I have played at Mint at least 15 times now and every time I was there they had a Webster police officer providing security. He even walked me to my truck when I asked.

Good post

well thats good to hear - for it was not the case on numerous nights and many dealers ended up quitting

for a while management was taking most of employee tips (up to their guarantee) - that stopped after it was reported

I've been regularly driving to Lake Charles on the weekends and hosting my own games on Fridays to get my fix, but this thread convinced me to give Mint a try this weekend.

People seem to either love or hate Clive for whatever reason, but being decently close to Katy I wouldn't mind giving his new room a fair chance too. If it really is $2 seat rental with decent security that sounds like a steal.

lol...most of my ex's feel the same way...

I support the entire rake free agenda - I just have a problem with Eakman - why do you think he does not have any Aces & Angels promotions anymore - I have literally 100s of thousands of dollars in problems - Anyone that would rip off a charity - just deserves to be "outed"

Room opening in Richardson Aug 25th I heard tonight. Off of 75 and Campbell.

Bump

Another. This one will be on the North side off FM 1960

http://www.acessocialclub.com/

Interested in trip reports if anyone goes to Post Oak for its opening weekend/opening few weekend stuff. Mint is much more persistent in their marketing, but PO is new.

Most interested in seeing if anyone who has the owner's ears thinks there is a chance of them reducing their fees to market rates.

PO owner and their investors are taking the high road of exclusivity

The only club with a liquor license

Would also be interested in how the games were at post oak.
I really like Mint but this one is closer for me

MINT seems to have got the jump on everyone else. They always have at least 3 tables going and last Saturday night had 10. Awesome poker Club seems to be struggling to get games off. Hopefully Post Oak will be good. I expect they will due to location even though their fees are higher.

So I decided to put this to the test as a player - I believe that both rake free and raked games have their positive and negatives - I am not going get into them in this post

JUST RESULTS

11 games of rake free
Time was never less than 5 hrs (with 1 exception game broke in 2 hrs) and averaged 7 hrs per session
Positive results in 10 out of 11
8 of the games I won - I was the biggest winner of the game
in 6 of the games the time charge was 50-80% of my profit - this left me so little profit that I gave the dealer almost all of my profit except $20
In one game I made $600 profit after a time charge of $70 and tipped the dealer $137
The last remaining game I was a dead break even after time charge and dealer tip of $20

Raked games (same period) - 15 games - 11 wins - 1 break even
Kept a rack of $1 chips to keep track of how much I was tipping - if i made a profit over $100 ...included the rack of $1 chips - I split the remaining among the dealers that night.

the 3 losses were 100-200 each
the wins were 200-1100 and an average of $400
the break even last night was a friend's game that I lost $100 in 10 min of PLO....played 5 hrs of $1/2 - ended up $135 - tipped the game girl $5 for a plate of food to take home and split the $30 on the remaining two dealers. When I got to the car I was proud of my $100 win but on the way home realized I had lost it in 10 min of PLO.

This being said - in none of the rake free games was I a member of the club - but their owners were generous enough to charge me as if I was a member - in addition I over tipped the dealers (if you can do something) for it was frustrating to not tip the dealer and I knew that the losers were probably not going to tip very much.

Rake free has a different feel - I am old skool and frankly you don't know where you are in total profitability - in one case i played 2.15 hrs - the game broke and I was charged for 3 hrs.

Being that I had high win ratios in both games and the rake free games I was the biggest winner and still actually did not even make as much as the time charge - almost 90% of the other players had to be losers.

In the raked games I was the biggest winner about 50% of the time.

I come to these conclusions
There are two different audiences in the games.
Rake free games tend to have very tight nit players (and actually not high quality)
Raked games tend to have more aggressive and looser players and there are more skilled players.

Because the rake free games have less actions - it favors the guys that play more hands
Because there is more money flowing in raked games - the chances of a big score is much higher and favors the tighter players.

BUT

the hourly rate of the game is a very high factor in the game - anything over 4 BBs an hour is almost unbeatable and if you can pay 2 BBs per hr - I think the game is beatable.

The best solution for these clubs is actually a fixed price for the month and no time charge at all for a reasonable period (5 hrs). That may end up being a totally new concept of private club.

Anyone know what the stance is for these rooms pertaining to concealed carry?

Do they post 30.06 signs?

At Mint there is a sign saying they support concealed carry and owner has one on his hip if that helps?

I didnt see a sign the one time I went to Pokerrooms of Texas in Plano.

I assumed that they might count on the fact that there are numerous concealed handguns as a bit of a robbery deterrent.

Anyone play poker tournaments at this Austin Poker Alliance over by Lakeway Mall?

Card Player magazine with a good article on Post Oak Poker Club

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news...e-houston-club

And another from a local rag. Certainly behaving as if they have no need to hide. Interesting this article mentions the cost difference with Mint.

http://houston.culturemap.com/news/c...poker/#slide=0

As a player I am loving all these places opening. More the better IMO

I read the Culture Map and Cardplayer Magazine interviews/articles on Post Oak Poker Club yesterday.

They were also featured on the KPRC news last night. A live report was shot from there - linked below

https://www.click2houston.com/news/l...-galleria-area

It also has five 5/5 Yelp reviews, which is already the most of any Houston-area rake free room and it just officially opened less than a week ago.

Seems really interesting and promising to me. I like the style they're going for. Seems classy, and I like how they seem to have a full restaurant/sports bar/cigar bar/"pro shop". it's like theyre trying to be a country club, but for poker, with the wives hanging out and whatnot. Supposedly they already have plans to expand.

I am going to try to go this Friday. The rake is definitely a little on the high side, but seems like a pretty ideal place other than that. I recommend everyone read the Card Player interview linked three posts above. Shows some insight into their thought process and plans for the place. Seems like the people running it are taking it seriously and trying to do the best possible job that they can.

I wish there was a place where you could pay maybe $250 - $500 per month and play unlimited poker and get unlimited (non alcoholic) drinks.

Do these places care if you bring your own water and food, since they serve food and drink for sale?

Ruh roh...KPRC Channel 2 broadcast an interview with Houston City Councilman Greg Travis about Post Oak Poker Club in which he vowed, "I will do everything I can in my power to get them shut down."

Here's the link: https://www.click2houston.com/news/l...lub-in-houston

The report also said Post Oak Poker Club is now under investigation by the Houston Police Department.

...pass the popcorn!

I didnt see where it said anything about an investigation by police in this article? It seems to me they are being as transparent as possible. I did think it was a nice touch they were worried about the criminal element and poker players being robbed when leaving as a security concern.

Oh wow. Very very interesting. Being that this is in Houston's wealthiest area, I can see this getting very very political with Houston's richest families all trying to sway the outcome. I know one rich guy who lives nearby who can't like it at all - Tillman Fertitta.