quality of the opponents was all over the place--some solid younger guys, some old timers, and some drunks that had clearly been betting on the ponies all day. I played my pretty standard game and managed to cash in third place, meaning I've got a seat in the big freeroll in a few weeks. I look forward to coming back with a shot to take down a nice chunk of change.