Owned by Doug Polk, Andrew Neeme, and Brad Owen, The Lodge Card Club in Austin, Texas, has become one of the most popular live poker venues in the United States.
The Club’s most recent announcement revealed that two more big poker names would be joining The Lodge project, as Ethan “Rampage” Yau and Nik “Airball” Arcot were announced as the latest investors.
The legendary poker Vlogger and the self-proclaimed “King of LA” will bring some fresh blood to the mix, along with their substantial fan bases, as The Lodge aims for further expansion following the opening of the second location in San Antonio.
The Biggest Social Network in All of Poker
Even before the latest announcement, The Lodge was owned by people with massive reach on social media, particularly YouTube.
Doug Polk (423k followers), Andrew Neeme (196k followers), and Brad Owen (772k followers) have well over a million followers on their YouTube channels.
Rampage Poker, who has 328k YouTube followers of his own, will now be joining the mix to that the number to over 1.5 million.
At this point, it’s safe to say that the eyes of the poker world will be firmly on The Lodge and its investors on quite a few of the major channels in the poker space.
Ethan’s poker Vlog is one of the most popular and watched these days, with hundreds of thousands of fans following his journey from the very lowest stakes to the top of the poker world, which took several years.
These days, Rampage has been under some scrutiny from his fan base, much thanks to a massive downswing he has been on. It will be interesting if his involvement with The Lodge helps him turn things around and just how active of a role the young poker phenom will take at the club.
Nik Airball to Bring High-Stakes to The Lodge?
Ever since emerging on the poker scene a few years ago, Nik Airball has been one of the most controversial players in the poker world.
Nik will now be joining The Lodge project as the fifth known co-owner, and bringing his personality to the table as one of the major assets.
Nik’s poker table antics are legendary at this point, and they even earned him a ban from the rival Hustler Casino Live stream, which was lifted just recently.
Now that he is part of The Lodge crew, we expect to see more of Airball on Poker at the Lodge streams, which should also mean more high-stakes games on those streams.
In his video announcement of the new investors, Doug Polk hinted at some major high-stakes streams coming up, which should include Nik Airball among other Lodge regulars and hopefully a few new faces as well.
Airball is known as a player who brings action to the table, so it would not be surprising at all if his presence in the games brings a few big players along as they seek to play in an enjoyable high-stakes game with lots of money on the table.
While Nik doesn’t have a YouTube channel of his own, we can already see how his continued involvement with The Lodge will provide plenty of content opportunities for Poker at the Lodge, Doug Polk, and all the other related channels.
Nik Airball is currently on the list for the big Hustler Casino Live Million Dollar Game, and if things go right, could help facilitate similar games at The Lodge in the future as well.
Seeing two competing games with million-dollar buyins would certainly be very exciting, and the lineup of investors that The Lodge is putting together makes such a feat very possible.
Where Is The Lodge Headed?
When it was first acquired by Polk, Neeme, and Owen, The Lodge was already a successful poker club. However, the trio has taken it to a whole new level, and even launched a second room in San Antonio.
Polk has hinted at further expansion in his recent videos, and that could mean launching even more rooms across the state of Texas and beyond under the Lodge brand.
Big projects require big investments, so it is not surprising to see The Lodge bringing on new investors who can help share the financial burden and create hype around any future activities.
Already known as the most successful poker club in Texas, and one of the best in America, The Lodge looks to be on the right path for even greater things, and those will involve five of the world’s most beloved poker players.
The storylines that Rampage and Airball can help create down in Texas should be unparalleled, so we very much look forward to the streams that Poker at the Lodge will have to bring in the following months.
