Every year for the last 5 years we have gone with another couple on a two day pilgrimage to the casinos. For the last four years that has been to the Horseshoe in Shreveport.
I always play in the poker tournament. I loose a few dollars in the slot machines. We eat and relax and do generally nothing productive.
Pretty much heaven.
This year we decided to try Choctaw Casino and Resort in Durant, Oklahoma because it is closer and since we never leave the casino grounds we figured it didn’t matter that there weren’t several casinos in the vicinity.
I asked around and no one I knew had been there. We looked online and saw that the website said it looked like this:
Wow!
That is in Oklahoma?
That looked nice, but we have been fooled before so we checked out the photos from Google street view and it looked like this:
uh-oh.
Looks like we might be taking a chance…
…but we are GAMBLERS.
Hard core gamblers.
Gamblers through and through.
*cough*
Truthfully, we figured if we got up to Choctaw Casino and didn’t look good we could just drive on to Louisiana.
When we approached the resort, it started to look promising. There WAS a tower and we soon identified the building in the Google pic as the old casino that still sits on the new resort grounds.
When I saw the pools, I was ready to move in.
The first year we had traveled to Shreveport I had naively packed my swimming suit. EVERY hotel I had ever gone to in the South had a pool and I figured I could use the casino break. I spent the first 45 minutes searching the Horseshoe property for the pool only to figure out that they didn’t have one and really wanted you there for gambling purposes only.
The Choctaw Casino and Resort has three pools – an indoor pool, an outdoor pool next to the tower hotel and a resort pool with hot tubs, bridge, bar, cabanas and a waterslide. It is really, really cool.
OK, so I was ready to stay…but what about the casino?
We parked in the parking structure (it is really odd to see a four story parking structure in the middle of nowhere OK) and headed over to check into the tower hotel.
The interior of the casino and hotel is beautiful.
I am not a big fan of cheesy casino decor and was surprised to see its design.
Stone walls, marble floors, wood trimmed ceilings, glass tile, lighting fixtures that I want to take home with me…
Now there aren’t any fancy Roman naked people statues like there are at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, but there is this really big buffalo.
The casino size is larger than what we had experienced at the Horseshoe, but smaller than WinStar World Casino (the other casino located in OK which is close to DFW).
And fancier.
We checked into our room and it was nice…and clean.
We headed to the Choctaw Casino to play the slots and it was nice…and clean.
In the evening we ate at the 1832 Steakhouse which has the very same drapery treatments that I have in my own house. I felt at home. Except the food was WAY better than at my house. I had the Chicken and Waffles appetizer and the Scallops. Both were super yummy.
The poker room is great. The dealers were really helpful and friendly. It was not intimidating at all. The two weekday tournaments I participated in had around 40 entrants and moved really quickly.
We also ate at the Blue Moon Cafe and Butterfield’s Buffet. Both had really good food – nothing I would consider casino food. *shudder*
Our friends visited the spa and only had good things to say about it as well.
So, all in all it was a really fun visit.
And by the end of the trip, I was even on friendlier terms with the buffalo.
Thankfully the poker winnings outweighed the slot machine losses and we hope to return to Choctaw Casino soon…
Other casino and poker related posts:
Holly goes to the World Series of Poker Tournament Academy.
–>I’m so glad it turned out better than expected even if you didn’t win. You won.
~deb
Hey Holly! Long time NO talk. Is that a suite or one of their reg. rooms pictured. I had NO idea that place would be so beautiful. I see an overnight stay in the near future. Hugs! T~
– Hey, Holly! You just won a little bit of money in a small poker tournament! What’re you going to do now?
– I’m going to Oklahoma!
We head to Foxwoods when we need some decadent adult time. Good for you!
Sweet! And in Oklahoma, who knew?
Is that wall behind the buffalo one of those waterfall walls?
Wow, things have changed. I used to live in Sherman and remember the “old” casino well, before they built casinos all over OK. Beautiful. I will have to check it out one day!
Poker player! You are the coolest mom ever. Seriously, is there anything you can’t do? We used to drive by that casino way back before kids when we took our Jeep up there for off-roading in the mountains (I faintly heard “you might be a redneck if…” as I typed that!) Anyway, it was always just the old casino building, no cool resort. Stuart recently got hooked on online poker at Poker Stars but he’s been to WinStar once and a river boat in Baton Rouge, LA a few times. This resort looks really cool but we don’t have anyone to watch the kids (unless you want to volunteer! HA) so they’d have to come too. Did the resort seem kid-friendly at all or is that just taboo for a casino resort? Maybe we could hang out at the pool while Daddy becomes the next millionaire at the poker tables.
It looks like the giant white buffalo could grow on you.
And I love the hotel room.
I want those linens.
I don’t think I’ve ever stayed at a hotel that had throw pillows.
I need a new class of hotel.
The room we were in was a slight upgrade, but from what I understand it was just a little bigger than the $99 room. We paid $129 one night and $149 the other. The rooms were WAY better than any other casino we have stayed in…including the renovated rooms at Caesars.
it is! it is super cool and in the evening it dances to lights and music…it is that fancy.
isn’t that crazy????
My kids could easily spend 2 days in the pool area – there are small wading pools and the big pools and the waterslide. Some evenings they even do a big screen movie in the pool area for families.
I thought the poker room was great. WinStar is one of my favorite rooms, but it is more intimidating and crowded. This was really low stress and I like that they have 2 tournaments a day on most days.
The Inn rooms start at $69 and are on the other side of the pool…they are more motel-ish. The tower rooms start at $99 and I know they have room service if you don’t want to take the kids to the fancy restaurant…all the other restaurants are very kid friendly and reasonably priced.
I thought about sneaking them home in my suitcase…
Sounds and looks like you had a great time.
I’m not much of a gambler but do love poker; actually any cards for that matter so you had me hooked when you said you would play in a poker tournament.
Looks like a blast. Your facial expressions say it all. 🙂
Holly! Watch out! That buffalo is about to eat your head!!!!
Hello Holly: Thanks for the raving revue!! We are very proud of our beautiful new property. We are also proud of our staff and the level of service level they provide. It’s guests like you that make coming to work a pleasure. I would like to invite you back with a free room night for being such a great ambassador for us. The white buffalo is believed to bring good luck, we’re lucky to have guests like you. You may contact me at rod.campbell@choctawcasinos.com
Rod Campbell
Player Development Manager
Choctaw Casino
Durant, Ok.
I really appcreiate free, succinct, reliable data like this.