Very likely a decision was made to keep the door fee as a separate fee so as to maintain the 'private' element of the game. It is all about the bobbing and weaving between operation and grey areas of a statute

In other words, ten bucks gets you INTO a private area. What you do once inside is up to you, but if you are going to play poker, you are getting gouged for the sixty bucks. The ones setting rates like that ensure that they won't get the players who want to stop after work and give the traffic a half hour to hour to die down...

On a somewhat related note (although mostly about 8-liners):

https://www.khou.com/article/news/in...b-3517409134f8

Here's another one by Wayne Dolcefino.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWGF...jvArxpkk-LQbCw

Didn’t like they brought Lions into it.

They did throw lions under the bus just a bit, but all the questions are fair to ask.

I have a strong “feeling” we are going to hear a lot more about this whole Houston raid story in the next 1-2 weeks. 😉

Here is an updated list of the "seat rental" membership model clubs still operating in Houston:(updated)

South
Mint Poker - $10 Daily/$15 Hour Seat rental.

South Houston Poker Club - $10 Daily/$8 Hour Seat Rental

Brazoria Social Club (in Lake Jackson) - $10 Daily and $10 an Hour.

East
Poker Warehouse - Not sure what their rates are

West
Freerolls - $10 Daily/$15 Hour (now they are calling it a Security Fee)

Players Poker Club - Just posted on FB they are considering opening on just Friday's and Saturday's only. Sounds like only for tournaments now (no cash games).

North
Rounders (Spring) - $40 Daily Members Fee

Star's Poker Club - $10 Daily - $10 Hour(now they are calling it a Security Fee)


North - Texas Card House - As a prior poster said they are still planning to open. Just put their signage up. Would be interesting to know if Bill Heuer is still involved after the Post Oak bust. If anyone is in the know please post. Rates for the Houston location have yet to be posted online.


The River Poker Club - Spring - $15 Daily Fee - $15 an hour

Grinders Poker Club - Cypress - $10 Daily Fee - $10 an hour

Central

Lion's - $10 Daily Fee + $60 per day

Royal Social Club - $40 Daily Membership fee plays all day

Mayfair Social Club - $40 Daily Membership fee plays all day

Kings & Cards - $10 Daily - $10 Hour Seat Rental Fee

Lone Star Social Club - 1985 W TC Jester Blvd - Not sure of their hourly charge but they have been posting on FB. Looks like they typically just get a 1/2 NL game and tourneys.


Newly added above in RED

16 active in the Htown area. Any others I missed? Please post.

Mint sent a text yesterday that they're doing a $25K freeroll for players who put in 50 hours between this weekend and the end of July. I haven't been in months but looking at PokerAtlas it seems like their business has downsized dramatically. Eakman really killed the golden goose there. Lesson to game runners: the network effect in poker is worth way, way more than squeezing out a couple of dollars.

Rounders was sending texts about happy hour pricing yesterday for those seated before 6:30P. Initially, it was going to be from 4:00PM to 6:00PM but a later text around 5:30P extended it to 6:30. "Save 20 bucks at checkin on your 20 dollar deposit"

No indication whether this will become a daily thing or just certain weekdays...

I've only played there once and that was before the landscape changed. I go past the Cypresswood exit on my way home but that intersection is a nightmare until later in the evening (to say nothing of the fight to get over from the managed lane to the exit).

On an unrelated note, I wonder if the ones claiming a fee as 'security fee' will come back to bite them. That sort of labeling is setting them up for issues if they ever got audited following some manner of inquiry. It arguably even sets up the ability for the State (via the TxOAG) to pursue claims of deceptive business practices except and unless they can demonstrate that every penny of the 'security fee' is going to pay for security personnel or equipment used specifically for monitoring of the premises.

Nothing has changed significantly in regards to tips. They have abandoned the credit card idea and gone back to charging hourly seat rental. The BBJ pull has been abandoned but nobody seems to know what is going to happen to the previously collected money.

i can tell you what is gonna happen...NOT A DAMN THING

I asked the dealers about BBJ and they said that the money was going to Freeroll tourney they announced.

The prize pool for the free roll was announced as $25K. That is not anywhere close to the amount that was collected.

and you expected?

you are lucky to get that

in past talking to his partners - his reply is SUE ME

Surprised no ones reported on Kings & Cards getting robbed last night.

It’s been reported many times on Houston Poker Live but the guy who runs HPL Ontwuan has to many personal interests with the guys who run that dump. It’s not surprising that place is probably the worst run room in Houston. The owner who thinks he knows everything about poker has no knowledge of security and probably doesn’t care cause would tap into his pockets cause security cost money. Now he will be a public nuisance and probably will get shut down and watched by authorities

What? What happened?

On Facebook look up Kings & Cards page. They made a sugar coated post about it there last night.

Just checked and they removed their post. Had heard from a player at another place that they got robbed the night of Sunday, May 26th. Checked their FB last night and the owner made a post saying they got robbed, no one was hurt and they would be upgrading all their security to make sure this never happens again and that they are a safe place to play. Also said they were working with the authorities to apprehend the robbers. They were closed yesterday.

One issue that people always had with this place was that there was no security there at all.

Hi all,

Will have some free time in Houston this Saturday between 9a-9p and looking to play some poker. Browsing pokeratlas, it seems like Lions would be most ideal for me both in terms of hours of operation and location. Can anyone comment on the 1/3 NLHE and PLO that run there? Max and average buy-in, how big the game plays, how good the action is, etc.

Thanks fellas!

PLO: No max buyin. A guy who goes every day buys in over $10K. At 1/3. Average stacks are around $500. Game skews kind of nitty, a lot of people there are exiles from Prime who nut peddle all day. The game is must-move and as you move through the tables, they usually get nittier and nittier. The game would be okay were it not for the must-move, but it's pretty punishing on long sessions. Game definitely kicks up at night, and especially near close, so stopping at 9 is not ideal.

On a related note, must-moves have to be one of the stupidest ways to organize a poker room. As in, literally more stupid than just reshuffling randomly. Survivorship bias stops the games from ever getting good unless a fish happens to run up a stack, and most of them quit when they do.

Absolutely hate it.

Disagree with a few things Zizek posted so will give my 2 cents.

Not sure what the initial cap on the game is (think it may be $3K) but it is then a buy up to the big stack game. One player in particular that is on Table 1 every day from open to close will buy up to the big stack any time anyone gets more chips than him. By the end of the say he typically will have a five figure stack (even though he loses most days overall).

The must move keeps the integrity of the games. If they didn't have this you would just have collusion as the same players would organize the games around certain fish and you would never get a seat. There would be constant arguments about seat changes etc. for the floor.

The PLO game is 1/3 with an optional $6 straddle under the gun or on the button with the button having preference. Approx 80% of the players are auto straddle. There are a few nits that won't straddle but for the most part most of the players do. Can open to 5x the big blind/straddle so games play big.

You underestimate how good these games can be. Once you get to know the player pool you should quickly know the difference between the nut peddlers and the gamblers. The nut peddlers are easy to read and easy to bluff on certain flops. How do I know? I do it on on a daily basis. They are getting four - five PLO tables a day so as you move through the tables you get to play with a wide variety of players.

If you are looking to play while in Houston I would definitely hit up Lion's over anywhere else that is currently open.

Don't get me wrong, I still think Lions is the best bet now. I just don't think must moves are good or necessary - Mint doesn't have one, not a lot of people seem to care what table they are on.

The game definitely plays closer to 5/10 than 1/3.

It would be nice to exploit tight players, but the room for creativity in 10(!) handed loose/passive Omaha is somewhat limited. Nut peddling is very close to optimal. These are the best poker games I've played in, but they're also the easiest, and I say that as someone who grinded SNGs and Razz.

So the game usually plays 1/3/6 with an open to 30? That does play pretty big, closer to 5/10 if anything. Do they use true pot count since there’s no bring-in? I hope the dealers are good at keeping track of pot. Mildly annoying when dealers in LA have to manually count the chips in the pot whenever anyone asks.

Also, do they let us run it twice?

Pot count is rarely an issue (they don't need exact pot, they round to increments of 5). Unlike in LA there's no actual regulation, so burden of accuracy is much lower. And yeah, it's definitely closer to 5/10 but you're not obligated to straddle if you're looking for 1/3 and will rarely be pressured into it.

You can run it twice at Lions. In fact in multiways you can run it twice even if a player wants to run it once, and if the player(s) wanting to run it once win nothing in the main pot (or maybe they have to win nothing at all, better question for BullTexasATM), then they will still run a second board only for the players who agreed to run it twice (which 70%-80% of people do).

Pot count is rounded up to $5 so if the pot is $32, pot would be $35 as an example. Dealers are pretty good at figuring out the pot(with a few exceptions).

Regarding running it twice, it's up to the players. If multiway and one person says they only want to run it once but the other 2 want to run it twice they will do that. If the player that only wants to run it once loses the first board, they would then run a 2nd turn and river. If he wins the original board there would be no 2nd run (unless he was the short stack and the others could agree to a 2nd run for the side pot only). If he loses they would run a second turn and river and players B & C would then use both boards to determine if one scoops or they split it. I'd say the majority of people agree to run it twice. Note if all in preflop and players agree to run it twice they won't run 2 separate boards. They will do a flop and then 2 turns and 2 rivers for the 2 boards.