Category Archives: Houston

LEGENDS POKER ROOM, HOUSTON – HOW NOT TO OPERATE A POKER ROOM

Security on the scene at Legends Poker Room, 3971 Richmond Ave., Houston

There’s a right way and a wrong way to own, open and operate a legal, legitimate poker room in Houston, Texas. Legends Poker Room at 3971 Richmond Ave. in Houston is a perfect example of the wrong way.

The story of their ownership and operation has evolved over a very short time period. The story involves four clubs or poker rooms and a handful of different owners.

Let’s start first with a club known as “52 Social.” The 52 is obviously a reference to the number of cards in a playing deck used to deal hands of poker. Cute.

But that’s all it is. 52 Social was purchased, opened and operated by a relatively well known poker player, Johnny Chan, and two others — a man by the name of David La and another partner, Ho Jun Sin. Chan was the face of the place, La and Sin supposedly managed it.

Johnny Chan is a Chinese-American professional poker player. He has won 10 World Series of Poker bracelets, including the 1987 and 1988 World Series of Poker main events consecutively.

David La and Ho Jun Sin are Vietnamese. David La’s professional background is murky. He has built a reputation as being a mob boss; think of Tony Soprano in the award-winning HBO serial series called “The Sopranos.” That kind of guy. The kind of guy who would just as soon have you whacked (and by whacked, you know, we mean kill) as look at you. Only Vietnamese. That should tell you something.

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AYVA CENTER, HOUSTON FEDERAL & STATE TAX LIENS

Federal (IRS) Tax Lien, Ayva Center

The Ayva Center at 3971 Richmond Ave., in Houston, Texas (EXACT same address as 101 Poker Richmond) is owned by Ali Reza Yazdani, also referred to as “Alex.” We’ll call him “Ali Yaz.”

In our opinion, Ali Yaz has been running quite a s#!t shoe at this location for quite a few years. He’s had liens slapped on him and his place of business a number of times both by the IRS and by the state of Texas.

The Federal tax lien from the IRS was for $11,842.95.

The Texas liens were for non-payment of his “Mixed Beverage Gross Receipts Tax.” They’ve added up to tens of thousands of dollars.

Take a look at this example filed for the state of Texas through Harris County:

Ayva Center, Houston, Texas – State of Texas tax lien

Ali Yaz has quite a rocky time over the years. His wife, An Vo, who once partnered with him in the business, filed for divorce some years ago. As the petitioner for the. Divorce, An Vo noted that “The parties were married on or about May 26, 2009 and ceased to live together as husband and wife on or about February 1, 2014.”

Also, in the section listed as grounds for divorce there’s this: “The marriage has become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities between Petitioner [An Vo] and Respondent [Ali Yaz] that destroys the legitimate ends of the marriage relationship and prevents any reasonable expectation of reconciliation.”

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AYVA CENTER REVIEWS – HOUSTON, TEXAS

Intro image on the home page at AyvaCenter.com

Let’s start with this:

2.5 stars average on Yelp

Ayva Center at 3971 Richmond Ave. in Houston, Texas (the EXACT same address as 101 Poker Richmond) promotes itself as an events venue.

Let’s look at some reviews. From Yelp, there are as many one-star reviews as there are five-star reviews. It’s interesting to note that the five-star reviews come from Yelpers who live in Houston. Highly suspicious. Real accounts? Or are these people trying to do a “favor” for Ayva? Also interesting to note were a bunch of one-star reviews from Houstonians.

When you have such a discrepancy — either one-star or five-star reviews, nothing in between — it’s pretty apparent that the five-star reviews are not legit. The five-star reviewers were pretty vague and non-specific about why they were giving Ayva a high rating; no detail. The one-star reviews were very specific in why they gave one-star reviews. Further clues about legit vs. non-legit reviewers. Here are a few of the one-star reviews, notably (except one) from visitors to the Houston area:

Vera S from Villanova, Pennsylvania says: “ … we went to leave to see that all the cars had been towed out of the parking lot. We were customers who paid to attend an event and yet the cars were towed. DO NOT HAVE AN EVENT HERE. Imagine your wedding guests being towed away.”

Mohammed S from Washington, DC says: “Worst event in my life. … I will not go to Ayva center ever again and highly NOT recommend anyone to go. … such a waste of money. To me, it is very insulting. I will not go to Ayva center ever again and highly NOT recommend anyone to go.”

Larai M says: “It’s really too bad that the Ayva Center couldn’t live up to its full potential. For a wedding that was attended by roughly 400 guests (most of which were restaurateurs & other prominent business owners), the center could have had a lot of return clients for business meetings and social events. Instead, most everyone will remember NOT to use this facility due to the un-imaginably slow & unprofessional service they provided that night. … Perhaps the lesson of the story is this: if you do use this facility, do NOT use their food/catering service!!! Although their website states they provide full service for weddings/events, go ahead and bring your own outside caterers. Use this ONLY for the large space that they can provide.”

Also, the place looks and smells like a dump when it’s not all gussied up with streamers, decorations, tables set up and arranged with table cloths, place settings and centerpieces in our opinion.