By Donovan Livingston
This month we feature Jeff Cagan for our spotlight on management. He works for Bucky’s Casino, which is run by the Yavapai Prescott Indian tribe in Prescott, Ariz. Cagan has been involved in the poker industry since 2006, starting first as a dealer at Bucky’s, then promoted to pit boss in 2008. A year later, he was promoted to table games shift manager, and finally promoted to table games manager in 2011.
He’s a single parent with two boys, one of which is an Army Ranger, and the other a senior in high school.
When asked how he got into the industry, he said, “I always wanted to be a dealer since my late teens and early 20s, but casinos were not legal in Arizona. I started an insurance agency when I was 24 and decided to go into the casino industry after selling the agency in 2005.”
When he’s not working, Cagan loves to play poker, ride his motorcycle and go hiking.
As for the poker action at Bucky’s, Cagan offers fixed limit $3-$6 hold’em and Omaha/8 on weekdays. For nights and weekends, he has spread-limit games of $2-$8, $2-$20, and $2-$150.
Tournaments are available, too. “We have regularly scheduled tournaments every Monday through Thursday at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. During the football season, we have splash-pot promotions on Sundays and when the season is over we offer a Texas Hold’em bounty tournament on Sundays. We also have the Northern Arizona Texas Hold’em Championships every summer with a first prize of $10,000 if the tournament fills up.”
To top it off, there are plenty of promotions in his poker room.
“We run promotions every minute of every day. We have a bad-beat jackpot, royal-flush bonus and straight-flush bonus, 24 hours a day. We also offer Aces Cracked, high hands and splash pots at various times during the day and night,” he said.
Bucky’s is connected to the Prescott Resort and Conference Center. With great rooms and food, this is the place to stay when in Prescott. Bucky’s also offers a blackjack pit featuring blackjack, Three Card Poker, Texas shootout and high-card flush. The blackjack pit offers friendly dealers, low minimum bets and fun games. Many of the games include progressive jackpots for added excitement.
There’s plenty to do outside of the casino, too. Bucky’s is in the cool pines of Prescott. At 5,000-plus feet, it’s usually 15-20 degrees cooler than the Phoenix area. Prescott offers lots of outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing and boating, and is home to the world’s oldest rodeo and world famous Whiskey Row.
