Correct

Thanks.

There should be a documentary made about this imo, how a poker room club that was thriving just a few months ago could fall and fail in literally record time.

It's pretty surreal. in August they ran a huge tournament series including a million guaranteed main event for $1100. 20 cash game tables or more every day, it was the place to go in Houston to play low and high stakes poker. Within 6 weeks they lost 95% of their players because they couldn't pay everyone who wanted to cash out, started limiting cashouts to $2000 a day and once the word spread the players left that place in droves. Add to that the continual downgrading of player friendly deals to play there, the opening of a new club Legends nearby which undercut everything 88 Social was offering and the exorbitant food and drink prices and by the end of October/November you'd be lucky to get 3 or 4 tables going max. Their December tournament series which they had already announced and featured over $1.5 million in guarantees was abruptly cancelled. The writing was on the wall that 88 Social was on the brink of shutting down.

But the speed of this club's demise is imo shocking and deserving of its own case study.

Illegal.

A 10 seat is added and players agree to ping him $X each hand which goes to house as rake. Since house is effectively raking the pot, it makes the game illegal in TX. If you don’t agree to pingsest ten, you are not allowed to play.

These rooms think they are smart and shaving the edges of legality. In reality it may be rooms like these that bring down all the rooms.

I'm curious how much did the rake and food go up? What kind of deals did they get rid of?

I don't know the particulars of that but having read some Poker Atlas reviews of the place made in the past 2 months, the consensus was that the food and drink prices kept going up and the player deals and incentives to play there had disappeared and or gotten much worse.

But I don't know real specifics.

I think it's a huge step to honor the chip redemptions. Within the agreement there should be a 'number' tied to the outstanding chips, similar to gift cards at a restaurant, and that value would be deducted from the sale price/cash given to Chan/others. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a (hopefully well advertised) 30-60 day window where Players need to convert their chips over .. assuming they are going to have their own chips. (It would be a mistake not too IMO) Once the time frame has elapsed then the purchase agreement final payment may/may not be adjusted by the value of unredeemed (or over-redeemed) chips.

A guy purchased a pizza joint and almost went 'right' out of business when the previous owner didn't, or wasn't properly asked to, disclose the amount of unredeemed gift certificates. This was back in the day where restaurants basically had a 'book' logging certs in and out by hand and value. I was torn since I knew the seller really well and likened it to more of a 'absent minded professor' situation than an angle. But the seller moved out of state 'day after' and I never really heard how it was resolved, other than a sign was very quickly posted that those certificates would expire on a certain date. GL

What is the new owner actually purchasing that has a value anywhere near the cost of honoring around 1 million in outstanding chips (if that's a realistic estimate). He's not keeping the name. I wouldnt think the player list isin any way exclusive Is there some sort of license that is transferred that he couldnt otherwise get, like a NYC cab medallion? Other than the tables and furniture what is he buying? Im assuming the strip mall location is being rented. So I wonder just what it is that is actually being sold/bought.

There are $1 million in outstanding chips? I'll take the under on that.

$800K to $1 million was an estimate. No idea what it was based on.

Imagine the potential good will generated among the high rollers. Losing those players is what killed 88. This might be a means for 101 to pull them back.

Sounds like a terrible idea.

The profit margins were probably much smaller than they seemed. Like many things in the gambling world, a lot of smoke and mirrors. Just a guess.

This is great for the players with currently worthless chips.

I'm skeptical of long-term good will for the new room though. Poker players in general (high rollers and lower stakes players) tend to gravitate to the room that benefits them the most via promotions/seat charge/convenience.

High stakes players don’t care at all about promotions.

Rake is almost a nonexistent consideration next to action and to a lesser extent convenience.

High stakes guys do care about the level of service and how well they are accommodated tho. However, action and where the action wants to play are by far the biggest concerns.

You heard it here first! - https://www.pokernews.com/news/2021/...-101-40470.htm

You just get the feeling that sometime soon the Texas legislature will outlaw these poker clubs and force them all to go out of business and close. I hope I'm wrong but these clubs are completely unregulated, lots of shady crap happening behind the scenes as well as publicly(like serving alcohol without a license) and ripe imo for a big crackdown. I would NEVER leave any amount of money in a box at any of these places.

Why can't one cash out on his credit or debit card?

The anti-gaming legislature in TX is very strong. Its a weird combination of religious right evangelicals (same ones that own a fleet of lear jets and pack in 25,000 each sunday all in the name of his "lord" ) and competing casino interests of Tribes in OK (chickasaw/choctaw). Austin is just not gonna pass any gaming legislation any time some. The below will happen WELL before that.


These clubs are about 1 year away from approaching a tipping point to where the above interests (along with a few others) will force the issue and the industry will be shut down (google pots of gold in SC or Lottery Sweepstakes machines in NC, same for many other states)

All should agree on four things

1) They are going to keep growing
2) Lobby money to stop these clubs is 100X more than lobby money to authorize them.
2) As they approach CA card type sizes, the above lobbies will have them shut down.

Thus they will eventually all be closed.

I agree. I think a year is about right. Any high roller playing at these clubs regularly and trusting the place with their money is asking for trouble very soon imo.

Well said.

Apparently opened and is honoring old obligations which is good for players. Johnny Chan really hasn’t got as much hate as he deserves IMO for trying to screw over players and getting bailed out by a buyer.

Update 3+ months later - 101 Richmond can barely get off 2 cash tables per day. They are having a Million Dollar Guaranteed Main Event and $2 Million Guarantee for the Series going next month(May 18-29) so we shall see if that gets some players over there. The Lodge in Round Rock has a series going at the same time so doubt any Austin players will be coming in for it. They finally introduced their new chips this week and are honoring Chan's 88 chips for a few more weeks so if you still have any of those better get over there quick.

Yeah a friend of mine told me he was in Houston recently and went over there and it was dead. Like really really dead. And from what he heard from a few dealers just chatting with them, he thinks this place wouldn't honor the guarantees if they aren't met. According to a dealer the whole place was shocked they are running a million dollar guarantee tournament next month when they nobody even comes in the door.

If I were a random tournament grinder I'd be very careful heading down to play the tournament series there. I wouldn't be the least bit confident they would honor the guarantee. There's a 500k guarantee as well.