Continuing this thread here, as it was closed in "live", and in "gossip"
and in "legislation."

Prestige poker in Austin is opening it's doors tonight:
http://theprestigeatx.com/

Completely free play until 8/1/2017.
No seat rentals. No membership fees. Free to play cash games of any stakes you nominate (by lists of interest displayed on TV billboard). Dealers provided. No rake EVER. Definitely no tipping. Come help us get started and voice your opinions on how the card club should be setup!

The Austin area now has 5 poker rooms:

Texas Card House South: https://www.texascardhouse.com/south-austin
Texas Card House North: https://www.texascardhouse.com/north-austin
Chisholm Trail Card Club: http://www.texascardrooms.com/ (Round Rock)
Throne Poker: https://www.thronepoker.com/home
Prestige Poker: http://theprestigeatx.com/

Plano: http://www.pokerroomsoftexas.com/
Flint: https://www.tiltpokerroom.com/ - South East of Dallas
San Antonio: http://www.alamocardhouse.net/
Houston: http://mintpokerclubs.com/

So it's a poker charitable organization??

Home Poker games in a business establishment?? Right! You sound like Trump making a pitch. Home means somebodys house in English, not a store front. Good luck with your business , however. We still don't have enough places to play in many areas.

Um, I clearly stated that I'm looking for a place to continue this thread.

But, you used it to find an excuse to bash Trump (WTF?)

Sigh.

Played at the Prestige room last night for the first time. They offer .25/.50 NL (max $200 buy in), and also ran a PLO game.

It's a great deal right now, because through Aug 1st, there are no seat fees.

Butt hurt libs always take jabs. Can't admit defeat

Went to the Throne Poker Room last night. Very friendly atmosphere. Players were talkative and the owner was also very friendly. I felt very welcome and safe. Tables are nice and so are the chips. I highly recommend and will definitely be returning to play. Btw it was a $1/2NL game that ended up being raised to a $2/5NL game since all the players were deep and wanted the change.

Glad to hear you liked the tables at Throne. They've been talking to me about possibly building 4 more for them. Sounds like business is good.

This would be a good thread to list all the similar type places opening around Texas. Here are two that I know of..

http://awesomepokerclub.com/

http://lonestarcardhouse.net/

So I guess this thread is it since every other sub has thrown us out?

Texas Card House North grand opening is this weekend. They're running 36 hours straight 4:00pm Friday - 4am Sunday and then have a $10K guarantee on Sunday.

I drive by that location regularly and have been peeking in as they near completion - the place looks beautiful. Nicer than casino card rooms. I think this place is going to smash it.

I will post a full trip report after this weekend. Still haven't had a chance to hit up Chisolm Holm or Prestige - would love to see trip reports if anyone can provide.

I played at Prestige a couple times last week. In talking with the owner, he wants
to be the "Walmart" of poker in the area, keeping costs low, and filling the room.

He's still not charging any fees at all, and has plenty of free food, drinks... etc

The nights I played, it was .25/.50 NLHE and .25/.25 PLO (with $1 to come into the pot).
The guys seemed to like alternating between rotations of hold em and PLO.

They had a couple tables going most of the night.

Can someone explain to me the business model of these places charging no fees? Especially the one also giving away free food and drink...

Played at the Texas Card House North in ATX. It is nice and the games were well run. 6 tables of 1/2 with tons of stacks 300bb+ deep. 1 2/5nl table super deep. 5/5 plo super super deep. Brand new tables, chips and chairs. Dealers are decent.

The 'no fees' is a temporary loss-leader to get people to patronize the place.

I think he said he'll start charging fees August 1st, but is going to try
to have the lowest fees in the area.

News article about Texas Card House (north) Austin, with video:

http://www.twcnews.com/content/news/...-success-.html


Poker clubs in Austin double down on gaming success
By Victor Diaz
Tuesday, June 27, 2017 at 09:42 PM EDT


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AUSTIN, Texas -- Any night of the week in a Northwest Austin shopping center, you could either wipe out or win big playing poker.

Thousands of dollars are on the line every night at the newest Texas Card House, where the atmosphere is similar to a casino poker room.

"People still don't still believe it, it's almost too good to be true," said Texas Card House founder Sam Von Kennel.

Von Kennel said he has heard the horror stories about underground poker games and saw a good business opportunity when he opened the first Texas Card House in South Austin two and half years ago.

He's also a former legislative aid for the state's licensing committee, which handles gaming.

So he knows how to toe the line on state gambling laws.



"It's rake free, it's tip free and inside the club whether you're playing for a dollar or a million dollars it's a completely legal game," said Von Kennel.
The success of his first club in South Austin enabled expansion to North Austin, where he says twice as many poker players live. The setup is like a country club, you pay a membership fee starting at ten dollars to enter and you're charged for the amount of time you spend inside. The house doesn't get a cut of the pot, the money gambled all goes back to the winning players.

"We take great steps to make sure that everything we're doing is legal, no tipping, no rake but if something does change we're going to try to be ahead of it," said owner Ryan Crow.



The owners say they've had no legal challenges so far. Other card clubs are now running in Round Rock and Pflugerville, giving the local poker community even more opportunities for action.

​"You take a growing vibrant city and you combine it with a recreation that really has a world wide affinity and its a good combination," said Texas Card House partner Justin Northcutt.

That's a combination they hope remains a win win situation for the club owners and players.
-- Learn The Differences --
Illegal poker rooms

No charge to enter a game
Rake a percentage of each pot
Dealers accept tips

Legal Poker Clubs

Charge a membership fee
Charge for the time spent in the club
No rake taken from the pot
Dealers can not accept tips

Another new club is open in North Houston/spring area.Opening July 21st.

www.vintageparkpokerclub.com

Wow, most expensive fees I've seen:

$10 initiation fee
$15 daily fee
$15 hourly fee

https://www.vintageparkpokerclub.com/membership

$15 an hour isn't bad. I'm sure some dork has run the numbers on the average rake at 1/2. What is it?

Played at Plano couple times last week. Overall very good. Seems safe, good dealers, friendly atmosphere. Its $11/hr now.

Pros: location, no rake or tip, free snacks/soda/coffee/water, security guards. Fast WiFi.

Cons: 10 handed, chairs suck

Assuming an average of 20 hands/hour reach $5 max rake (just a guestimate that is probably more hands than max, but makes up for lesser raked hands we're just ignoring), an average 1/2 table rakes $100/hour. At a 9-handed table, that's $11/hour per player, and $10 hour at a 10-handed one.

Bump the max to $6, and it's $13/$12 per player per hour. Long story short, if we are playing 10-handed and paying $15/hr, it is about equal to a max rake of $7.50 per hand. And that's just rake, not $5 rake plus $2 for jackpots like some places have. That seems very high to me. Sure, we're saving the tips, but we also pay an entry fee.

I Live in Tomball, TX and I have only played at Lone Star Card House in Houston (Conroe). I am interested in checking out Mint Poker Room but that is a drive for me. I recently heard about Awesome Poker and Just heard about Vintage Park Poker opening soon. Vintage Park is 5 min from me so that is exciting.

Texas card house north side is far better establishment than south side. Only drawback it smells constantly like rubber do to next door AutoZone

I played at Mint poker 4 times last week. Played 1/3 with no max buy-in. Overall the action was very good. I would also add that overall the players were decent. I booked 3 winning sessions and had one where I lost about 200 bucks...