Poker Faces in the Crowd: Chase Haydel

Before he joined the Harrah’s New Orleans poker room in July 2016, Chase Haydel didn’t have much experience with poker. The New Orleans native comes from a long line of restaurateurs — including his grandmother, Leah, who runs the famous Dooky Chase’s Restaurant. When he moved home from Atlanta in 2013, Chase joined Harrah’s New Orleans as a table games supervisor. Now, as poker room manager, he’s focused on outpacing the competition in Texas and along the Gulf Coast. “For years, we were coasting on the idea, ‘Hey, we’re the biggest room,’” he told me. “But I have to be aggressive now, because the competition is growing.”

In the spring, Chase gave away $75,000 in WSOP Circuit Event seats through daily drawings, social media promotions, and a popular “bubble tournament” — a kind of consolation prize for players eliminated on the bubble of one of Harrah’s weekly tournaments. He’s currently preparing for Poker Gras, a November 8–11 tournament series that will feature a $580 Main Event and a $250 Short Deck hold ’em tournament. We recently spoke about Chase’s family, Poker Gras, and the future of New Orleans poker.

Ben Saxton: How did you get into the gaming industry?

Chase Haydel: I started in 1994 over at Boomtown [Casino], where I was a dealer. I was a student at Xavier, and I still had the gambling bug from my childhood. My family owns one of the largest, oldest restaurants in the city. You ever heard of Dooky Chase’s?

Oh, yeah.

That’s my grandmother. I’m still involved over there and we have a few other locations at the airport. My family still jokes about how I got into gaming, and I tell them: if you think about it, I was always around it. My grandfather had football pools at the restaurant, and I used to do parlay cards. The best poker games were at deer camp. You went there on a Friday night and packed the necessities: your gun, your bullets, your good boots, and a deck of cards.

In the nineties I got married and my wife got into a PhD program at Emory University, so I moved to Atlanta. My brother married Hank Aaron’s daughter, and Hank gave him a couple of fast-food franchise stores, which my brother expanded into forty locations. I ran those with him in Atlanta for fourteen years.

How did you make your way to Harrah’s?

In 2013 I was kind of semi-retired, my wife got a nice job offer down here, and we decided to come home. I called Harrah’s — I knew some people here — and asked about opportunities. I just wanted to deal part-time and work at one of my family’s restaurants. One thing led to another, and Harrah’s asked me to run the poker room. I’ve been here for four-and-a-half years, and I’ve been in the poker room for about a year. When this position became available, I wasn’t even interested.

Did you deal poker at Boomtown?

Nope. I hardly play. The only reason I started is because our old director, Patrick Chan, told me that I needed to get some knowledge about poker. So we started traveling along the coast — the Beau [Rivage], the Golden Nugget, Florida, Mississippi, northern Louisiana. I won a few tournaments, but I realized that I’m more of a cash game player. Tournaments are rigorous.

Yeah, tournaments can be tough.

I got the room in July 2016, and let me tell you: my poker experience was not what it should have been. But the people around me have a plethora of knowledge. [Supervisors] Mel Enmon and Robby Gerstner have a passion for the poker world. I didn’t, but I got that from them. A lot of our ideas are collaborative. You’ve gotta make sure that you’re listening to the players and doing things that will grow our room. Like the bubble tournament. Robby and I were talking one day on a Saturday, and I said, “The bubble guys get the raw end of the deal. Let’s recognize them.”

Poker Gras is coming up in November. What does it mean for you to grow a tournament series that embraces its New Orleans roots?

We used to have a big tournament here that kind of fizzled out. I talked to the WSOP about doing another event in the winter. And then, after experiencing the WSOP [Circuit Event] in May, I thought to myself: we can do this. This is not that difficult. So I started talking to some of the knowledgeable guys in the room, and one name kept popping up: Bill Phillips. We finally met, and we clicked. I’m very guarded. I don’t trust a lot of people. But Bill seemed down-to-earth and straightforward, which I appreciated. It took a while to decide but, after doing my research and talking to a number of companies — RunGood, Helix Poker, some others — I decided that I wanted to work with him. Poker is big in this town. Why should I partner with someone who’s not about us? It made sense to go with Bill, whose focus is all about the south — Gulf Coast poker. To me, it’s a perfect match.

If things go well and you hit your numbers, are you planning to make the tournament series an annual event?

Definitely. We’re doing four days this time, and we want to build it to seven days. Eventually I want to have a full-fledged two-week tournament. This event can be just as big as the WSOP Circuit Event, in my eyes. That’s my goal. And there’s no reason my guys can’t do it. I have a good team of people. I wouldn’t be this far without them.

Do you want to say a bit about your team?

Mel is a seasoned veteran. He left last year to hone his skills with the WSOP Circuit. Robby is very detailed, very knowledgeable. This is his tournament. I also have Tim Louie, another seasoned, knowledgeable guy. Jo-Ella McIntosh is new to running tournaments. Having a Monday night tournament was Joella’s idea: she grew it, so this is her opportunity to step into the big stage. They have experience that I could never have. I’m so fortunate to work with them.

As you look to the future of New Orleans poker, what do you expect?

This room still has a lot of potential. Harrah’s wasn’t writing it off, but you had to prove to them that the room was worth the investment. We’ve done that. We’re investing in equipment — in new uniforms, new tables, new chairs. I asked people why we didn’t have nine-handed tables, and nobody could tell me why we were ten-handed. “That’s how we’ve always done it” isn’t a reason.

This area deserves something big. I talk to Henry Garrison all the time, and he’s doing a good job building his brand at the Beau Rivage. I can either throw my hands up, or put up a fight and see what we can do. Poker Gras is us putting up a fight. I don’t know what the future holds, but I’m making sure that I’m laying a good foundation. Doing something like this is a big risk for the property and the room. But we can do it. We’ve got this. And next year, once we prove ourselves, the sky’s the limit.

*Originally published in the November 2018 issue of Two Plus Two Magazine