Austin, Texas might not seem like the centre of the live poker world. The Lone Star State is known as the home of live music in the U.S.A., but three poker YouTube superstars have bought a poker club and like plenty of the things that have happened in their careers, it’s a big deal.
Doug Polk Breaks News and Lights Up Poker Twitter
It was the biggest name of the three major investors in The Lodge Card House in Austin who broke the news. In doing so, Doug Polk opened the conversation on social media platform Twitter. ‘Poker Twitter’, as it is nominally referred to, is never shy in cracking open the controversial opinions. But, as Polk explained, the move comes with a major degree of excitement more than trepidation.
“I’m incredibly excited to announce that I’m partnering up with Andrew Neeme and Brad Owen to take an ownership stake in The Lodge Card House in Austin, Texas.” said Polk. Owen was next to jump in, joining one of his heroes in expressing his excitement about the deal.
“I started my [YouTube] channel after watching and being heavily inspired by Doug Polk and Andrew Neeme. Today, the three of us are officially co-owners of The Lodge Poker Club. It’s really hitting me today. I’m so excited for my new role in the poker industry and for what’s to come.”
Owen’s enthusiasm was matched by Neeme, who announced the ‘big news’ to kick off 2022 by saying: “It’s a new role for me at this point in my career and I’m stoked to put in a lot of time there to help the business and the other guys succeed.”
With a YouTube video announcement to celebrate, Polk described the purchase as a significant move in Texas.
“As of today, I have officially bought part of the largest card room here in Austin, Texas – The Lodge. Other part-owners include Brad Owen, Andrew Neeme, and Jake Abdalla.”
What and Where is The Lodge Poker Club?
The Lodge Poker Club is in Austin, Texas. Just like other Texas cardrooms, ‘The Lodge’ won’t be permitted to take a rake from players directly. Instead, players are essentially buying a fee to play poker at the social club where they are members then pay a timed fee for taking a seat at the table.
Polk is adamant that not only will he be looking to make the Lodge the best place to play in The Lone Star State, if it is successful then the trio will be looking to convert other properties into franchises based on the same business model.
“We have a few different goals with The Lodge,” he said in his YouTube video announcing the news. “The first is to continue to make The Lodge the place to play poker in Austin, Texas. It’s already the biggest place and it’s already, in my opinion, the best, but we’re going to do our best to continue to make that a reality with planned trips from both Andrew and Brad and two times a week I’m going to be driving down there on Wednesdays and Fridays to play some poker.”
Aside from Polk’s bi-weekly commute to the cardroom, there is plenty to look forward to. Any fans wary of heading to Texas to play poker so soon after the disastrous ending to Johnny Chan’s tenure as co-owner of the 88 Social in Houston need not worry about Polk, Neeme and Owen’s baby 165 miles west of the club.
“One thing I can absolutely guarantee you of [is that] we’re going to do things right at The Lodge.”
Could The Lodge Kickstart a Poker Resurgence in The Lone Star State?
While the major headliners or Polk, Neeme and Owen are part of the team to buy up majority shares in The Lodge, they are also joined by poker names such as Ryan Fee, Thomas Keeling, Matt Colletta and Mike Brady in the deal.
What can poker fans expect from The Lodge? Well, with a 24/7 set-up and 60 poker tables, the ability to stream poker isn’t just already established, there’s a captive audience of 23,800 subscribers on their YouTube channel, The Lodge Live, at the time of going to press.
Doug Polk is certainly likely to lead a lot of the early traffic to The Lodge, as he recently made the move from Las Vegas to Texas after getting hitched. He admitted in the video that he didn’t know much about poker in Texas until travelling around the cardrooms and discovering its potential.
“I went to all the different card rooms in Austin and realized that this is actually a very large business here in the city. It’s also going on across the state in places like Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. At this point, it became clear with over 60 rooms in the state and seemingly endless growth it was time to make a move.
It’s a bold move, but with stellar content virtually guaranteed, the triumvirate of Polk, Neeme and Owen are going to be exciting co-owners as live poker in The Lone Star State comes under sharp focus.
January will kick off the action in style, with a ‘Monster Meet Up Week’ seeing all three YouTuber arriving to play at The Lodge before the end of the month. On January 25th, the ‘Biggest Meet Up Game in Texas History’ takes place, with a $600-entry tournament closing out the month with a $500,000 guarantee.
Texas Hold’em could get bigger and bigger in Texas as the three well-known YouTube stars expect to bring thousands more live players to the felt in the Lone Star State.
