Anyone have any information on availability of dealing jobs in the Houston area, or how that even works? Curious if its like the old days where you show up, show em you can sling cards, and they throw you in the box. I deal in Las Vegas and am considering relocating.

empire opening up in Humble?

Are you thinking strictly the legit places or are you considering the underground places as well?

I guess I don't know the difference. I called Legends, they say theyre always looking for dealers, and Im a PLO dealer, so that seems a match.

Only place I've played there was at the small Rounders room, which I liked. Anything more underground than that, I'll pass.

Haven't played live in HTown since before the plague. Back then, it was all about Prime. Seems that's changed. Anyone willing to share an overall sense of where the action has moved to in the Houston rooms? Used to play the 1.3 / $1k max game, dunno' what the current equivalent is.

D Magazine article about Dallas trying to shut down poker rooms:

https://www.dmagazine.com/publicatio...once-approved/

poker room shut down by sherrif - TOP ROOM

Was this a public room?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...ion/ar-AAUWMjk

top shelf poker room flint tx

Looks like they were using the "legal" model.

https://topshelfpokerroom.com/

I had to look up Flint, Tx, had never heard of it before. Suburb of Tyler, population 13k. BFE E.Tx doesn't seem like the smartest place to try to challenge state gambling laws, does it?

Oh, Top Shelf. I'm familiar with that room.

I've pushed a Vegas trip 2 years because of a plague and just booked a trip to Austin last week for next week. I was looking forward to playing po ... er... joining a private social club that in no way benefits financially from gambling activities.

Sorry, Texas, for bringing my run bad to the state.

I'll be in Austin for about a week and am also looking to join a private social club that in no way benefits financially from gambling activities, such as 1/2NL, 1/3NL, and 2/5NL with 30+BB minimum buy-ins.

I'll be staying downtown and would prefer something nearby (within a 1 hour bike ride or easy-ish bus travel), but if nothing exists, I'll rent a car.

Please advise. :-)

I think your options are Shuffle and Texas Card House.

The City of Dallas's Board of Adjustment just unanimously voted 5-0 in favor of TCH Dallas to reinstate their certificate of occupancy.

I thought the city attorney came out pretty strong while the TCH attorney came out pretty weak. The board shredded the Dallas city attorney though and then the TCH attorney finished strong rebutting the Dallas city attorney's previous points.

IMO, the crux of it came down to the fact that the city did do it's due diligence when TCH first opened and didn't really have a valid reason to pull the certificate of occupancy. The board can't really render a legal opinion, and the city's attorney's legal opinion alone wasn't enough to convince them considering the city doesn't even have the support of the DA, the state attorney general, or the police department on this, nor have there been any arrests/prosecutions or legal precedents that would give the board reason to side with the city on revocation of the certificate of occupancy.

Nice.

Can Dallas “appeal” to higher authority? Will they? What does this imply for the other room who could not get a permit?

If board is unanimous for TCH, why was their even an attempt to pull permit? I am confused why any of this happened.

As I think was previously stated, the room is 'near' an area where some of the residents/churches don't want it. Well, they had their chance the first time around as I'm sure there was a public hearing on the occupancy permit (maybe). Those folks probably contribute to the DA's campaign fund, eh? At a minimum it was on the agenda for at least two meetings as is typical for city councils. The first time on the agenda is for discussion and the 2nd time is for the vote. If there's basically no discussion, council can go straight to a vote .. it all comes down to the bylaws of the city.

The city DA could go to the state and ask them to step in somehow, but since the state doesn't appear to want to do anything about this right now anywhere else that's probably a long shot. If the DA 'is' an elected official, he could continue to make waves somehow if he chooses without approval of the council.

I don't know of any posts that would suggest that TCH or Prime Social are handling the 'poker' in violation of the law. It's the other rooms that have shills, are 'charging' for drinks or flat out raking pots that are cracking the door for state regulation of some sort.

The city council can choose to limit the number of 'these' types of business and/or have the opinion that the location is not right for that type of business. That certainly could be challenged in court. But in general I think this is a win for any other potential room operator. This will happen more than you think .. I've seen plenty of times where a city will deny a 2nd car wash or gas station basically on the same corner as another.

Note the DA in the issue in Flint, TX was confusing, but I think they were 'cutting the pot' in that room, which is a violation of TX law.

Good for TCH and any other locations that can possibly use this vote (ruling) as a spring board to their own venture. GL

According to the city, the certificate of occupancy was pulled because it had been issued in "error" when they didn't have a clear understanding of the law. However, it's painfully obvious the real motivation for pulling the certificate of occupancy was because the city is being sued by Champions Poker Club which had been denied a certificate of occupancy. The building official who pulled TCH's certificate of occupancy was unable to name the parties that brought the matter to their attention in the first place (more evidence this was politically motivated).

The board of adjustments is composed of unpaid private citizens who are appointed by the city council. They are supposed to be unbiased in their decisions. Interestingly enough, the board member who seemed to come after the city attorney the most was the member appointed by the city councilwoman most opposed to poker rooms. Perhaps that's just his style though. The board member from East Dallas (where Shuffle 214 is located) indicated that she changed her opinion based on today's testimony.

The combination of costing 200+ people their jobs, combined with a loss of a million dollars/yr in tax revenue, combined with the anti-business nature of pulling a CO after approving it despite the land use not changing probably didn't sit that well with the board members.

BTW, it appears that shuffle 214's case was last on the agenda today. I didn't watch that far, but given how long the TCH case took and the fact that the board had 7 cases total to review, it wouldn't surprise me if the Shuffle 214 case was moved to next month. The arguments for/against should be virtually the same for Shuffle.

Actually, TCH is in a shopping center within an industrial area of town. There are exactly zero Dallas residents that live near it. If you pointed at TCH Dallas's location on a map and asked someone that knows Dallas whether that location is in the city of Dallas, they would most likely tell you it is not because it's on the other side of the highway by itself seemingly in the city of Farmer's Branch (but it's actually Dallas)

Champions, which is suing the city of Dallas is near a pretty wealthy neighborhood and that is what started all this.

The District Attorney is on the county level, not the city. The city claims they did not consult with the District Attorney on this. There does not currently appear to be support from the Dallas County District Attorney to shut these poker rooms down. All the city could produce was a letter from the Collin County DA. Collin County is where Champions is located, but not where TCH, Shuffle214, or Poker House are located. The vast majority of the city of Dallas is located in Dallas County.


It's a gray area that can be interpreted in different ways.

There was a claim in the hearing today that the Smith Co room was taking a rake and that is why they were shut down. Perhaps that is true but it's not how I interpreted what the the Smith Co Sherriff said. It seems to be his opinion that charging fees is a violation of state laws, which if true would put any room with this business model in the cross hairs.

One of the review board members recommended that TCH start paying dealers a wage rather than relying on tips. Tipping is another gray area of potential economic benefit from winning a pot. Of course, TCH is making money hand over fist and paying their employees more would cut their margins.


The review board doesn't set any precedents at all but there are certainly some things that can be learned from this. There were some questions about the law that the TCH attorney did a poor job of answering.

D Magazine article about this: Legal Poker Rooms Defeat the Dallas City Attorney (For Now)

The Lodge Championship Series in Austin/Round Rock has some pretty nice guarantees. Thinking of making a trip down for 2 weeks or so to play the 500K and 750K guarantees as well as a bunch of 2/5-5/10 and possibly higher on the side. Wondering how the cash games will be during that time?

Never .. ever .. wonder about how the cash games are in Texas .. GL

It appears Mike Matusow has now an owernship/partnership with 52 Social. This is the newer poker room which open across the freeway from The Lodge in Round Rock, TX. The active games at 52 social on the weekend are much less than what The Lodge offers.

https://twitter.com/themouthmatusow/...6438921351174/