Coming up Sat September 9th at Georgetown Poker they'll be hosting a 50K Guaranteed Battle of the Clubs. A ton of players from multiple Poker Bros clubs will be flying into town to play this event, each club will be a team of players, competing for a special team prize and also individual prizes.

You do not have to be a club member to play, we expect a few teams to have open slots and can accommodate individual players who'd like to attend.

Tonight at 7pm at Georgetown Poker Club we're starting our brand new 10-Game Mix (5/10 limit stakes) to allow newcomers to learn many of the base games played in our Monday 10/20 Dealers Choice.

Here's the rotation list for tonights game.

A-5 Lowball
Badugi
Drawmaha
Razz
Big O
2-7 Triple Draw
Stud 8 Or Better
Archie
Squid Game
Clock


The 1st Wednesday of every month guys play with no time charges, every other Wednesday it's ladies play free of charge. If you want a seat tonight let me know!

I'll be there 10/6 and 10/8. Looking forward to playing.

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52 Social has been sold and will be rebranded as Poker House - Austin, it just showed up the other day on Poker Atlas with a "coming soon" notification.

If anyone is interested in working at Poker House Austin, here's the info:

I don't see how opening a new Card Room in the same location that 52 Social failed at - that is less than a mile from The Lodge will be successful?

I'm all for new rooms and wish the best for Poker House, but I think they have a tough time ahead of them.

We are heading to Austin to see #1 daughter and to play at The Lodge for the Holiday Classic next week and will be their for almost two weeks.
If Poker Houses is open, I'll stop by and see what's up.

The reason 52 Social failed was because the owner was toxic towards staff and members. If you have the right leadership and culture, it can be successful.

In addition, the room is absolutely stunning, we have a full bar and restaurant (most other rooms in this area will sell you a bag of chips, not really ideal if you're on the grind and want something substantial)

Presently we don't have an opening date set as we're still renovating and getting staffing in order. At the end of the day, I think the market is more than large enough for both rooms to be successful and appreciate your well-wishes

What on earth are Squid Game, Archie and Clock?

Squid Game

three-board Omaha, but on the river the lowest card kills that board (if two boards have the same lowest card both boards are killed, if all three boards have the same card on the river they all remain). The pot is then split amongst the best hand on each remaining board.


Archie

Each player receives five cards, it's a triple draw high/low split game with qualifiers (pair of 9's or better for high, 8-qualifier for low)


Clock

Each player is dealt five cards. Then 8 cards are dealt face-up in the center of the felt. On each street, the last player to take an aggressive action gets to go first (there are three "draws"). When action is on you, you may take a face-up card from the board and then replace it with one of your own cards (turned face-up as other players will now have the option to take that card). You can also stand pat if there are no cards you wish to take, but that doesn't lock you in to remaining pat on future draws.

It's a high/low split game, so you're trying to make the wheel or the best high hand you can. Because everything is face-up you generally can deduce fairly quickly if your opponents are going for the high or low, based on what cards they're taking and what cards they're giving up.

Usually on the high side you'll see full houses at a minimum winning, but quads show up quite frequently as well. I remember I pulled quad queens and was watching the other players who were all pulling low cards, so I felt pretty safe, until one of them showed up with a steel wheel in the end to scoop. Straight flushes happen but are much less likely.

Still, I've folded quads correctly and incorrectly based on the cards my opponent was taking (I've even seen a Jack-high straight flush run into a King-high straight flush).

Additional progress on Poker House Austin has been made, opening in January but they'll have some special pre-opening games running that'll be announced on their page. Did a screengrab from the full video here:

Looks like good timing - we have to go to Austin unexpectedly for afew days.

We always stay in Round Rock so I can play Poker at The Lodge - while ms gamboolgal visits and takes care of #1 Daughter & Granddaughter.

Coincidentally, it looks like Poker House is opening on Fri, 22-Dec-23.

I'm planning on playing there Opening Day and the weekend.

Looking forward to Poker House opening. I will try to post a 1st impressions trip report.

Awesome, looking forward to seeing you! Be aware this is a soft-opening with a planned Grand Opening later in January

We still have some work that will be done to improve the aesthetics of the room coming later, but here's a shot from last night while I was there prepping for todays 4pm opening




And here's the latest update on member promotions and special rates:

How is the bad beat funded?

Initially the room has funded the BBJ and all other promotions (high hands, flush frenzy, etc). We are doing a $2 promotional drop that is 100% returned to the players via all promotions with no admin fees withheld. No flop, no drop.

Despite short notice before the holidays we had a great turnout tonight, four full tables running (two 1/2 NLH, a 1/2/5 ROE and a 10/20 O8 with half-kill). I just got home and gotta crash, back in the a.m. working again

Hey Tampa, just want to weigh in here for a moment. Saw you guys took over the location across the street that used to be social 52, im sure you guys will do a better job of running that location than the last guys did (who eventually just turned it into an illegal casino in the back.)

I do want to weigh in on the $2 promotional drop, which is absolutley illegal. The law is clear, ill explain below.

When the House takes money out of the pot, even if it is all given away later, it violates this provision of the affirnative defense: (2) a person involved in the gambling does not receive any economic benefit other than personal winnings".

The violations are two-fold, a person winning the pot does not receive all of its proceeds — because the House effectively takes $2 of it away him; and the house benefits by taking the $2 (Clearly not "personal winnings)", and therefore becomes directly involved in the gambling as opposed to just selling memberships and seats.

Now its tough to say what may or may not get enforced, poker is tricky and certainly places get away with things much worse than a $2 promo drop. But I think that people do have a right to know that this is illegal.

Note: I am not an attorney and am sharing this response provided by our Management Team.

WCGRider thank you for your response. We operate 100% legally within the Texas penal code. Our members agree to give $2 per hand of their winnings toward promotional funds such as bad beat jackpots, etc. We do appreciate your feedback and interest in our club.

Saying you operate 100% legally doesn't mean you are operating legally.

All money in the pot must be awarded to the player.

If they are awarded the pot and then have a real choice to give $2, it is likely legal. If it's taken from the pot before the pot is awarded, it is not a real choice.

(Agreeing to something illegal does not make it legal!)

Agree with Doug here. This is not legal and is essentially rake used to fund promos.

+1 for very likely illegal/bad idea to rake, even if for promos. Lol @ “players agree to give $2 per hand”, which I suppose works the same as “players agree to generously donate $10 per pot to the house in order to fund operations” in six months.

Disappointing misstep imo.

I'll pass along your concerns to our Management Team.

No you wont, you will abuse it until SWAT kicks in the front doors.

I’ll chime in on the matter with my point of view. I’m Jason Sackler one of the operators of Poker House Austin and have been a long-time member of the poker community. I’m not interested in a back and forth of what’s legal and what’s not because we are confident in our operation and the legality of it and I’m sure Doug and the Lodge have their own perspective, seeing as whatever our operation involves provides competition to their business.

I will preface my statements with the fact that we as a club do not take a “rake” out of any pot that goes to the benefit of the house. We generate revenue through membership fees, hourly seat rentals and having a full restaurant and bar for our players. We provide a nominal PSJ (Player Supported Jackpot) drop that many other prominent cardrooms throughout Texas have implemented and our members agree to upon sign up. This is intended to enhance the experience for all our members. Some of these other cardrooms may have alternate negative intentions or leaks in their accounting, but here at PHA 100% of these funds are transparently accounted for and allocated separately for our members to enjoy promotions in the form of jackpots, freerolls, high hand giveaways – whatever exciting way we can come up with to continuously provide a fresh exciting experience for the community. You can ask our front desk or management for the accounting of it at any point and we will be happy to provide all the necessary information needed to ease your mind that not only do we not profit from this PSJ, but as a business we also provide additional funding on top of this to enhance our promotions even further.

I’ve spent 20 years grinding poker and have been fortunate to be on the forefront of many poker booms throughout this period live and online. The game has taken me on an incredible journey up to this point and mine and my partner’s intentions are to help grow and expand the poker community together in the most positive way possible. We’re not here creating an environment where the house takes as much money as possible out of its player economy while slowly diminishing the quality of games and product they supply. We are in this for the long haul.

As for Doug – I commend you on everything you’ve accomplished with the Lodge. I’m sure as you know I’ve been working diligently for close to two years now trying to make a deal with the previous owner of this place to clean up the mess he started. If done correctly, I believe the competition we will provide as well as the product the Lodge puts out will only help grow this market and create a net positive experience for all poker players. With this fundamental mindset I’m sure we can all work towards growing this community bigger than imagined.

As you can see by the above response, I did relay the concerns to our Management Team for a response.

It matters to us to operate transparently within the poker community

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Jason appreciate the long response and the kind words.

There are many clubs that do a $2 drop, and there are a good number of clubs that outright rake. A $2 promo feels less bad to me than a rake, but in the eyes of the law, it is still a player receiving an economic benefit besides personal winnings.

The law for the affirmative defense states:

(2) no person received any economic benefit other than personal winnings;

If player A has $2 taken of his pot he won, and it was given to player B because he hit 4 aces; This is clearly economic benefit for player B other than personal winnings.

There cannot be an economic benefit in the game itself other than winning money playing poker.

I get not wanting to argue and go back and forth on this, and I recognize it's a nice way to create a promotional fund. But at the end of the day, this is breaks the second criteria of the defense.