Rounders Card Club will soon become The Lodge Card Club San Antonio and will be expanded to 70-80 tables. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Doug Polk, Andrew Neeme, and Brad Owen bought The Lodge Card Club in suburban Austin in 2022 and have grown it into the largest poker room in Texas. On Wednesday, Polk announced that the trio and their investors have purchased Rounders Card Club in San Antonio, their first expansion in the Lone Star State.

Rounders Card Club is already the largest poker room in San Antonio

The group will rebrand the venue The Lodge Card Club San Antonio and will take over ownership on July 3. Rounders Card Club is already the largest poker room in San Antonio, with 30 tables, but Polk and his team have signed a lease on a much larger spot next door. The new location will have 70-80 tables, eclipsing original The Lodge Card Club as the biggest poker club in the state.

Poker is, ironically, technically illegal in Texas, but the law does allow for poker rooms if they don’t charge a rake. As such, clubs like The Lodge charge memberships and seat fees instead of rake. That doesn’t mean card rooms are allowed everywhere – Farmer’s Branch, a town in the Dallas area where Polk wanted to start a second poker club, recently voted against a measure that would have permitted poker rooms.

Polk told PokerNews that his team wants to consolidate what he calls a “fragmented” San Antonio poker market. He believes it presents an excellent opportunity, especially considering the growth of the area from Austin to San Antonio. They have brought on local poker player Chaz “Big Daddy Chaz” Gill as an investor/partner and will lean on him for his knowledge of the city and the poker community.

To celebrate the opening of new location, The Lodge Card Club San Antonio will host a $1/$2 Meet Up Game with Owen and Neeme on July 26. It will follow that up the next day with a $300 buy-in, $50,000 guaranteed prize pool tournament.