Lodge Card Club (Austin, TX)
There is an Austin thread, but as the largest room in the area I felt it was appropriate to have our own thread.
I'll periodically be reading through so if you have any questions or comments I will see them and try to respond.
What are the affordable lodging options neeme the lodge polker room, owen to the high cost of lodging these days?
That sounded like one of your videos. Seriously, any affordable lodging in the area?
I am a rec player who has played a lot at the Lodge. I am excited to try the new San Antonio location before too long. I also enjoy trying other clubs in the area as believe competition good for the market as well as play occasional home games. I want to see the Lodge succeeded as poker is one of my favorite hobbies. I am taking a little break but really excited for the new restaurant to hopefully have a one spot to play cards, have drinks, eat dinner, and watch sports if the restaurant is what I think it will be when it opens. A few questions/comments if you feel like diving in as I suspect I am not the only one thinking about these topics:
- What changes do you expect the new San Antonio room to have on the Austin location? I saw the new game structures are a little deeper in many spots in SA. I'd love to see a move to the MUG structure at the Lodge with 1/2 having $500 max buy-in (and $500 bomb pot cap but less of a care). This also would match across the street to give a reason to not choose to play at Poker House.
- What are you considering as you consider prepay vs current post pay? I am a big fan of post pay as pre-pay makes me have to think about whether to stay or leave.
- Will the new restaurant remove BYOB? Will it have full bar for players? I personally would be happy to sacrifice BYOB if can get good waitresses and full bar options.
- Some dealers seem to have left over the last year including some that used to be on stream (who I assume were good dealers in management's mind by this placement). It has coincided with a drop in dealer quality in my opinion. My favorite thing when I first started coming to the Lodge was by my 2nd visit being remembered by dealers and they created a fun, relaxed, and friendly environment at the table closer to a home game than a casino (I know not all players will want this but I enjoy it as a rec). Do you think there are issues impacting dealer retention or just a downside of the rapid Lodge growth, a need for more dealers, and natural turnover? I still think the Lodge has the best dealers in the country so want to make sure the Lodge is staying ahead of any potential issues.
- How is it determined which games are available on the list? Should staff add any game requested by a player? Is there a way to get more ROE or mixed games on the list to just see if they will run some? Round of Each goes a lot across the street so I think there is interest. From watching some WSOP, I'd love to get a culture of low stakes stud, 7 game, 2-7 triple or single draw, etc. going occasionally sometimes for variety.
What are the affordable lodging options neeme the lodge polker room, owen to the high cost of lodging these days?
That sounded like one of your videos. Seriously, any affordable lodging in the area?
They have some discounts on their website:
What are the affordable lodging options neeme the lodge polker room, owen to the high cost of lodging these days?
That sounded like one of your videos. Seriously, any affordable lodging in the area?
Tons of nearby affordable hotels and we have deals you can find here.
I am a rec player who has played a lot at the Lodge. I am excited to try the new San Antonio location before too long. I also enjoy trying other clubs in the area as believe competition good for the market as well as play occasional home games. I want to see the Lodge succeeded as poker is one of my favorite hobbies. I am taking a little break but really excited for the new res
Thanks for the information and detailed questions, I can tell you are someone that knows the area and the games well.
To start with, our head restaraunteer is John Green. He has many years of experience with bars and restaraunts all over the world. He hosted a season of "On The Rocks", basically a bar rescue show. You can learn more about John here: http://johngreen.biz/about/
I have known John for a decade, he is one of the best in the business and I also have high hopes when our restaurant opens in 2-3 months.
- SA changes impact on Austin
I think it's important for us to approach each location a bit different, we aren't trying to be chipotle where we bang out an exact replica model. That said, most things should be fairly similar, and there will be lots to think over. Our game plan out of the gate is to change nothing in Austin for at least a few months while we learn.
If we were ever to experiment with buyin structure, it wouldn't be at 1/2. It's by far our most popular game and lots of players appreciate getting to play in a reasonable sized game at those stakes.
- Prepay vs Postpay
This is probably the subject I am most torn on. Postpay has one major advantage, you don't have to bother players while they play. This improves customer experience and in theory average play time. The drawbacks are substantial though
- Lodge carries tabs on many players who leave and don't pay. Many people end up paying, some do not. With prepay the business has a surplus instead of debt.
- We have a good number of customers who do not realize they owe money, and when they come back they are upset to find out they have a tab. Prepay solves this.
- If a customer has a tab, they may choose to play elsewhere where they don't owe money.
These drawbacks are all at least fairly substantial. I'm not sure where we will end up landing. The game plan for now is to open both room with restaurants and analyze the data.
- When the restaurant opens we will have full bar and service, resulting in the end of byob.
- We have had a good amount of turnover with dealers, but it's also pretty standard in the industry for that to happen. Past that, I spent a good portion of time in the last year fixing issues and potential issues. I think we landed in a good place. We have incredible staff top to bottom.
- For game types, we happy to run a variety of games. If you have a group you want to bring to play we can setup a reserved table. If you want to play with other members at the room, feel free to put your name on the standard game lists.
Thanks for questions.
Thanks for the information and detailed questions, I can tell you are someone that knows the area and the games well.To start with, our head restaraunteer is John Green. He has many years of experience with bars and restaraunts all over the world. He hosted a season of "On The Rocks", basically a bar rescue show. You can learn more about John here: http://johngreen.biz/about/I
Thank you for the response. I appreciate the detailed answers and look forward to continuing to see the Lodge have great success.
Played at the Lodge yesterday in Austin and really enjoyed it, I'm very excited to go back.
For seat fees I'd look at something such as raising standard price $2ish then add a similar discount if people agree to auto charge. When no seat activity for ~1 hour auto charge their credit card. Would add convenience of player not having to checkout and mgmt not having to deal with player balances.
For people that prefer cash allow prepay cash balance to their player account for discount then auto charge from that.
For people that prefer to pay postpay the extra $2ish fee covers dealing with balances/payments/collections/etc
I'm not an attorney so probably need to run by yours, but I'd imagine you can put legal language in agreements so it's fine.
- Prepay vs PostpayThis is probably the subject I am most torn on. Postpay has one major advantage, you don't have to bother players while they play. This improves customer experience and in theory average play time. The drawbacks are substantial though - Lodge carries tabs on many players who leave and don't pay. Many people end up paying, some do not. With prepay the business
I played at the Mayfair Club in Manhattan once in the '90s and they had a hybrid pre-pay system. If memory serves, players had to pay for 4 hours in advance (I assume there was no refunds if they stayed shorter). If a player played longer than that I think they payed the difference on the way out. But it was over 25 years ago and I only played there once, so I might have some details wrong.
That said, a hybrid pre-pay system ensures everyone pays at least something. If a player forgets to pay on the way out (or is busted) the club risks losing only part of its fees. How many tables does the Lodge have and how in the hell does management keep track of all the players? The Mayfair Club only had a few tables, so it probably wasn't that hard. But the Lodge has many more (if I correctly remember photos I've seen) and I suspect more than 100 players at times. Keeping track of player's times seems like a massive headache.
You might consider discounts on time charges to encourage certain behaviors. One might be something like receive five hours play for four hour pay if a player arrives before a certain time, to help get games started earlier. Or another might involve a discount on cash play if a player plays in a daily tournament, to help encourage cash players to play the tournament, and encourage tournament players to stay and play cash afterwards. Obviously, if you have more players than you can handle, such things are unnecessary.
I played at the Mayfair Club in Manhattan once in the '90s and they had a hybrid pre-pay system. If memory serves, players had to pay for 4 hours in advance (I assume there was no refunds if they stayed shorter). If a player played longer than that I think they payed the difference on the way out. But it was over 25 years ago and I only played there once, so I might have some d
I only played once, but looks like the Lodge checks you in at front desk and assigns you to table. Each table has little LCD screen dealer uses, and they confirmed your checked in and check your out when you leave. Looked to be a pretty good use of tech.
For payment, can you have a player swipe a players card at the table to track their hours played and then have one of their credit cards on file and then just run the card automatically every 24 hours?
Based on Doug's podcast today, it would be amazing if the Lodge could do a weekend of Alan Keating designed tourneys letting him make all the rules with straddles allowed, no sunglasses, no headphones, and whatever else he wants to do with variety of games. It would be similar to the wacky weekend that was done previously but he has some fun ideas that would be interesting to try and see the popularity.
anyone playing in san antonio at the lodge. i am playing a league and winner gets some play in san antonio at the lodge. u will get to play with an ACR pro as part of the deal. play with the acr pro will be end of this month beginign of next month. i am in running to win. so i need a buyer as i might not be able to make it. just planning as if ill win as i will be super busy the 16th to end of month with a series. ill know on the 19th if i win the series. anyone playing in san antonio want this?
Talked to friend last night, she got fired from the lodge for complaining about how bad the food service was while she was playing a tournament. What kind of ship you running over there if you have to fire people for speaking the truth about the food service?
I know I've gone hours at a tournament table without ever seeing a waiter or waitress and dirty tables are all over the place.
So a Lodge employee was fired for talking shit about her coworkers while she was playing at the Lodge?
LOL...she sounds like a dumbass.
I didn't say she was smart.
She was going to quit in a few months so it's not a big deal to her.
I wanted to come here to try to give some constructive feedback on the announced changes at the Lodge today. I used to play at the Lodge multiple days per week but lately, I barely go to the Lodge (basically cutting back on Poker because games aren't as fun) and I think these changes move the Lodge further away from what made it great when I first moved to the area 3 years ago. As a casual player with a full-time job, it feels like every announcement for the Lodge is promotions benefitting the regulars who are grinding, winning players that do not make the games fun. Looking at the announcement today:
- The 30% time match, $50 Wednesdays, and 7-for-$77 all reward long sessions, offering little to casual visitors.
- The new $5 check-in fee raises concerns — it’s unclear if it’s charged per day or per entry. If I play after work, I usually like to come play for a hour or two, go eat a nice dinner, maybe at Odd's (no I am not just leaving my chips and paying the hourly fee) then often come back to play another hour or two. The $5 just feels punitive if I have to then pay it twice and would make me not come back to the Lodge just out of principal. Additionally, while the promos benefit long sessions, this cost again penalizes short sessions.
- I don't personally care about the pre-pay vs post-pay besides thinking it will hurt the Lodge's business unless they have a lot of people not paying. It seems like a bad idea to encourage your players to leave by reminding them their time is up.
- The food comp system still falls short. You must play 6 hours to earn a $15 voucher, which is only redeemable in the poker room, not the restaurant from my understanding. Another example of benefiting long sessions and I don't want to eat in the poker room. If you build a nice restaurant like the Lodge did, create a system that encourages players to enjoy the location and spend more time at the restaurant.
- To help customers upset with these changes, again the answer is to offer another freeroll. The Lodge needs to be more than just a tourney location and do things to excite cash players.
Overall, I initially loved the Lodge because it felt like Cheers when I first started going (everyone knows your name). Dealers by my 2nd day recognized I played before and would look at my name on the table to welcome me and say hello. Players were welcoming, liked to gamble, and had really fun atmosphere at the table. The Lodge used to almost feel like a home game and has lost that charm. A few ideas that I would like to see to potentially help attract casual players.
- Don't have tournaments end on Monday afternoons. The mini-monster ends on June 2nd. I don't play tournaments often but I would consider the tournament except I wouldn't be able to play the final day because I have a job. It is unlikely I make it but no point in playing when can't win no matter what because of the schedule.
- Do the Wacky Weekend more than once per year and do cash versions with promos. The room is more fun and relaxed every year during this weekend. Even final tables has players laughing and having fun. It'd be great to do this more often and encourage the fun games to have cash tables.
- Add mixed game tournaments and promos to start cash games. Give players more options of games to play. I know the answer is that you'll spread games if get enough players but it is hard to start a game without a room invested in it.
The people who play long sessions and multiple times a week are going to keep showing up as long as the Lodge has better games than TCH, the smaller rooms, and even home games. The promos and marketing should be trying to get the occasional visitor visit more often and get new players to start. Today's announcement does not help attract casual visitors in my opinion.
As a casual player with a full-time job, it feels like every announcement for the Lodge is promotions benefitting the regulars who are grinding, winning players that do not make the games fun.
It sounds like the Lodge is catering to the customers who actually contribute the most to their bottom line...as any smart business would do. Customer retention is usually more important than spending time and money trying to find new customers.
Just go play elsewhere if you don't like their business model.
I want to give Lodge credit for reversing course on the $5 check-in fee. I think a good example of listening to feedback and focusing on long-term growth over short-term revenue increase.
It sounds like the Lodge is catering to the customers who actually contribute the most to their bottom line...as any smart business would do. Customer retention is usually more important than spending time and money trying to find new customers.
Just go play elsewhere if you don't like their business model.
This is the wrong line of thinking. In the poker room business, your marketing and promotional dollars should be focused on attracting and rewarding the fun, recreational (losing) players. If you do that, then the grinders will have everything they need, enough fish in the pond.
However, if you instead spend your marketing dollars not only attracting traveling grinders, but also putting those promo dollars into the grinders pockets, you wind up having less fun recreational players, and more misregs.
The problem is, the grinders don't understand this. They want EVERYTHING in their favor and want ALL the rewards. When these clubs reach out to their members for feedback/advice, the most likely responses are coming from these grinders, who are short-sighted.
They push for deeper buyins, unlimited straddles, match the stack and promos that put more dollars in their pocket. This is completely the opposite of what needs to happen, but unfortunately the grinders and many room operators don't understand this, and do things that hurt themselves long-term.
Are there any forms of accessible transportation to get to the Lodge? Or is a car pretty much mandatory? Looked like the cap metro and others stopped at best within a 20 minute walk but wanted to check
So since their GM was let go, I've noticed an uptick in dealers prodding players, asking them if they intend to straddle, if they want to run multiple times when they're all-in.
What an absolute clown show. Dealers should NEVER influence player actions, they should remain neutral and impartial.
Unfortunately, it appears this direction is coming from a management level.
Are there any forms of accessible transportation to get to the Lodge? Or is a car pretty much mandatory? Looked like the cap metro and others stopped at best within a 20 minute walk but wanted to check
Public transportation is almost non existent in the Austin area. You will need to use Uber or a car rental.
