Williams plays like a pro in poker rooms across Dallas-Fort Worth, but his days of placing bets at Texas Card House or any of the other legal poker rooms in the city may be numbered. Play it like a pro, and poker can become a living. Play it right, and poker can be a lucrative side hustle. Like many players, he says poker is a game of skill and strategy, not chance. He places bets, folding periodically, winning hands strategically, but he doesn’t consider it gambling. One of them is Shomari Williams, 38, a regular in Dallas’ poker scene. But there’s no buffet or endless din of slots, just 26 or so semicircular tables with four to six players each, focused on the cards. You can drop off your bottle with one of the waitresses at a snack bar near the entrance and she’ll bring you drinks as you play.
The operation lacks the glitz of a Vegas casino.
The winners are usually in good spirits, the losers sometimes deflated. Poker chips ruffle and click as they move from players to pots, from winners to losers. Wall-mounted TVs play sports channels in the background as sharks and fish chatter at the table. Players old and young fill seats around the tables at Texas Card House on Harry Hines Boulevard.
