The Paramount Social Club in Northwest Houston offers regularly scheduled tournaments and cash games, along with many of the features of a sports bar.
The tournaments I have consistently played have been their 2PM “Early Bird.” Now that I’m sixty, I like daytime poker. They also have evening tournaments and evenings are better for cash games.
I notice that their tournament chip colors have good contrast so the denominations are easy to tell apart at a glance. I like that. Black hundreds, purple five hundreds, etc. In some other poker house tournaments, the chips all seem to be different shades of yellow which makes it easy to confuse them.
Non-Poker Action at Paramount
Besides the poker, there are pool tables, and a couple of arcade games. They also have several chess club style chess sets. There are plenty of TV screens, most playing sports, of course. Several of the poker players took an interest in the game that appeared to be more than just rooting for their alma maters.
There are soft drinks, chips, candy, and fruit bars included in the daily membership. The manager and staff offered to bring players drinks and snacks during play. The club is BYOB, so if you prefer to drink while you play or (more wisely) drink after poker while watching sports or playing pool, etc., this would be a good place to do that cheaper than paying bar prices for beer.
Tournament Pricing and Play
My first time there, I paid forty dollars, which included a one-time first time fee of ten dollars and a daily membership fee of ten dollars. The remaining twenty went into the prize pool. The second visit, it was thirty dollars.
Starting stacks for those early birds were either 6K with a 4K on-time bonus or 5K with a 5K bonus. The blinds started at 100/100 so it started as 100BB and of course the rising blinds shrink your stack relatively. The blinds went up slowly, they didn’t double every time. That makes for a longer lasting tournament, so it is cheap entertainment.
After the first few levels, there was also an ante equal to the big blind to be paid by the player on the big blind. I don’t care for that, but that’s just me.
I’m not a tournament strategy expert, but I assume that, with an ante, the idea is to play a little looser with more chips in every pot. That seemed to be the strategy of the players at my table, but, in cash games, I’m a tight-aggressive short-stacker so tournament players always seem too loose to me.
There is money to be made at the Paramount Social Club
The players were pretty loose, in both limping and calling. Blind stealing wasn’t a good strategy, at least at my table. Neither was isolating, because it was limp, limp, limp, call, call, call, with some raising, but very little three betting (other than mine). Post flop, there was more raising and re-raising, though. All-ins were common and so were side pots.
There was lots of re-buying before the first break, and lots of add-ons during the first break. The prize pool for the twenty dollar tournament with about thirty people was over 2K.
That means that each of the approximately thirty players contributed more than sixty dollars each. But it was lopsided with some players re-buying multiple times and some not at all.
If you are a decent tournament player with an understanding of tournament math, I believe that this would be a good place for you to earn. Along with some very good players, there were players who were clearly there to gamble and have fun. Some of them called all-ins with the thinnest of draws. Naturally, a few crazy draws hit, which will bring them back for more.
Saturday is the “Stacks” tournament, which is a higher buy-in of $120 plus the daily membership fee. That tournament is often very large, recently there were ten eight-player tables with a waiting list to get in as those full tables had seats open. It is a single re-buy tournament, and the prize pool was much larger than the early bird freeroll of course. First place was over five thousand dollars. The final table is often youtubed live on their RFID table.
Saturday night, there are more amenities. They sometimes bring in food for the break at around five PM, served by a couple of very nice-looking game girls with tip jars. The game girls also bring drinks and offer massages. I didn’t ask the fee, since it would be the alimony that I couldn’t afford. Those ladies along with a some lovely dealers add a nice touch to an otherwise nearly all male environment.
I left at nine-thirty one night and the Stacks tourney was still going strong. The levels last longer than the low buy-in tournaments. I hear it often lasts well into the night, so that wouldn’t be for me. Plus, I suck at tournaments. But if you want hours of poker for less than a cash game buy-in, you’d love it.
Cash Games
Cash game play typically begins shortly after the first break of the tournament with one hour of free time for those who participated in the tournament. It was 1/2 with buy-in up to $300. Some players buy in for the max, and a couple half-stacked for 100.
Mid-2022 Update
The economy appears to have affected the player pool
My most recent visit to play cash, there were fewer players with full-stacks they are willing to lose. A lot of players bought in for $100. They did not seem to want to fold such a short stack, but they were being more selective with hands.
The player pool was typical for Texans, wanting to play many hands and a lot of limp-calling. Texans don’t like to fold, so most hands went to showdown. With so many players calling down, top pair hands are not reliable winners. Set mining works well, because many players would call a flop bet and then let you see the turn and river free or cheap.
After the free hour, time fee is $6 per half hour or $20 per two hours. There is no rake, it being Texas, but the winners consistently tip the dealer one to five bucks, depending on the size of the pot.
They have a couple of variations on NLHE. There is a red button that goes around the table counter clockwise. When it meets the dealer button, there is a hand of PLO. With the buttons moving in the opposite direction, they meet more often than once per orbit.
There is also a PLO double-board bomb pot hand when a new dealer sits down, which is not mandatory. If you want to play, you put in $6 and there is no action until the flop. They also allowed button straddles and UTG straddles. Surprisingly, this is a decent money maker for me.
Again, I’m primarily a cash NLHE player. I played hours and hours at NL100 following The Plan. I got used to playing the same variant every hand. Because of that, I was not that comfortable in those hands.
But that kind of play should attract recreational players, so it’s a net positive.
Management and Staff
I give the dealers five out of five stars, which to me means the management hires the best and knows how to supervise them. They all shuffle up and deal the same way – the correct way – which I also attribute to good management. Not once have I seen someone have to call the floor over a dispute with the dealer.
There is a police officer on duty, which is a plus in urban Houston. They do not allow open or concealed carry, which is fine as long as someone is there to keep players from getting robbed of a big win.
Paramount Social Club: Very nice place to play poker, whether for fun or profit.