LEGENDS

Legends Poker Room< in Houston, Texas, has become legendary for all the wrong reasons. Two words: shootings & robberies. See our post on the topic here: LEGENDS POKER ROOM, HOUSTON – HOW NOT TO OPERATE A POKER ROOM

Legends Poker Room

9275 Richmond Ave., Suite 101, Houston, TX

Owners:
• JJJ Vision LLC
• David La
• Ho Jun Sin

David La, formerly a California resident, was the driving force behind the opening of Legends Poker Room on Richmond Ave. in Houston. He essentially was driven out of California and set his sights on the evolving Texas poker scene, particularly Houston — characterized by a wild, wild, west vibe. That seemed to fit his frame of mind. Texas, and again, particularly Houston was largely characterized, rightly or wrongly, as having an unregulated nature.

La left California under a cloud of corruption. He played a central role in the money-laundering scandal at Normandie Casino in Gardena, California that eventually forced the casino’s owning family to be ordered to sell the casino. La was the casino’s Operating Manager and subsequently was named as its Chief Operating Officer. Normandie was temporarily shut down, was purchased by Larry Flynt, and was renamed Larry Flynt’s Lucky Lady Casino.

La was terminated from Normandie and filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the casino. It was dismissed. La lost his gambling license in California and was unable to continue in that profession in the Golden State.

That’s when he set his sights on Texas and Houston.

La put an alliance together with legendary poker player Johnny Chan and a man named Ho Jun Sin. Together they purchased 52 Social — a private poker club. Not long after the trio became owners of 52 Social, they ran into management issues. Chan filed suit claiming not only mismanagement of the club by La and Sin, but alleged that they had stolen money from the club. The suit was mismanaged the club and stolen money. The lawsuit was settled, not amicably, and the companies partied ways. Chan took over the club and rebranded it 88 Social.

La opened up Legends Poker Room a few hundred yards away from the newly branded 88 Social — actually directly across the street — and ran a slew of promotions to draw players away from 88 Social. Chan was running into financial woes himself, and shut down the club. (A new group bought the club and reopened it as 101 Poker Richmond.)

There has been alleged widespread illicit and downright illegal behavior at the Legends Poker Room. A short documentary video highlighting some of the issues at Legends was made by Dolcefino Consulting. It can be viewed on YouTube here: Poker Face.

If all that is not enough, just Google “Legends Poker Room Houston crime.”
Shootings, homicides, robberies, theft, auto theft, assaults, sexual assaults — the list goes on. We’re not sure how this place continues to stay open.

You also can find plenty of 1-star (1-chip) reviews on places like PokerNews.com and PokerAtlas.com. Don’t take our word for it, read what some of those reviewers say:

“Another day, another shooting,” says PokerNews.

“Safety continues to be the #1 issue of players. They don’t even scan people in at the front anymore so anyone can come in. Security barely checks you when you come through the scanner. Only 1 security guard out front and he basically sits there all day just talking to the valet guy that cones off all the front spaces. The open ones are far away from the door so you are taking a risk with your life to park there and get to and from your car,” says a reviewer on PokerAtlas.

Where would you choose to go to play poker in Houston? Legends? Time to wake up and smell the coffee.