It’s been quite a year for the Turning Stone Resort Casino poker room.

First, we inked a partnership with the World Series of Poker(R) to bring exciting satellite and circuit events to Upstate New York. Then we held these events, multi-day tournaments that attracted thousands of players from 20 states and resulted in literally millions of dollars in prizes.

Finally, we received three first-place awards from Casino Player Magazine for our poker program—awards that prove poker players feel we have the best product in all of New York State.

Specifically, Turning Stone earned #1 Best Poker Room, #1 Best Poker Tournament, and #1 Best Live Poker.

“Any time you can get recognition from the poker playing community for having a great room and spreading great games, it’s awesome and incredibly rewarding for us,” said Poker Room Manager Frank Foti. “We always strive to provide the best experience possible, and awards like these prove our efforts do not go unnoticed by our guests.”

Frank noted that the Casino Player awards were a real testament to our poker dealers—the people who make our 32-table poker room run.

He said Turning Stone dealers always go above and beyond, especially during tournaments.

“Our dealers are the best in the business—not only at running games, but at making guests feel comfortable and welcome,” Frank said. “Clearly this has made a difference and one of the reasons people like playing with us.”

Also worth noting: Our dealer recruitment program. Frank said the Oneida Nation Enterprises (ONE) is constantly hiring new poker dealers, even if they have no experience dealing cards. ONE offers dealer school for all new hires, and we pay new dealers to attend the school to make sure everyone is up to speed on how we run our games.

According to Frank, eight new poker dealers graduated from dealer school in the last class. The next class likely will graduate the same amount.

“Working here is more than a job,” he said. “It’s a privilege. It’s an honor. It’s a lifestyle.”