HughDrackman
3 of a Kind
Did we ever see the faces of those chips? Where’s the pr0n?
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Well I did it. New Panhandle Texas poker club opening in September (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter JThomas7
- Start date
Start filling with tourny trophies. One for the winner and a replica for the room! Couple big one’s that you can add name plates to, etc.
Chip sets for sale - lol.
Good luck! I'm heading to west Texas next week for a couple weeks. I checked Google maps, but unfortunately you are over 4 hours away from Midland/Odessa.
Any place worth going to near Midland, or any good home games in the area?
Any place worth going to near Midland, or any good home games in the area?
JThomas7
High Hand
From what I can tell that areas fairly busy. I heat about Kojaks a lot.
nolimitsnorlax
Sitting Out
Did you open the club. What's the name and where is it located ?
JThomas7
High Hand
Open right now. 1800 North Hobart, Pampa Texas
nolimitsnorlax
Sitting Out
Nice
what's the name
The answers to both your questions are right here in the thread. One page back.Nice
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I legitimately can’t find it mentioned anywhere here. I had to click on a link to Facebook to find the name.
But I love the middle finger to someone asking for a name
Paradise Social ClubNice
Umm
JThomas7
High Hand
It's pretty simple really. There's a carve out in the law for poker to be played in Texas legally. Some clubs play fast and loose with the laws. On the flip side some towns / counties decide they just don't want poker there and focus on what they think the intent of the law is despite the only thing that matters and that's the verbage of the law. I've yet to find any example of a poker club being convicted of anything. You will occasionally find a town like Dallas that tries to spend them out of existence, but the recent ruling of the Texas supreme court just dealt them a huge blow. It will definitely make any town think twice moving forward.
As for Primes raid.. City politicians offered to issue them a "license" that didn't exist for $250k (I may be wrong on the number.) The club refused and was raided. Lawsuits filed, lost jobs, prime re opened for several years.
I don't know the details of Texas law or that specific raid which led to the auction.
I just have read about raids around the county where it seems poker gear sometimes stays confiscated even after the cases eventually get dismissed or settled.
And for a poker host, it would suck to have your tables, chips, chairs etc. get scooped up for cheap in a police auction.
I wish you luck, this one thing just seemed a bit of a sour note.
JThomas7
High Hand
They were for sale, someone was going to buy them. Maybe this was settled in court as I know they sued the city and won. What I'm not an expert on is civil forfeiture laws though.
I'm completely aware that if the city wakes up tomorrow and "Decides" we are illegal I'm just in for a fight. It's the business I signed up for I guess.
Postoakpoker
3 of a Kind
Just came across this thread. Good luck & would be interesting to see a periodic update.
JThomas7
High Hand
I'll probably share more than I ever should, if anything I'm a talker.
Nothing much "new" to report. We're in a small town and VERY fortunate for the group of regulars they have. We rarely struggle to have a game allthough they're starting a little later than we'd like. To be honest we're probably only averaging a game for 6 hours a day the 4 days a week we're open. It's hard to make a living and pay the bills on that, but again very very fortunate to have this group of 25 or so players who support us everyday, most multiple times a week. I always said the room would survive on a game a night and if we could ever get it to 2 a couple of days a week it would thrive.
This does not mean we're not facing our fair share of obstacles. Amarillos an hour away and probably 15x population. There's a room there that runs 1 or 2 tournaments a day and struggles most days to keep a cash game. We're the opposite, I can't get anyone to hardly show up for a tournament. If I had to pick I'd choose the problem we have though. I've never worked in a poker room that didn't have tournaments to bring in cash games. We're the opposite, if we have a tournament about all it does is break up a good cash game.
The next is somewhat of a made up statistic but I'm going to claim it anyways. If I had to guess 90% + of poker played in poker rooms across the US is 1/2 or 1/3 NL hold'em. My group of regulars probably have an average age of 65+, they want to play very little hold'em. We have a $5 on the button NL game on Fridays and even with it by the end of the night we've added in a dealers choice game or turned it into a round of each. They love Big O so there's lots of it. I think it really hurts us on this casual and younger demo. We do occasionally get some newer and less experienced players for a tournament who get roped into a cash game they really don't want to be in and most can't survive a button orbit, this has to be hurting me but I haven't figured out a solution. I've tried even a beginners 1-1 game on Saturdays and I think it ran one time for 2 hours.
If we were to bet before we opened I would have said Saturday would be our busiest day of the week and we'd be lucky to have anything on Sunday. Saturday we struggle and Sunday we do twice the business we do on any other day. We open earlier at noon on Saturday so most would say why not open earlier on the other days also then. It seems like a fair argument but we open at 4 o'clock the other days and struggle to get anything going before 6, sometimes 7. If we get lucky some times we have a game at 5 but not very often.
Nothing much "new" to report. We're in a small town and VERY fortunate for the group of regulars they have. We rarely struggle to have a game allthough they're starting a little later than we'd like. To be honest we're probably only averaging a game for 6 hours a day the 4 days a week we're open. It's hard to make a living and pay the bills on that, but again very very fortunate to have this group of 25 or so players who support us everyday, most multiple times a week. I always said the room would survive on a game a night and if we could ever get it to 2 a couple of days a week it would thrive.
This does not mean we're not facing our fair share of obstacles. Amarillos an hour away and probably 15x population. There's a room there that runs 1 or 2 tournaments a day and struggles most days to keep a cash game. We're the opposite, I can't get anyone to hardly show up for a tournament. If I had to pick I'd choose the problem we have though. I've never worked in a poker room that didn't have tournaments to bring in cash games. We're the opposite, if we have a tournament about all it does is break up a good cash game.
The next is somewhat of a made up statistic but I'm going to claim it anyways. If I had to guess 90% + of poker played in poker rooms across the US is 1/2 or 1/3 NL hold'em. My group of regulars probably have an average age of 65+, they want to play very little hold'em. We have a $5 on the button NL game on Fridays and even with it by the end of the night we've added in a dealers choice game or turned it into a round of each. They love Big O so there's lots of it. I think it really hurts us on this casual and younger demo. We do occasionally get some newer and less experienced players for a tournament who get roped into a cash game they really don't want to be in and most can't survive a button orbit, this has to be hurting me but I haven't figured out a solution. I've tried even a beginners 1-1 game on Saturdays and I think it ran one time for 2 hours.
If we were to bet before we opened I would have said Saturday would be our busiest day of the week and we'd be lucky to have anything on Sunday. Saturday we struggle and Sunday we do twice the business we do on any other day. We open earlier at noon on Saturday so most would say why not open earlier on the other days also then. It seems like a fair argument but we open at 4 o'clock the other days and struggle to get anything going before 6, sometimes 7. If we get lucky some times we have a game at 5 but not very often.
JThomas7
High Hand
I've owned a motocross track back home for 14 years, I've done it long enough where I'm usually getting a phone call when someone opens a new race track and they're usually always asking me if I have any advice. I always tell them the same thing. Most people will give up before they ever get a following, it felt like it was 3 years before people knew I existed in the race track business, this year I held 2 of the 3 biggest races in the state. I feel like the poker room business is probably the same, most people give up before they figure out if they're ever going to make it. We're paying the bills and then some each week. The main downside is I drive 4 hours over here thursday mornings, then 4 hours home Sunday after we close. It SUCKS. I haven't got the family quite on board moving over here yet, but if they did the financial side of it would immediately work itself out. If my wife was dealing here it would be gravy, this may be the best dealing job in the country. Our players take excellent care of the dealers, they appreciate this place being here.
As someone fantasize about doing this my self tanks for sharing!!
JThomas7
High Hand
one thing about me (i'm not sure if this is good or bad really) is I don't just talk about doing things. If it's something I want to do I've always figured out a way. I guess I'm more worried about regret than I am failure. I knew the first time I heard people were opening poker clubs in Texas I would end up here, it just took me a little longer than I thought.
Anthony Martino
Royal Flush
I'm a big fan of local outreach. Try to find specific groups in your market and invite them in for a special event just for them
Whether it's police vs fire, the guys at the vfw, a local car dealership, local college frats and sororities, etc.
Build it interest group by interest group, give away club memberships and time. Just get people in the door and in your database to market to.
Contact a company like MailShark to pull a list of people on interest lists for "gambling" and "casinos" within a specific radius of your room and target them with a customized scratch-off mailer.
Every one is a winner, same prize or different prizes, it's to let people know you exist and get them to try you out.
At the end of the day, building that critical mass of players is key.
JThomas7
High Hand
I think you're onto something, and we've been discussing radio, newspaper etc and LESS of the social type marketing we're used to using in the race track business. The reason is something I've already said. My average player age is 65+ not the typical social media browser. Not to say I don't want to bring that group in but unfortunately I just don't think that age group has the funds in this area. I'm not seeing a lot of middle class in this town which kind of sucks.
The future.... The people "In the know" in this town keeps telling me "Just wait until November - December" 2 large data centers being built here and a nuclear power plant to power them will start construction. It's also an "oil patch" town that's currently in a slow period.
Anthony Martino
Royal Flush
If you can get some fixed limit games, 3/6, 4/8, with a reduced hourly rate (or maybe a pay X to play all day) that can be a starting point for those with less disposable income to put in some hours without getting wrecked in no limit games
Even if you run games at breakeven, your room looks more successful and busier.
People will sit and play games like limit hold em or limit omaha hi/lo all day, especially if you can tie in a house funded high hand or bad beat jackpot bonus
JThomas7
High Hand
While I agree with you, I just haven't been able to get the players for those games in the room. I can think of maybe 3 players that would play it in my list of people who are currently showing them up, and even getting those 3 here at the same times a struggle. I was broke into the poker business when Limit games were all that was offered and rooms didn't want to put no limit games in because they thought their players would go broke. I don't have to be talked into a limit game lol.
JThomas7
High Hand
I wouldn't assume people over 65 don't use social media. That's my age group, and virtually all my friends (many in their 70s) are online, at least on Facebook. I haven't bought a newspaper in 20 years. And I don't listen to the radio. I stream my music when I'm in the car. 65+ is not 85+. My age group practically invented the computer age. I was coding on IBM cards in HS in 1975. We're not our parent's generation.
JThomas7
High Hand
Fair enough.
ekricket
Royal Flush
You have to offer free coffee or maybe a free toaster every once in a while to lure them in sounds like
HughDrackman
3 of a Kind
Free hot dog roller?
Anthony Martino
Royal Flush
Don't you mean sandwich roller?
JThomas7
High Hand
I've only been open less than 2 months and they're on the 2nd coffee maker.
Not fact checked so fwiw: I’ve actually read somewhere that the fastest growing age group on Facebook is 80+
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