Trooper had first mover advantage but was never popular enough to be truly considered the OG of the genre. He never really did enough on the poker side of poker vlogs which is what made Neeme significantly more successful

Are you kidding me? Trooper is the OG of Poker Vlogs and there is no disputing it. He was doing it for at least a couple years before the others came to the scene, and the others new it was safe to start because they were watching trooper do it successfully (at the time). That's like saying DJ Kool Herc, Grand Master Flash, and the Sugar Hill Gang didn't bring rap to the mainstream because Notorious BIG and Tupac sold way more records. GTFO

Trooper did start the ball rolling but imo to be considered an OG you actually need to be good at it. But if we remove that criteria and you simply just have to be the first to do something then he could be the OG

Then that is your very limited opinion because that is not what the definition of OG is. Also how was Trooper not successful or not good at it in the beginning? (I admit is vids are pretty much the nut low now, but they weren't 5 years ago) He started with zero subscribers and zero referrals. Brad and Neeme had Trooper's base that he built over the years to get a head start....and as many suspect they got the help with an outside pay for service to get initial views, likes, and inflated subscriber numbers through bots. Not saying I totally agree with that but many are suspicious at their initial speed of growth, especially on Brad's channel.

Some people definitely liked Troopers videos and still do. But lots of others found him to be boring and tiresome and this has always held back his channel. Neeme and Owen would have benefited from Trooper's viewers also being interested in their content but they quickly had a much broader appeal than Trooper ever did.

Anyway, this is getting a bit off topic for this thread and the perpetual Trooper debates will always have a home in the Las Vegas Vloggers thread!

I know nothing about the owner or his situation. However, Brad Owen, Andrew Neeme, and Doug Polk are in a unique posiition with their social media presences where they can potentially create value that the existing owner can not. Sometimes businesses are sold because the business is of more value to the new owners than the old owners. Perhaps the existing owner has taken the business as far as he thinks he can take it, but Polk/Neeme/Owen have a vision to take it even farther. A sale of a business can be a win/win situation for everyone involved.

there is 100x more money in texas and therefore the games are way better. Vegas is old news - dangerous full of broke scammers/hustlers no serious pros want to live there anymore.

Definitely agree with this. The cash the original owner got for selling to them + the stake he has in the new business will almost certainly be more valuable than having all the old business

Trooper is definitely the OG of poker vlogs, but he's also completely irrelevant now so they can just call Neeme the OG and nobody will question them because most people these days don't even know who Trooper is.

I think it's a woman who was the owner but I could be wrong. I remember watching on youtube when they moved into their new bigger room they celebrated and the announcers mentioned the owner was there and it was a woman.

There are plenty of lawyers on both sides. But what they say isn’t what matters. What matters is if DAs and or AG decide to make it an issue (the Houston DA attempt was a corrupt joke. Hell some think it was intentionally screwed up to help the rooms). Then all that matters is what the courts say.

Any room servering alcohol is in clear violation of TABC regs, with or without a liquor license. Any room using a ping ten setup is in clear violation. Any room allowing chips from table for tips is in clear violation.

No new laws are needed to go after the rooms. There are enough rooms skirting on the wrong side to bring down everyone should the right people decide to try.

Poker rooms pay vloggers like Neeme and Owen to visit their rooms because when they come to town they'd absolute fill the room. Personally, I could give a **** less who is playing poker in the room or at my table but apparently their fans absolutely love them. I have to think that is part of the reason they decided to get in the poker room business. Being able to get large amounts of players to come to the room will certainly give them an advantage out of the gate. I do wonder if that novelty will wear thin over time though.

Yup. To me the constant uncertainty of if or when the AG or DA will just decide to start a full crackdown is enough justification not to invest in these clubs. It's great and great until one day it's not, they all get shutdown and cannot reopen. Imo just too much risk.

And the Chan club situation doesn't help the situation. More bad publicity and allegations of illegal crap. Brings unwanted attention to all of these clubs.

How is that going to bring down everyone?

Also, lawyers have advised that chips from table for tips is not in violation. So again, these are your opinions which you are dubbing "clear violations" even though lawyers disagree with you.

The new ownership group also includes a lot of behind-the-scenes talent with expertise in marketing, SEO, social media, video, etc.

And hair styling and exceedingly brave tank top wearing and hilariously misleading editing, etc.

What lawyers you are paying say is always the best light they can contrive for your position and what they say Carries little weight when it really matters

As to bringing them all down…let them bust a handful of rooms in clear violation, charge the players, confiscate all the chips and cash on site. Watch what happens everywhere the next day. Then start filing actions against even the maybe legal rooms but drag out the proceedings to starve them out. Heck in couple or few years rooms might even win a Pyrrhic victory. But by this time those DA or AG have managed to close loophole.

May not be fair or tech legal, but good luck stopping it if the right players back it.

Can you take the legal discussion somewhere else? Nobody wants to hear that and it's 90% of the text in this thread. I now realize why I had DreamCrusher muted, for good reason.

I think this is a very interesting development for Doug/Vloggers/Austin poker in general.

Trooper is definitely the OG of vlogging but he didn’t have the clean cut, blond, blue eyed aesthetic working for him. He was never going to have widespread appeal outside of his base of middle America, mid/low stakes, male viewers.

If he could only figure out how to beat 2/5…

Absolutely no offense to Owen, I fully understand he has a huge audience.
But... I've encountered more charismatic/interesting wallpaper, I don't get it
(Please feel free to explain)

How convenient for your position. Don't trust the lawyers that get paid to advise poker rooms how they can operate within the law. Do trust random guys on the interwebz.

All of the rooms I've heard about that are in clear violation are in Houston. Perhaps you can shed more light on the Austin rooms but I don't see how Houston rooms being shut down would be pertinent to the Lodge. I would personally never play in Houston. Sure, you can make millions playing in soft PLO games but the city is such a **** hole that it's really not worth going.

Probably more pertinent to this subject is the fact that this room is located in the city of Round Rock in Williamson County. That area can't be as liberal as the city of Austin itself. I'd be interested to know exactly how friendly that area has been towards poker rooms.

I haven't decided which side I want to back but I expect I'll be on the winning side just as I was with the dealerships.

Couldn’t tell you either lol… I actually played with him once and he was terribly boring in person. I’ve never watched a full poker vlog so couldn’t tell you the appeal there either. My guess is he’s white, not fat and above average height. That counts for a lot on social media.

Magic Johnson owns the Dodgers. Neeme, Owen, and Polk own the Lodge.

FYP