Meskwaki poker room, Tama, Iowa

[Cooling Heels]

A recent trip brought me to the poker room in Meskwaki in Tama, Iowa for the first time in about 7 years. A few observations:

The physical layout of the room is very nice. Fifteen tables with ample space between tables, and good ventilation that keeps smoke from drifting in from the very smokey casino. Not sure why the room is so big, I doubt they ever have 15 games going. The rake is $3 max, with another $1 for the bad beat tax. The games are the normal 10 handed, not like the short handed games spread in Minnesota. No beer or booze served. A recent initiative to change the booze policy was voted down by the tribe.

The games:

Thursday afternoon: 2 tables of 3/6 limit HE

Thursday night: They shut down the cash games to run a 50 player tournament. The buy-in was $60, but the blinds doubled every 20 minutes so it's kind of a dumb structure, I wouldn't recommend it. As players quickly busted out they started a 3/6 game and a 1/2 NL HE game.

Friday afternoon: 1 3/6, 1 1/2 NL

Friday night: 3 3/6 games, 1 1/2 NL, and 1 Pot Limit 1/2 HO game. They also ran a very dumb tournament that was poorly attended, something like 15 players. They called it a WSOP satelite, but it wasn't. There are 14 so called WSOP qualifiers, and the top 10 advance to a 140 player event on a Monday night in May. The top winners in that event get $5000 that they "could use" to enter the WSOP.

Supposedly a 4/10 spread limit Omaha/8 games goes on two specific weeknights, but Thursday and Friday aren't the nights.



If you stay in the hotel, get a players club and show it to the check-in clerk. The card knocked $10 off of Thursday night and $20 off of Friday. Also, show your card when you sign in/out in the poker room. They pay a fairly generous $1 an hour comp. They also set up a players buffet on Friday night.

good luck