Poker has come a long way in Arizona since the days of the Wild West, when five-card draw, stud and Faro were king of the casinos in historic towns such as Tombstone, Bisbee, Prescott and others that have long passed on into legend or been forgotten. For many years after poker was outlawed in Arizona, next-door neighbor Nevada was the only choice for legal poker games.
All that changed in 1992 with the first gambling compacts between Native American tribes and the Arizona government, allowing slot machines and poker to be played on reservations. From the moment the first Native American casino opened, poker has enjoyed a slow but steady growth in availability and popularity in Arizona to the point that today, 13 of Arizona's 22 casinos offer live poker on a total of 155 tables statewide.
Most of the poker rooms in Arizona offer the standard games: hold'em is typically the most popular choice, particularly among the higherlimit players, with seven-card stud and Omaha high/low split also being played in most of the rooms. $1-$4 stud games are common, as are $3- $6 hold'em and Omaha; the occasional $1-$2 game can be even be found in Phoenix or Tucson for the beginners or others playing for fun. However, higher limit players don't have much to choose from, as most Arizona casinos usually keep the $6-$12 hold'em game as their highest betting structure available.
Tournaments are also popular in Arizona card rooms; a look at the schedule in any copy of Poker Player shows a wide range of daily and weekly tournaments all over the state with payouts ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars. In fact, Cliff Castle Casino in Camp Verde (about 90 minutes north of Sky Harbor Airport in central Phoenix) will be offering in September their second series of play-in tournaments to a World Poker Tour event, with the winner of the final tournament receiving the entry fee into the World Poker Finals as the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut in November.
For tourists, while few urban casinos with poker rooms have attached hotels, all are close to accomodations of some sort; a few, such as Yavapai Gaming Center in Prescott, even offer shuttle service to area hotels or other hotel-casinos owned by the same tribe-Bucky's Hotel- Casino, in the case of Yavapai.
While lower limit play is the rule in most Arizona poker rooms, an exception to this is Casino Arizona at Talking Stick in Scottsdale, on the northeast side of the Valley of the Sun, which runs nearly one-third of the state's poker tables. It is here that the higher- limit players enjoy $40-$80 and $60-$120 games which, according to Talking Stick poker room manager Kent Odekirk, are among the most popular they offer. Talking Stick even offers the rare $75- $150 hold'em game, which is the highest allowable poker betting structure under the new tribal compacts, which were signed in 2003. Casino del Sol in Tucson also offers higher-than-average limit games, and Gila River - Wild Horse Pass Casino occasionally runs higher limit games than $6-$12 as well.
According to Odekirk, who's been involved in Arizona poker from its 1992 inception as both a player and card room manager, while the legalization of house-banked blackjack in 2002 hurt the game of poker in Arizona (currently 281 tables in 17 casinos), poker's popularity- and the money it brings in- has been rising again.
"We had a monster summer," Odekirk said of his room's business so far in 2004. "I don't know if it's the timing with all the television poker and tournaments, but this summer has been really good."
Odekirk admitted most of his business consists of local customers, but they still cater to tourists and seasonal residents alike, even though business among those groups has been down.
"Ever since 9/11, it's not like it used to be," Odekirk said of tourist and seasonal business. "We don't get the (seasonal resident) traffic like we did before 9/11."
However, Odekirk was optimistic about what the future held for Arizona poker.
"I think you're going to see probably more tournament play as the tournaments increase," Odekirk said. "I don't think it's going to level off for a while."
Whether Odekirk's prediction comes true or not, the fact is poker is here to stay in Arizona for many years to come. The current compacts between the state government and Native American tribes aren't set to expire until 2026, and given the popularity of poker and gaming in general, it is likely these compacts will be renewed when the time comes.
Of course, there's plenty of attractions to see and things to do in Arizona-they don't call it the Grand Canyon state for nothing, after all-but the growth in poker over the past twelve years has moved the game into the mainstream of life and tourism in Arizona, where it will stay for some time to come.
