Houston, TX Area Poker

Friday Mayhem at TCH Westheimer is pretty great. If you're registered before the tourney starts you get 2 hours of time added to your balance for cash play. Late reg? You get 1 hour. $25 entry fee and 10K guarantee. $20 rebuys for first 2 hours or so of play. Single or double $20 add on at end of registration for 25K or 50K in chips.

Only downside? Structure is a little steep after registration closes.

It's probably the best Friday night holdem in the Houston area.

Hey, does Houston have any rooms that have a dedicated/strictly plo game that runs everyday? Thinking about moving they're once I'm able so appreciate it alot.

Thank you.

I believe Legends is the hub of multiple PLO games daily.

I haven't played in Houston, but the problem I see in Austin is it's mostly 1/2 with a $5 bring-in, unlimited straddles from UTG and match the stack.

So guys with deep pockets and filthy Euros with no social skills jack it up, making it play like a shallow stacked 40/80 game.

The variance winds up through the roof, the fun, recreational players get chewed up too quick and you wind up having too many sharks and not enough fish

Hehe, thank you.

How does higher variance hurt the fish? If the game were zero variance, the fish would never win at all. As such, why would "average" variance be better for the fish, and higher variance worse, if zero variance is the worst possible for the fish?

When the variance gets too high, the game won't develop a core of regular players that will be there to start games and keep games going. Thus the fish won't be able to play -- an example is limit Omaha high only.

Variance needs to be balanced against the win rate for the better players. When the sweet spot is hit, expect the game to last a long time.

By the way a good discussion of this appears in my book Cardrooms, Everything Bad and How to Make Them Better. Also, I have just updated this book (a little) and as soon as Amazon gets it loaded in, I'll be giving away free kindles of the new version and will make an announcement as to when it'll be available to pick up for free.

Because the fun recs come in to play a 1/2/5 game filled with deep-pocketed straddling bullies who piss and moan if you aren't willing to put the $40 straddle on so they can put the 80 on.

The grinders and euros are generally miserable to be around, and they make the game play massive compared to the advertised stakes of 1/2/5

This makes it impossible for newcomers to learn PLO as they get chewed up and spat out because of the variance, it's hard to beat deep pockets that can keep matching your stack.

So the fun recs stop coming, and you get multiple shitty games full of misregs all waiting for 1-2 fish to show up to nibble on.

Back when I lived in Tampa we had a rock instead of unlimited straddles, and usually 2-3 grinders at a table instead of 70% of the table being comprised of them

Has anybody taken advantage of the free or discount rate at Champions Club?

Poker Atlas says $85 after 4 hours of play and free after 8 hours of play, based on availability.

Thinking about going this summer and figuring out how to plan for it. If I book a room will they refund me if I meet criteria? Or do I have to kinda just wing it?

I used the 4 hours. Nice rooms. The promotion is applied when you settle at desk. A poker floor will probably come sign off.

I think 8 is the way to go. Time is $12 an hour. And you're not getting a $48 discount when you do the 4 hour deal.

I don't know how much game diversity you will get over an 8 hour period though.

Prime finally threw in the towel and shut its doors.

I had seen their promos on Facebook and they were horrendous from a visibility standpoint. Too many different colors, fonts, etc.

I never played out that way, but from the images of the room inside it looked like a nice property with solid visibility to a major roadway.

Usually it's shitty ownership/leadership that dooms these properties when they're sitting on veritable gold mines if they'd have half a clue how to market locally and structure their games to be sustainable, instead of listening to all the grinders advice, which is typically just advice to put more money more quickly into the grinders pockets, not great for the poker economy.

I am trying to gather interest in a live short-deck hold'em game here in Houston. Structure is currently up for debate and could be decided on by the players, but I'm thinking $1 ante, $1K max. I have clubs in the southeast, downtown, and north that have confirmed they'd spread short-deck if there were 8 or more ready to play. I currently have 4 guys aside from myself who are interested.

Please DM me or message me on Discord if interested. Discord: Wilfram

The problem is that 1/2/5 is the entry point for PLO in the area. So when it's constantly being straddled to 40 and the guys with deep pockets are bothering every other player to straddle and restraddle and put the 80 on, it makes it impossible for newcomers to learn without getting smoked.

Card rooms need to protect their entry-level games from playing too big, so that new players can enter, not go broke so quick and the rooms can grow and maintain games.

I was just at The Lodge this past Saturday and they had only ONE PLO game running, which didn't get going until the afternoon. And there was a guy who plays 5/10/25 PLO bothering everyone to straddle and restraddle.

And yeah, you get your share of fish who'll go ham with shitty cards, but guess what? They're trying to rip it in preflop, where equities are close. Now your skill edge is in the trash and you're just gambling flipping coins for stacks, and that's IF you get it headsup, but more than likely you'll be 4+ ways all-in cause when people see a big pot brewing they get FOMO and HAVE to get their chips in.

It's terrible long-term for the games and the poker economy, but all the grinders and even the room operators don't grasp such a simple concept. They only think short-term about lining their pockets, without realizing their hurting themselves long-term because they could have a much stronger poker economy if they not only protected those entry-level games, but also advertised to fun recreational players instead of just targeting the enthusiasts and traveling grinders, you know, all the misregs with zero social skills who sit there with hoodies and headphones and never speak.

That I will agree with you on that The Lodge PLO game basically has 0 structure and one night you could be sitting in a 1/2/5 where less than 50% of the table is straddling and the next night you come in and are basically sitting in a 10/20 or 20/40 game where stacks could be anywhere from super shallow to kinda deep

They run semi private and private bigger games some nights so it's not surprising to see the games play out this way esp on nights theres no bigger games running

I believe it is a strong possibility that one of the more popular and respected rooms in the Houston area has an ongoing cheating risk in the PLO games and advise extreme caution playing in the area for now.

Kind of a crappy post. You’re anonymous here. Give us some details - Venue, stakes, etc. . One clue you gave is since you said “respected” rooms we know you aren’t referencing Legends lol. Is it TCH or Champions you are referring to? Or some place else?

I am not anonymous as I am posting on an account where finding my name is trivial, but I am not posting on a throwaway because I want to convey that I have a decades long reputation and would not make such statements lightly. If you want to call it a crappy post, fine, disregard it and best of luck to you.

If you would like a room I believe is safe then play at the TCH Westheimer location.

I do call it a crappy post. No info given. All your post conveys is unfounded conjecture about which place you are talking about.

There have been incidents in the city that these statements are not riskless. I did you more of a favor than the overwhelming majority of people who would say nothing at all. I gave you the name of a room I believe is safe.

All right. No worries. I’ve seen a lot of cheating over the years. Unfortunately it’s more common than we’d like to admit.

Texas Card House announced via social media that they are increasing their hourly rate by $1 at all locations, from $12/hr to $13/hr. Entry fee will move from $10 Daily to a $10 Weekly fee. Time specials will be available in June for purchase.

Thanks for posting. Hadn't seen that. Still much better for the player than the rake places. Wish they had some bigger PLO games at their Houston location and would play there more than I do now which is just during their tourney series.

been grinding a lot of 1/3/6 plo at Legends over the past three months and am up a little over 50k.

Happy to answer anyone's questions about the place and the games