Chris Moneymaker opening poker room

Note : I learned from a Cardplayer article that he moved his social club operation to Louisville and I decided to give it a shot – only a 5 hour drive for me. Here is my report.

Stopped in to Moneymaker’s Social Club in Louisville Wednesday Aug 28th as part of a Midwestern swing. Club is in an old Frisch’s restaurant (think Big Boy) near the airport. Free standing building with plenty of parking. They did a nice job of converting the inside into a first class poker room. Good quality tables and chairs.

I arrived about 4:15 to find that they weren’t opening til 5:00, However as the door was unlocked I went in. Manager was great – said they had a PLO game scheduled to start at 5:30 and already had 12 names on it. I asked to be 13th and to stick around to see if there might be a second game or whatever. They let me stay inside which was nice of them as it was 100 degrees outside.

At about 5:20 there were 4 players seated with chips so I asked if they would let me sit and help start the game as long as I gave up my seat when the table filled up. Thankfully that was good with everyone so I sat in to the ‘1//2/5 plo game with a mandatory 10 dollar button straddle. First off was a $10 double board bomb pot followed by a couple of all in hands for $500 or so. Lots of action.

I played about 7 hands before I had to get up a $90 loser.

So got my chip and got to play in what was poker room number 585 for me. Time to head home. Working toward 600 rooms and will get a list out when I get there – which shouldn’t be too long as I am now on a mission.

In summary place was great, staff was great and I recommend to anyone in the area or passing through.

Hope they can generate enough player base to be successful. Only nearby competitor is the Caesars about 45 min away out in the Indiana boondocks. (I waited there an hour and a half to get to the top of the 1-3 list only to have some 7 diamond guy show up and take my would be seat – but that’s another story).

Wow 600 rooms is kinda nuts...all in the US? Private games or only legal rooms? Would be interested to hear your top rooms. Cheers

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Well they are spread over 35 years so about 18 a year. No illegals, mostly casinos but some stand alone rooms mostly out west, some charity rooms, 13 Canadian and 1 from Barcelona Spain. There is a thread in the Casino and Cardroom Poker forum for something like "How many rooms have you played poker in". I last posted a complete (then) list in late 2019. It's at the bottom of page 23 if you are interested.

Theres another card club kinda nearby the MM club, Club AKQJ or something like that. Its also just set up in a random strip mall. MM may end up killing it off though.

I was in Louisville a couple months ago and checked out this other club because they were advertising a tournament running on a Friday night. I show up on time, 7pm, and there were 2 other people in the club, other than a few workers. They gave me a free daily pass and offered me a canned soda, and I waited about 30 min until they decided to cancel the tourney and start up a 1/3 game and see if anyone showed up. We played 3 handed with no time charge until a couple people wandered in, and we played 5 handed a little while longer until I decided to just leave and go play online tourneys at my hotel.

I decided to just go home Saturday morning instead of staying and checking out Moneymaker or going back to that place.

go get'em Chris...

The other room is Club Jacks. It's in a strip center about 20 minutes from Moneymakers. Their website showed them opening at 2 pm. I went by about 3:30 and there were police cars blocking the entrances to the center and the Walmart next to it. I went into another center on the other side of the Walmart and one of the shopkeepers told me there had been a shooting and the police told them to close down - no idea when they would leave.

I hung around for a 1/2 hour or so but nothing changed. Then I called the number for the club to see if they had anything going. The guy who answered wasn't at the club and had no idea what was going on. He told me they had decided earlier that they weren't going to open til 6 pm for a (hopefully) tournament. Maybe get a cash game going afterwards. He didn't sound too confident and I didn't have time for that - tourneys are a time sink when you are chasing chips. So I went to Moneymakers.

When I mentioned that later at Moneymakers they warned me that the place was pretty sketchy.

Have you knocked out the Texas rooms yet? You could get to 600 pretty quick with a short vacation to Dallas/Houston/Austin.

Not yet but have a direct path to 600 using mainly charity rooms in my immediate area (200 or so miles from near Chicago). I will post an update in the Poker Rooms Played in Thread which is probably more appropriate.