Quote:
Originally Posted by Garick
Thanks. Looks like that last one isn't open yet, which fits what I saw earlier in the thread. From perusing the links:
- Aces looks like $10/wk for the door and "from $5/hr" for seat. They spread 1/3NL and 2/5NL (as well as 2/4LolLimit)
- Lonestar seems to be a $25 flat fee per day and spread only 1/2NL
- Awesome seems to be $10/day for the door and $10/hr for the seat. No idea what they spread, as the only game they are advertising is a donkament tomorrow during the McGregor-Mayweather fight.
If anyone can report on the games at any of those locations, I'd really appreciate it.
Hope you are all weathering the storm safely.
I've been all over these games in Houston. I know you seem to have it out for Mint, but honestly it's the best venue by a landslide. I don't know the whole story behind whatever happened with Michael Eakman, but for the price ($8 an hour if you prepay 50 hours), action, hours, security and comfort level, it's simply the best place in the city. Good ramen place next door too.
Post Oak is probably next best, but the $15/hr makes it pretty unappealing unless you're looking for 5/5 or tournaments, or if the location is that much better to you.
Aces only opened last week, I went a couple of times and it was completely empty. That said, it seems like a nice enough place although the dealers are very slow/new. Hopefully it does well.
Lone Star is the one I've actually gone to the most, and its $25/day is obviously miles ahead price-wise of the other places (especially on Saturday, when they open at 4 and close at 2). Unfortunately it's also the worst venue (aside from maybe Aces, but Aces only just opened) in terms of action, comfort, security, and dealer quality. It's basically a repurposed warehouse. There's usually only 1 table going, up to 3 when they open for their tournament, but their tournament structure is incredibly weird with rebuys open when the starting stack is 1.5 big blinds, and the big blind doubles geometrically while the time per level drops, so you're basically playing a normal tournament for an hour until you're basically forced all in. All the while their cash game players are kind of forced to wait for the tournament to end to play, at which point many of them just get frustrated and leave. They're moving up to $9/hour at some point in September, at which point I expect the venue will die- they're nice people, but they compound bad managerial decisionmaking with resistance to player opinions. They could still carve a good niche as a "value" place to play if they go to $4-$5/hr, but right now they're going in charging the same rate as venues that outclass them across the board.