{"id":1339,"date":"2026-03-12T16:49:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T08:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hunter.poker\/?p=1339"},"modified":"2026-03-13T23:35:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T15:35:19","slug":"doug-polk-the-lodge-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hunter.poker\/en\/doug-polk-the-lodge-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Doug Polk: Player Funds Are 100% Safe, Calls The Lodge Incident a \"Political Witch Hunt\""},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/hunter.poker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1cf0b673c4-1024x683.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1340\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hunter.poker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1cf0b673c4-1024x683.webp 1024w, https:\/\/hunter.poker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1cf0b673c4-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/hunter.poker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1cf0b673c4-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/hunter.poker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1cf0b673c4.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Well-known poker professional player and YouTuber\u00a0<strong>Doug Polk<\/strong>\u00a0Recently, I assure players that in a well-known poker room in Texas\u00a0<strong>The Lodge Card Club<\/strong>\u00a0After being raided by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC)\uff0c<strong>Player funds are still completely safe<\/strong>\u3002<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Tuesday morning, TABC launched an action against this Texas-based poker club, which attracted great attention from the poker circle. As one of the co-owners of the club, Polk then posted on the social platform&nbsp;<strong>X (front row)<\/strong>&nbsp;Posted a response, saying that it is still waiting for more information and expects to&nbsp;<strong>A more complete official description will be released within one day<\/strong>\u3002<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, under this post, poker professionals&nbsp;<strong>Tom Dwan<\/strong>&nbsp;Commenting on Polk, it is implied that Polk used to publicly criticize others when they were caught in disputes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Dwan wrote: \"A large part of your past brand image was based on publicly chasing others when they encountered similar situations. I hope you can take a moment to reflect now and understand the negative effects of those choices. I also hope you can do less of that in the future. \u300d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">You made a lot of your brand out of going after people in times like this.<br><br>I hope you can take a minute to reflect, and realize the negatives of some of those choices.<br><br>Hope you do stuff like that less in the future.<\/p>\u2014 Tom Dwan (@TomDwan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TomDwan\/status\/2031783501729837228?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">March 11, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Polk fights back against Dwan<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>Polk obviously didn't buy Dwan's comments and quickly responded strongly. Polk has publicly criticized Dwan many times in the past, and this time he hit back unceremoniously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Polk wrote on X: \"I have personally assured all players that all player funds will remain safe during this witch hunt from TABC.<br>And you are still said to owe tens of millions of dollars.<br>Shut up. \u300d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>This fierce response also caused the incident to ferment rapidly in the poker community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Players were asked to take away chips during the raid<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the players on the scene, when TABC entered the venue for action,\uff0c<strong>Players who were at the table at the time were told to take their chips home first<\/strong>, Wait for the poker room to reopen before returning to cash out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of Wednesday morning, The Lodge Card Club was still closed, and it is not clear when the poker room will be able to resume operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Lodge consists of&nbsp;<strong>Doug Polk, Andrew Neeme and Brad Owen<\/strong>&nbsp;Co-owned, it is one of the largest poker rooms in Texas. The venue is located in&nbsp;<strong>Round Rock, a suburb of Austin<\/strong>, own&nbsp;<strong>Close to 70 card tables<\/strong>\u3002<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Originally, the venue was expected to be held later this week&nbsp;<strong>World Poker Tour (WPT) Special Event<\/strong>, But due to current legal issues, WPT has decided<strong>Temporarily postpone the event<\/strong>\u3002<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why TABC intervened is still unclear<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>It is still unclear to the outside world&nbsp;<strong>Why did TABC enter the Lodge Card Club to take action?<\/strong>\u3002<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>TABC is regulated by Texas<strong>Alcoholic beverage industry<\/strong>The state-level agency.<br>It is worth noting that there is a&nbsp;<strong>Independent restaurant and bar<\/strong>, The facility has a separate liquor sales license from the poker club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition\uff0c<strong>A public information officer from the Round Rock Police department has confirmed<\/strong>, local police<strong>Did not participate in the legal action against the poker room<\/strong>\u3002<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PokerNews said that they have contacted TABC several times for a response, but so far they have not received an official explanation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h5>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following a raid on The Lodge Card Club, Texas&#039;s largest poker room, by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC), partner Doug Polk assured players of the safety of their funds, calling the incident a &quot;witch hunt.&quot; Meanwhile, Polk and Tom Dwan engaged in a heated exchange on social media, and a WPT event scheduled for this week has been postponed.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[325],"tags":[382,365,401,383,400,384,386,399],"class_list":["post-1339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-325","tag-doug-polk","tag-poker-news","tag-tabc","tag-texas-poker","tag-texas-poker-law","tag-the-lodge-card-club","tag-tom-dwan","tag-wpt"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunter.poker\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunter.poker\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunter.poker\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunter.poker\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunter.poker\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hunter.poker\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1341,"href":"https:\/\/hunter.poker\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339\/revisions\/1341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunter.poker\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunter.poker\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunter.poker\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunter.poker\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}