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'Doug approached us about partnering up and it all became much more doable.

'Brad and I have kicked around the idea of an ownership role in Texas for years, but it was tough not being based there,' Neeme, a Las Vegas resident who grew up in Michigan, told PokerNews. The tag team duo has now added a third member of the crew in Polk. They host meet-up games (MUGs) all around the country. Owen and Neeme are the two most popular vloggers. Johnny Chan, who recently sold his 88 Social Poker Club in Houston, had some financial issues and a dispute with his co-owner. The trio of poker pros aren't the only high-profile players to enter the Texas poker space. 'We're just teaming up with the previous owners.' 'The previous owners still own a lot,' he continued. Owen told PokerNews: 'The group that I'm involved in, which includes Doug and Andrew, owns the majority.' So, he instead opted to purchase a stake in an established room. In the end, as he mentioned in the video, he determined it would take up to 18 months to build a room from scratch.

After visiting some card rooms and seeing just how huge the game has become in Texas, he became interested in opening his own club.

He explained in the video that when he moved to Austin from Las Vegas in 2021, he didn't realize just how prominent poker was in the state. The Upswing Poker founder announced his new business venture in a brief YouTube video. Polk, who is now unretired from poker officially for the umpteenth time, floated the idea of one day opening a room in Texas. Accepting rake on individual pots would be a violation of state laws, so the card rooms operate as membership clubs and charge monthly membership fees and/or daily/hourly seat fees. The Lone Star State is a unique place for poker as the laws differ from most states. Three prominent poker pros are joining the ever-growing Texas poker industry as part of a group investing in the popular Lodge Poker Club in Austin.ĭoug Polk is teaming up with vloggers Andrew Neeme and Brad Owen to operate the largest card room in Central Texas - The Lodge Poker Club, dubbed the 'Lodge Mahal.'

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