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Oak Cliff Card Club in the Dallas area has a unique business model that might be of interest to Texas poker players.

The card room, located about an eight-minute drive from downtown in the suburban town of Cockrell Hill, opens Jan. 25. This won’t be your typical Texas poker club, although the poker games will be just as juicy. The owners have a plan to build the business without charging hourly seat fees.

PokerNews spoke with CEO Termaine Davis to find out how his 12-table card room will compete with the deep pockets of Texas Card House, which operates the two most popular poker clubs in the Dallas-Forth Worth (DFW) metro, and to also get an understanding for how a poker room in the Lone Star State can survive without charging hourly fees.

Competing Against Top Texas Poker Rooms

Texas poker rooms, due to the state’s stringent gambling laws, operate differently than in most states. Collecting rake is illegal, so the card rooms operate as membership clubs, almost always charging monthly, weekly, or daily membership fees along with hourly seat fees. This practice is standard across the state, except for the rooms that are not abiding by the law.

So, how can Oak Cliff Card Club compete with the established TCH brand?

“We’re not trying to compete with TCH,” Davis said.

Oak Cliff is instead attempting to build its own “community club” and will focus on more than just the poker games. They’re going to offer dealer training opportunities and poker lessons for new players who want to learn how to play. The club has 15 televisions around the room and will become a spot for poker players to come hangout, watch a ballgame, and play some cards.

But the biggest benefit to the players will be the lack of an hourly fee to play poker. Instead, the monthly memberships will be higher than most clubs, but the overall cost for those who play regularly will be significantly lower than other Texas poker rooms.

A monthly membership fee will cost $99 for play during the daytime and $149 for evening access. But the first 200 members can get a special $99 introductory rate for the first month with unlimited hours for the first 30 days by signing up on Oak Cliff’s website. Those who don’t plan on playing more than once or twice a month can purchase a $30 daily pass, but must also pay and additional $30 for a seat fee.

“Our club is really about socialization and building a community around poker players," Davis explained.

Oak Cliff Card Club will offer mostly cash games, starting with $1/$2, $1/$3, $2/$5, and $5/$10 no-limit hold’em, a standard set of games played in most card rooms. They will also spread some pot-limit Omaha games and Congress Poker, a juicy game offered in few poker rooms where two columns of four cards are dealt.

The newest poker club in DFW will only spread cash games, at least during the first few weeks. Ownership acknowledged that trying to compete with TCH, which hosts some of the biggest tournaments in Texas, likely wouldn’t be a winning proposition. But we are told that Oak Cliff Card Club, which has the capacity for up to 16 tables, will offer some smaller tournaments from time to time, and potentially even single-table tournaments.

The club’s business model is to give the players what they want. If they want a $5/$10 game, they’ll spread it. If they want to play a $100 sit n’ go, they’ll open up a table.

Any Legal Issues?

Poker rooms come and go in Texas regularly, especially in Dallas. Lack of customers or mismanagement, like any type of business, is often the issue. But some towns in the Lone Star State don’t believe poker is legal at all in Texas, or as Doug Polk learned last year, it’s a matter of anti-poker locals fighting against the operation of poker clubs.

The CEO isn’t concerned with running into legal issues upon opening Oak Cliff Card Club. That’s because, as he explained, he’s spent the past year working with authorities in Cockrell Hill, a town west of Dallas, to ensure the city is onboard.

“I have the police chief on speed dial. I’m working hand-in-hand with the mayor. I’ve spent a year getting the business inspected to ensure we don’t run into any issues,” Davis said.

If all goes well, the card room’s owners plan to open additional clubs in Dallas each year. For now, however, they’re focused on getting the first location off the ground and impressing the players who join the club.

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