Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX Area Poker

There was a bit of a hiccup on the trip. I had called ahead to TCH Las Colinas and was told to vlog I'd just have to inform a floor and they'd go over the rules for filming. But when I arrived, the floor told me I had to email their GM for approval first.

So on my first day I wasn't able to vlog, which sucked cause it was the only winning session of my trip, with a +$800 uptick.

Fortunately the GM got back to me the next morning so I was able to start vlogging for Days 2 and 3.

On Day 1 I played the 2/5 PLO and found there were some loosey-goosey eating-a-sandwich types willing to stack off light. Lots of players sitting with 2-3k+ as well so plenty of action.

On Days 2 and 3 I tried out the 2/2 PLO as well as the $10 double-board bomb-pot only games. Overall these were a lot more reserved/tighter.

There were spots in all the games played, but not as many as I had hoped for.

the room was popping constantly with lots of tables and action going, so plenty of traffic.

It'll probably be a few weeks before I get to the footage from this trip to edit and upload.

hey ya know they just opened a poker club called 52 pickup social in Caddo Mills, Tx. It’s on poker atlas to see all the tourneys.

Hi guys - Can anyone recommend some good places to stay at near Las Colinas on Air BB?

I'd prefer a condo walking distance with 24 hour gym and pool, similar to the setup at the Meridian in Vegas if possible. or if that's not available, something I can get an Uber to that's close by in a nice area!

is the area outside walkable / safe? I have not idea I've never been to Texas other than driving through the interstate area.

Do the have lock boxes there for chips?

I'm excited to check it out.

Also this is random, any good fishing spots nearby where i can bass fish in a stocked pond. Similarly to the stocked pond at the card room actually, but in this case I wanted to do some actual bass fishing that's easy.

PLENTY of good TX Large mouth fishing around there but 1) nothing I know of stocked, 2) you are gonna need a boat to do the lakes any justice, 3) these fish will be tougher than those on the table, 4) this isn't really the season, you are gonna fish deep probably (find the thermocline)

I have on my calendar from April 28 to May 26 2026.

I want to venue select for the easiest bass fishing in Dallas, TX area 😀

I was going to comment on the heat and walking, but April and May have pretty perfect weather. The Las Colinas area is plenty safe, you'll be fine walking around there. Obviously the middle of the night might not be ideal, just like anywhere.

I stayed at Sonesta ES Suites Dallas-Las Colinas which was about a mile away, but I don't know if it'd be walkable given the major roads in the area.

Looking at Google Maps there's a Hyatt House Dallas/Las Colinas and an Embassy Suites by Hilton Irving Las Colinas that look closer, but again, not sure if walkable as I've only visited the area once.

LC is very safe, the Dallas TCH can feel a bit shadier due to the area, but as long as your not out there screaming and flashing money, you should feel safe there. Anyways LC, yea walk all you want in that area.

I like to sometimes make pitstops in Dallas to play, and usually stay in one of the hotels across the highway from Texas Social in Las Colinas, but you definitely feel like kind of a hobo walking the bridge over the highway as there's no sidewalk and you have to walk on the grass/shoulder. Lol Texas. The area is fine though. There's a Whole Foods within walking distance as well. The Sichuan Chinese restaurant in the same shopping center as the card room is pretty good too.

For TCH Los Colinas I came out here to play 5/10/25, but I realized that this game has a 50 dollar straddle. it's not "mandatory" but everybody is doing it, and I asked if I needed to put out 50 they said I did. I feel like if I play I will be obligated to do it even though I don't like it.

I need a 10/25 game. The next limit under this 5/10/25/50 is 2/5, and I already booked my accomodations for 2 months, and it's not refundable.

The 2/5 isn't big enough to cover my budgets, even though it runs with a straddle pretty often and it's a 2/5/10 a lot of the time, 2/5 won't always run with a straddle, it's only some of the time. Even if was 2/5/10 it's still not big enough for me to play to cover my budgets. I really need 5/10/25 game.

They somewhat recently ended the 5/10 game and turned it into a 5/10/25 game. Actually the 5/10 game there would have worked out pretty well because it was running with a straddle pretty frequently from what i was told. But they removed it because they are counting on a 5/10/25 that the 25 is mandatory, but not the 50. But why am I feeling like I have to do the 50 to sit in there and play?

5/10/25/50 would put my bankroll at risk.

I'm gonna play 2/5 for a few days while I marinade on this.

If it's not mandatory, you don't have to put it out. The grinders will give you **** about it, but **** them, you do you. There's a reason an optional straddle is called optional. Don't let the misregs ruin your session or kill your light.

In the meantime, start a list for the game you want. You're probably not the only one thinking like this.

You must have massive living expenses if playing 2/5/10 with a $2k buy in is too small to cover your budget. Also pretty crazy to have those kinds of living expenses without being able to afford to play 25/50

If you expect there always to be great opportunities that exactly fit your bankroll/expectations then I think your level of entitlement is going to constantly leave you disappointed in life. The 2-5-10 game is really good and plays bigger then many 5-10-25s I've played a lot of the times idk why you're being so rigged about this.

I had to shot take from 5-5-10 to 100-100 ffs live is not like online. People play what they want and there's often big gaps in stakes available for midstakes

I'm not disagreeing with you.

I'll just add that there is a big difference between a 2/5 game that 1/2 the time runs with a straddle (buy-in 300 to 2k) , and a 5 5 10 20 game that runs with a straddle 90% of time with a 400 to 2K buyin, and a the last structure, 5/10/25/50 with an uncapped buyin.

I'm sure if we ran math on those the bankroll would be highest on the last game.

Note: Calculations below are the total Dollars paid per round:

a. Actually, 5 10 25 50 = 90 - This turns out to be a 30/60 PLO game with a min buy in of 1K, uncapped max
b. 5 5 10 20 = 40 = 13.333/26.66
c. 5 10 25 = 40 = 13.333 / 26.666 =
d. 2 5 = 7
e. 2 5 10 = 17 per round - 5.66 / 11.33 - lightly higher than 5 10 when it runs with the straddle
f. 5/10 = 15 per round

Also the bigger game would be most likely the toughest game, so you would in theory need more buy-ins to play in a tougher game for your bankroll because your win rate would be lower.

A tough 30/60 PLO game would probably need at least 50 buy-ins. 300K and more than that for backup; about 500K would be a good bankroll for that game most likely.

For the 5/5/10/20 or 5/10/25, 50K would get you started pretty nicely. You would need back up for that just i case but I doubt you would need to go deeper than 50K if you're a very good player and the game was really good. You could drop down to 5/10 if you dropped to 30k range

For 5/10 I would suggest 30K with backup available in case you hit a big downswing.

For the 2/5, I would still want at least 20 to 30K

30K min with 20K backup.

Anybody who's pro, I suggest 50K, and 30K min of that for your bankroll, and 20K min for your living costs, or 30K bankroll, and at least 6 months living expenses.

Thanks!

It’s PLO man…probably 35%+ of the 1/2 or 2/2plo games spread around the country are basically 1/2/10 games. It’s just the nature of PLO that the game quite often plays bigger than advertised. This shouldn’t really be shocking to you if you’re playing the stakes you’re playing. Also I’m sure it’s worked in your favor where you got into some juicy “lower stakes” games that were playing massive that you were BR’d for

Yep. I'm not planning to be the guy at the table who doesn't want to put the straddle out there.

I'm going to pull up stakes and go somewhere else 😀 Even though I had a 3-thousand-dollar nonrefundable Air BB I just cancelled, and I get nothing back for that.

Just so everyone is aware: At TCH Las Colinas, the 5/10/25 usually runs with a straddle, as I posted earlier.

It's a 5/10/25/50 game, not a 5/10/25 game.

There is no 5/10 game anymore. It's now a 5/10/25/50 game.

Cheers!

You're leaving just when the weather's getting good!

Yeah it's unfortunate. I can recommend the 2/5 game at Los Colinas. Weather is great today!

Just to reiterate about las Colinas PLO game formerly 5/10 currently listed as 5/10/25 but actually a 5/10/25/50 game.
Anything over the 2/5 PLO is gonna be the equivalent of a 30/60 PLO game. There is possibly a team of pro scammers there, trying to pressure up a bigger game than advertised. Successfully so apparently.

The 2/5 was chill, sometimes straddles. There were some European guys there who seemed to be kind of pushing the straddle. The difference between the local rec players and the pros is that the rec players will put out a straddle and not complain. if a typical Euro or some other pros also does it, you can be Sure they getting ready to ask every body else to put one out also.

If you're prepared for that dynamic, it's helpful to possibly know in advance. haha 😀. Just reporting. I'm trying to help out possible 2 = 2 's that might be considering checking it out.

Also, food was pretty good and very well priced for me. And the staff / dealers / players was friendly.

Hyatt house across street has a full kitchen / refigerator / Stove / full 1 bedroom apartment (not super nice but it's big and has a full kitchen even a dishwasher and it was cheap) - 5 minute walk. If you see the Starbucks across the street in a small shopping center, just walk down the shopping center and it's there.

I think for 2/5 this is a great place.

Which will be true til some people go bust and some whales stop showing up then it will be back to 5/10/25 no “mandatory” 50. I’ve seen this show before and that’s how it always goes

In Austin I've seen the 1/2/5 game hit a $320 straddle before, and stacks that were 20-30k deep.

The room operators and grinders slit their own throats by allowing these games to play so big, as the fun recs get demolished and stop coming

The whole table agrees to do that or just a few players doing it on their own? If everybody has to do it, it's just bumping up the stake of the game. There's nothing action about that from my point of view.

I'm one of the players who wants to play PLO sometimes and I'm okay with a single straddle. But once it goes to multiple straddles, I'm out.

But that seems crazy to cancel a 3k Airbnb when you could easily grind lower stakes PLO for 10k+ a month and meanwhile do random fun stuff around the DFW area. Makes no sense to me.