subject: Finding the Poker Room [print this page] People have played poker for years and yearsPeople have played poker for years and years. They've played in kitchens and over the dining room table with their neighbors. Maybe they've belonged to a local fraternal organization such as the Elks or Moose lodge and the members might have a game in the club room.
Tales of the Old West resonate with the stories of the gamblers like Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson. Legend has it that Wild Bill Hickok was holding "Aces and Eights" (a pair of aces and a pair of eights), which hand has since become known as "the dead man's hand." Movies, music, and television have all used the poker player as the plot device. From the TV show The Maverick to the movie of the same name. The various iterations of the movie The Stagecoach have all had a gambler prominently as a character (John Carradine in the 1939 version of the movie, Mike Conners in the 1966 version, and Waylon Jennings in the 1986 TV movie version). Even the song by Kenny Rogers, The Gambler, became a TV movie.
Today, thanks to the growth of not only casinos but the television showings of various poker tournaments, the poker game has moved out of the back rooms into the spotlight. Television especially seems to like the game of Texas Hold-Em, though other games also show up on TV sometimes.
Some states have poker rooms available with various buy-ins and maximum bets. This holds as well for many casinos around the country. Online poker rooms can cost as little as one or two cents to play.
Casinos are all around the country these days. While full service casinos used to be limited to Nevada and then Atlantic City, the casino is now a stable (read revenue generator) for states all across the country and most of them have poker tables and poker rooms. Indian tribes have set up casinos on or near their reservations. From the Foxwoods (Mashantucket Pequots) and Mohegan Sun (Mohegan) casinos in Connecticut to the Turning Stone Casino (Oneida Indian Nation) in Central Upstate NY to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casinos in Florida. Other tribes have set up riverboat casinos along the Mississippi River in Missouri or the Ohio River in Indiana or the Gulf of Mexico. Most all casinos allow various types of poker to be played and many of them are featured in televised poker tournaments.
So all the player needs to do to find a legal, physical game is do a quick search for the nearest casino.
And if that is too much trouble, there are always the online Poker Rooms.
