Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX Area Poker

This is a warning to anyone looking to play any of the bigger games at TCH. I have now both worked and played in TCH Social in Las Colinas. I believe there's a few regulars in both the NLH and PLO games at the stakes of 5/10 and above that are colluding/ cheating the games. I have been around the poker world for the past 25 years and I see more shady things from players in this room than I have anywhere else. They are signaling each other in hands and texting each other about the other players in the game. I don't know this part to be true but I would assume they are chopping up their variance in the games outside of the room. These are the guys that are there almost every day and sit in the same seats. If you decide to play in any of the bigger games at TCH, make sure to keep an eye out. There's no gaming commission and the rooms not technically legal, so there's no "Eye in the Sky" Watching them at all times. But if you have been around poker long enough you will notice that things are a bit off in these games

Make it will known who these players are to management and all the other regulars in the room. You have to make it an issue to where the room would rather just ban these ppl than deal with any lingering rumors that might scare newcomers off. Keeping quiet to yourself won’t help anyone.

A review of Las Colinas:

I flew down to Dallas in late January after deciding that Las Colinas seemed like a good place for a winter poker vacation where one can manage without a car or even Uber/Lyft. Some observations below from playing mostly late morning through early evening.

The Neighborhood: The cardroom is located in a somewhat upscale suburban strip mall containing a number of eateries, and within a half-mile radius there are other similar strip malls with more eateries as well as a Whole Foods. It felt very safe either daytime or after dark. I stayed at the Hyatt House directly across the street from the cardroom parking lot, which involved crossing six lanes of divided roadway or walking a few hundred feet out of the way in order to cross at a light. I generally took the shorter route.

The Cardroom: Felt fairly upscale, especially with a bar and seating area near the entrance. The staff were generally friendly and professional. There were plenty of TVs with sports playing, and the tables/chairs were comfortable enough. I was a little surprised that both time charges as well as food/drink orders from a server necessitated paying in advance, but maybe they were burned too often in the past when extending even the briefest of periods of credit. Food and drink were decent and reasonably priced.

The Players: Typical cardroom personalities found in any room anywhere. I did appreciate that despite it being shortly after Inauguration, I barely heard any politics talk, and I never say anyone wearing any political hats/clothing.

Most of the differences I noticed between this room and non-TX cardrooms seemed to revolve directly or indirectly around rake vs. time-charge. For example, in casinos it’s not unusual for someone to sit down at 1-2/1-3 with $100 or so, play until they bust while gambling/shoving when they hit the board, even when against a strong preflop raiser. However, since the cardroom is simply a poker destination and people have to pay time in advance, I saw few of these gambling short-stackers.

Consequently, while the “good” and the “average” players seemed commensurate to what one would find in any mid-day, low limit game anywhere, the worst players seem less terrible than what I’ve seen in the other casinos/cardrooms I’ve played at in the past year.

Since it is a time charge room, they allow DBL bomb pots, but only NL rather than Omaha (!?). I found these bomb pots to be a huge time-suck, seemingly taking up to 10 minutes to play if the pot gets big. In addition, as an older adult who plays raise-or-fold preflop and likes to take breaks after 90 minutes or so, the time charge felt no cheaper to me than paying rake. Finally, despite there being no rake, multiple times I saw the blinds chopping rather than playing(!?), which makes zero sense to me. Maybe a Texan can explain this one to me.

Overall, I had a good time during my 5 days there, although it wasn’t special enough to plan a return trip unless I’m going to pair it with seeing a major league sporting event.

Place got shut down. Another one bites the dust.

Wow. That didn't take long. Hope all the employees land on their feet.

Damn. It was in Denton County, but Tarrant County Sherriffs raided it. How does that work, I wonder? Desperado better watch out. I wonder how many dealers will go back to The Fort, lol?

I haven't been to the TCH locations in quite a while, but I thought they were always NL bomb pots, at least on dealer changes. Or are you talking about the bomb pot only tables?

Cardshark04,

I played at TCH (Las Colinas) the past four days and in the games I sat in (2-2, 2-5, & 5-10 all PLO) the bomb pots were PLO. This may not be the case for NL games, but for PLO they are.
Racetrack

When I was at THC Las Colinas in January, 1/2 NLHE had NLHE DBBP, whereas 2/5 NLHE and above had PLO DBBP.

RIP Copa Club. RIP free breakfast buffet. RIP them cute little fishies.

1-2nl is nlh double board
2-5+ is plo double board in holdem.

That seems like it should be out of their jurisdiction.

Glad I didn't come back to work there.

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Rampage is going to be at The Fort tonight. Might be fun.

Did you go?

Cant see how all these rooms survive. Burleson is basically Poker House and it's two adopted stepchildren. 5220 should just close. Matt can't be turning any profits.

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Was looking at TCH Las Colinas on Atlas last night (Tuesday) and saw:

Two Tables with 7 on the list for 2/2 PLO ($200-600)
Four Tables of 2/5 PLO with 15 on the list ($300-2k)
One Table of 5/10/25 PLO with 10 on the list (1K+)

Can anyone let me know if any of these games have straddles? I'm assuming the 2/2 and 2/5 are capped since they didn't show match the stack on them

They all do.

From my research it looks like everything under 5/10 has capped buyins, and are limited to a single UTG straddle.

I've heard the 2/5 PLO games are infested with Euros, any idea on the 2/2 PLO?

There is some, but if you take nlh to plo, I would say 80% of them are playing nlh.

Major changes in Burleson

5220 is closed. Sort of. Double Deuce has moved to the former 5220 location. Not sure why .. or who is involved.

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On a sidenote, there’s a new poker place in Caddo Mills, TX. A legal poker room with memberships.

Planning to head to the Dallas market from the 16th-19th to check out the PLO games at TCH Las Colinas and vlog for my channel if anyone wants to say hi.

I'm a member of a Facebook group called "Dallas Poker Rooms, where you will see posts like this:

I've heard private-ish games like this should be avoided due to higher possibilities of being ripped off, conspired against, cheated, or worse. Does anyone have any experience going to one of these, without knowing somebody? How did it go, if so? Obviously I want to avoid bad situations, but on the other hand, if they are legit and the fear around them is overblown, I'd like to consider them.

(not sure if the image is going to render right, so if it doesn't, it's a flyer for "Coach's Game" with "Waitresses/Alcohol/Drinks/Food 1-2/5 with one hand Omaha, July 3. Game starts at 7PM. Located in Carrollton. DM for address.")

Almost assuredly it's going to have crazy rake if not all the other things you're worried about. Why would you go to one of the underground rooms when legit rooms are a dime a dozen and right around the corner?

It's dumb, I know, I just really enjoy having fktons of options. I like dabbling in every little online room that accepts Americans. I like when Saturdays in fall have a college football game on NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, CBSSN, FS1, FS2, TNT, and a dozen on ESPN+ simultaneously. Just a part of my personality I can't really explain.

Still interested in hearing from anyone who has actually taken the plunge in one of these games.

I will say I have only been to a couple of these in the past, but a standard barometer for rake seems to be 25 dollars, hopefully it's not that high at 1 2. Most the time they aren't worth it. I have not been to the one listed, but there are a bunch of them that are sort of linked together, just having their own days. From what I have seen, absolutely zero element of cheating, but not a huge sample size. The biggest thing with such huge rake people aren't playing deep enough, their intention is to make it like a party vibe. One of the games I went to they literally I believe had house players (not cheating just filling seats min buying) and literally 4 hours in one guy was up 200 and the rest of the table was getting killed.

LFG!