I'm back from another Texas Poker Road Trip where I visited 20+ poker rooms across Texas, some newly opened within the past 12 months. This is my 4th time doing this as I enjoy playing poker and collecting poker chips. The entire trip report, with links to past trip reports, can be found at the link below. Plenty of pictures are included. Enjoy!
http://casinochips.epizy.com/poker/texas2024.htm
I agree, please post some details, pointers, restaurant reviews, etc. Thanks.zealanddonk: Nice collection of chips. Possibly post parts of your report here to get people to want to click through to your site
OK. Here's one of the 20+ trip reports from one of the Texas poker rooms I visited on this trip.
The rest can be found on my website: http://casinochips.epizy.com/poker/texas2024.htm
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Katy Poker
24445 Katy Fwy Suite 100, Katy, TX 77494
(713) 515-9616
Opened 11am to TBD - 8 tables
Website: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564519685061
$1 House Chip | $5 House Chip | $25 House Chip
I always check PokerAtlas when I'm planning my Texas Poker Road Trip. For several weeks prior to my departing, a new club, called Katy Poker, was listed as "coming soon". I reached out to the club asking when they expect to open and was able to time my trip so that I would be in Katy when they were opened. I'm glad that I did because from what I experienced, this poker room will not be in business for long.
The club is in a new location, meaning that they didn't take over the space of a previous poker club. It's a bright little room, but was empty on a Thursday evening with the exception of 3-4 players sitting at the only table in operation. I asked at the desk if there was a game going, and they said yes while pointing to the table. They waived the membership fee, saying that they are a new club and are looking to attract new players, so no membership fee for now. I asked about the rake, knowing that they wouldn't abide by Texas state law and charge an hourly seat fee. Sure enough, they rake $10 per pot: $2 once the pot reaches $30 (no rake if the pot is smaller), $5 at $50, and $10 at $70. This is a pretty steep rake, but maybe the game would be juicy.
I bought in for $400 at the cage. On the walk to the table I pocketed a $25 chip, two $5 chips, and fifteen $1 chips ($50 total) and sat with the remaining $350 at the $1/$2 NLHE table. This is my usual routine. If you count the chips in the picture above you'll see $350. They offered a bad beat jackpot for quads beaten, though I don't recall the payout. Food and drinks were provided and served by a couple of young Asian girls dressed as hookers. The dealer was not very experienced and let the players run over the table. As I was getting settled in at my seat I observed a hand in progress. Both players checked the river. This is when the player in Seat 8 announces "straight", though there was no straight possible on the board and he did not table his hand. The clueless player in Seat 3 next to me was holding jack-high and was about to muck. Seat 8 eventually tables his hand. He's holding trey-deuce and is playing the board, so Seat 3's jack-high is good. The dealer announces that Seat 8 is playing the board. Seat 3 finally tables the winner and is pushed the small pot. This is when Seat 8 erupts, telling the dealer to keep his mouth shut. They argue a bit before I interject and tell Seat 8 that he cannot announce a hand at showdown without tabling that hand or better, else he loses any right to the pot since he's doing this to get a player to fold. He tells me that he can say whatever he wants and the dealer should butt out.
I get dealt my first hand. We're playing 4-handed with 2 stacks sitting in front of empty chairs. They play with a PLO bomb pot button, so this means that we're playing a PLO bomb pot after just 3 hands of NLHE. Seat 8 soon understands that I'm not going to take any angle-shooting from him and decides to leave the game. Now we're 3 handed. I tell the dealer I'll sit out the bomb pots until the two players who own the stacks in front of the empty chairs return. He makes no motion to call them or speculate where they might be. After a few hands a new dealer comes to the table to relieve our dealer who immediately picks his tips out of the dealer well and sits down in seat 8 with about $43. The game is a $100 minimum buy-in. I ask him what he's doing and am told he thought he'd play a while just to keep the game going. When I tell him that the min buy-in is $100, he quietly picks up and walks to the back of the room. Now it's clear that the two empty seats are just for show - there are no players. The house and dealers allow this so they can run what looks like a busy table when in fact it's just the 3 of us. I decide to pick up after having bluffed Seat 3 out of a couple tiny pots.
No one is at the cage. Our original dealer sees me standing there waiting and walks over to say that he'll text the owner. After a couple of texts and no response he says that he can cash me out and proceeds to pull out his wallet. I have $372 in chips. He assembles a pile of folded and mangled $100, $50, $20, and $1 bills until he's got the total correct. I'm satisfied with my small $22 profit and even more satisfied that I visited Katy Poker to pick up some nice clean chips before this place goes out of business.
And here's one of the non-poker trip reports from one of the BBQ joints I visited on this trip.
The rest can be found on my website: http://casinochips.epizy.com/poker/texas2024.htm
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Guillorys Bar B Que
11851 Bissonnet St, Houston, TX 77099
(832) 295-3737
Opened 11am - 7:30pm Wednesday to Saturday
Website: https://guillorysbarbque.com
Today I'd be traveling southwest of Houston to Webster. There are two poker rooms I haven't visited yet in that area: Capri Poker Room in Webster and the newer Clifton Card House in Bacliff. But as I did yesterday, I decided to get something to eat first. Since it had been a couple days since having a BBQ brisket sandwich at Roegel's, I searched the Internet for a highly rated BBQ joint and found Guillory's. With several reviewers posing the question of why Guillory's isn't listed among the Top 100 BBQ Places in Texas, I knew I had found my next stop.
They occupy a tiny space in a strip mall. So tiny and unimpressive, that I almost turned around to go elsewhere. Once you walk in there's a small lobby in front of the cashier where you place your order. The menu is small. There's only enough room for 2 people behind the counter. One older guy took my order, went in the back to prepare it, while the other ran my credit card before pointing to the seating area -- just a small room with maybe a dozen 4-top tables and stacking chairs. The Ole Miss game was on the TV. My two nephews are attending Ole Miss and my sister and her husband were visiting them today to tailgate and attend the football game.
When the old guy brought out my tray, it looked amazing! I can see why the reviewers rated this place so highly. The BBQ brisket sandwich was piled high with delicious slices. When I bit into it I could not tell the difference in texture between the bun and brisket - it was that tender. I ordered the boudin, which I was told that they make the old-fashioned Louisiana way with rice, pork, and a touch of liver - just the way I like it. Now, in my younger years I could have easily polished off everything, but now that I'm older I did all I could to eat everything except a bite or two of the boudin. I can't say enough about the BBQ, other that it takes the top spot on my list of "Best BBQ Brisket Sandwiches".
One last one from The White Rabbit in San Antonio. You'll just have to visit my website to read and see the rest. Enjoy!
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The White Rabbit
20626 Stone Oak Pkwy #103, San Antonio, TX 78258
(210) 257-9929
Opened 9am to 2am - 8 tables
Website: https://thewhiterabbitsa.com
$1 House Chip | $5 House Chip | $25 House Chip
This afternoon I headed over to The White Rabbit. Like the previous club, they look to have invested in their poker room for the long haul. Their strip mall location is new with plenty of parking. While it only has 4 poker tables, the tables, custom felts, and chairs are all top shelf. Embracing itself as a social club they have a pool table, 2 dart boards, and a video golf game. There are leather armchairs and a sofa on beautiful wood floors and the walls are adorned with a dozen or more TVs and images from the Lewis Carroll's book "Alice in Wonderland" to include a portrait of the White Rabbit holding the A♦, but we'll get to that later.
It was almost noon and a game was just starting. The owner at the desk collected a $20 membership fee and $5 daily admission fee. They raked $5 at $50 and another $5 at $100 from each pot. So this room was even more expensive than The BIG BLIND, but food and drinks were included. I'm also told that to start off the first table of the day every player receives an extra $50 in chips. I handed him $500. He took the $25 in fees and handed me a rack with $525 in chips. Apparently there was a pretty good restaurant next door. Paul, the owner, took my drink order and returned with a Diet Coke. After a few orbits the food arrived. There were sliders with caramelized onions and cheese on pretzel buns, fantastic French fries, and smoked sausage wraps. Everything was hot and delicious with the burgers cooked perfectly with charred outsides and pink insides. Everyone grabbed a plate while they continued to play. There was also a $500 high hand promotion which ran until 5pm, but AAAKK was the minimum hand to qualify and of course both cards had to play. Lastly, there was a bomb pot button, but as a twist the dealer could select from 4, 5, 6, 7 and even 8 card PLO! I sat out every bomb pot, but most were dealt 6 or 8 cards, depending on the number of players in the hand, which meant some hands were dealt without burn cards to accommodate all of the players. Crazy.
Not too long into my session I'm dealt AT and see a flop of AT3. The turn brings another A and the river a third. My AAAAT qualifies for the high hand. I'm liking this place more and more! It's only 1pm and I planned on driving an hour east to McQueeney to visit a small unknown poker room later that day, but for $500 I'll stay put until 5pm when the promotion ends. With only one table running it's unlikely anyone will beat quad aces. About 30 minutes later I make TTTT7 for another qualifier, but it doesn't beat my previous hand. Sure enough, 5pm is here and my high hand holds up. I cash out $362 winner plus the $500 bonus for $862. Paul asked if I wouldn't mind posing for a promotional photo. He positioned me in front of the White Rabbit and I made sure to have the A♦ visible.
Later that evening back in my hotel room I'm messing around with Google's AI and had it generate this image of me playing poker with characters from Alice in Wonderland. I'm impressed with my first time using AI to create images with me in them. This is also when I created the cowboy image at the top of this trip report.
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