That article is worth a read. Note the author!

In the future, however, it is anticipated that Texas prosecutors and local agencies, tempted by lucrative seizure opportunities, will once again attempt to shut down local gambling clubs. Certainly such efforts will not cease in Harris County as the district attorney made clear that such establishments are illegal. Moreover, the club owners and employees of Prime Social and the Post Oak clubs are not in the clear as their cases were referred to the FBI for consideration.

Zack Fertitta
is a partner in the Houston law firm of Fertitta Reynal. He represented Prime Social and secured the dismissal of criminal charges associated with the club.

I don't have a specific case to cite in TX. I did look at a couple of older cases, a long time ago, from a couple of other states. None of these private clubs were charging time for poker. They were charging dues to be a member, and thus gain entry to the club. What you did while there was up to you, within the club's rules.

However, if a club can charge a monthly fee, why not an hourly fee? There is no obvious reason why one method is OK, and the other one not. I know the club's (in these other states) that are the most careful either charge a one-time fee per day (not by the hour), or if they charge an hourly fee, they do so even if you are not playing. That is, if you come there to hang out, they still make you pay every hour. That way, law enforcement can't make stick any claim that they're only charging for poker.

The most obvious thing is this. The matter will never be truly settled until there is a definitive court case in TX. Or, until the state legislature makes a law that specifically legalizes the clubs. That does not mean they are currently illegal. It just means nobody can say with 100% certainty which way it will go if a club gets busted, and the owners fight it to the end in court. Personally, I think they should all be considered legal. I don't like the government telling adults what to do, when whatever they are doing is not directly harming another.

Cheers, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

Oh I noticed. Politics, gambling and the name Fertita go back a long way in the Houston/Galveston area.

Surprised no one has mentioned the "New" 52 Social that will be opening in a few weeks right next to Johnny Chan's 88. This is going to be good. 88 has gotten greedy so good to see some competition opening up right next door. Going to be interesting to watch.

Great YouTube video of the new Lodge room .. check it out.

Nice to see some security, but I'd also like to see them build some sort of foyer to make sure that all that gain entry are members .. and perhaps not packing. (Don't know the exact laws in that area) And then with the cage right next to the door as it could be easy in easy out. GL

Where is the new location for the Lodge?

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Thanks for the Heads Up answer20

ms gamboolgal and I are booked at Hilton and will be at the new LodgeMaHall room for next few days....

Lets gambool....

ETA, the old room was 30.06 posted, i.e., no CCW allowed. And they have always had armed Security and will walk you to your vehicle if it's late and your a apiece out in the parking lot.....

I believe the new Lodge is about 200 yards from the old Lodge .. GL

Yeah, it's literally two doors down in the same strip center.

I like the new room in general, but they're still working out some kinks. It's very loud in there and the microphones starting fritzing out Friday evening, so they've been having to figure out how to get people moving correctly. They've also hired a lot of new brushes in particular, so even though there are a lot of them around they don't seem to be particularly effective yet. But room management is still really good so I'm confident things will get better.

I might be in Texas for a few days in November.

Does the Lodge in Austin have match the stacks at $1/2?

Dgis Back,

You are correct, management at Johnny Chan's 88 have gotten a bit greedy. While it is still a great place to play, they have instituted a few things that are definitely negatives including: the door fee used to be $10 a day, $50 a month, or $200 a year. Now the only options are $10 a day or $88 a month. This is a huge increase from the yearly of $200 to now a minimum of $1,056. Even if the $200 for the year was too low, don't raise it 528%! make it $299, $399, or even $499.

The time charge is still reasonable at $8.00 to $12.00 an hour, depending on how much you buy at a time. However, they now require your card when you sign up so that when a seat opens up you are clocked in immediately, before you even get to the seat, get chips, and are dealt a hand. This is wrong in my opinion and very anti customer. Also, they have discontinued happy hour where they offered 1/2 off time ($12.00 to $6.00. so not much of a discount for people that buy time in larger quantities) at the less popular times of the day. Again, that doesn't affect me much as I buy time in bulk at the lower rates and also tend to play poker late, as "Poker is a Night Game" and not during the afternoon, but still it is a negative.

Finally, almost every player agrees that the food is much improved from prior ownership, but they are extremely proud and charge accordingly.

That being said, I very much enjoy playing there and recommend Johnny Chan's 88 to all poker players, especially if you prefer PLO. The action is pretty good and there are plenty of games at any/all hours, the Security is much improved and the dealers and floor are pretty solid, I just wish they would slow down on the price increases, and definitely hope they don't raise the hourly time rake. Prime Social had all the business 18-24 months ago, but the higher rake, inadequate parking, combined with management's poor attitude towards customer retention and satisfaction, has resulted in a place that is now almost empty (looking at poker atlas is says Prime Social has 1 live game currently while Johnny Chan's 88 has 17 live games).

Tuffbeat

Agree Tuff. $28 for a diced beef and veggies is a little excessive. Good thing it’s Houston and there’s a taco truck out in the parking lot.

They do a good job with security presence. Just sucks that the location requires it to the extent they have it.


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Legends poker opening next door to 8& social. This move will doom Houston Poker just watch

OMC,

I play at the Lodge and now the new LodgeMahal a good bit as #1 daughter lives in Austin and we go visit fairly regularly

The 1/3 changed to $600 max Buy In Cap.

The 2/5 is now Match the Stack - which makes more sense.

The 1/2 has a $300 max Buy In but it is fairly normal for Stacks to grow to $1k or more as lots gambooling...

All the best in November. We might see you there....

gamboolman....

Freerolls under new management now named POKERSTARRS POKER CLUB.
Hope Trent Daniel paid back them investors with his fake sale!
Such a beautiful room with worse management and owners in history of poker clubs.

i was surprised by this move (sort of) - what happened to all the people that bought shares in the company in the public offering and does anyone have a link to that?

Not sure what happened but I’m sure nothing good came of it. Wouldn’t doubt it’s same ownership just faking new ownership knowing Trent.
I didn’t think they would have lasted this long. He’s pretty much went Ghost on social media.

Looking to relocate to the Texas area. Planning a 2-3 week trip to see how I will like the area. Dallas, San Antonio, Austin seem to be the places with the best rooms.

- What rooms are best for full time players? I heard action is bigger so 1/3, 1/2, 2/5 is what I will be planning.
- suggestions for AirBnb locations?
- rental car vs rideshare?

Any other tips? New to the membership card rooms that is offered in Texas.

Polk's discussion with Hanson on Texas Poker.

Learned a lot.

Why Everyone Is FREAKING OUT About Poker In Texas

With the terrible choice of name and the trial-software-stock-images-promo-video they put up, I'd bet everything I have that POKERSTARS is just another ploy by Trent to scam as many people out of $15 per hand as possible until he sells for real and disappears with the money.

"Per hand"? Is that a typo?

No. Freerolls 'Pings' the pot for $15 in NLH (used to be $10) and $20 for Omaha (used to be $15). They have a 'player' in seat 10 who is dealt cards and folds every hand, and the dealer collects the ping and gives it to them every hand. They make you sign a form that you volunteer to donate the 'ping' to the seat 10 player every hand if you win, and if you refuse to volunteer they ask you to leave.

This is Trent's latest insane way to say they don't take an illegal rake. How anyone still plays there is beyond me.

Whaaaa???

Ignoring how this is or is not less illegal for a bit...that's 3x/4x times what casinos/rooms typically rake. Why would you play there at that at all?

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How about a list of those room that "rake" currently

Not that anyone wouldn't believe me, but here are the new Freerolls tables. They have a special seat 10 with a chip rack for the rake. Their slogan is even 'Ping10'

https://www.facebook.com/freerollspo...5633128573173/