The Lodge Card Club is known for some unique side games that take place during cash game action. If you've ever played at the Lodge, you've likely been part of a NIT Game or a double-board PLO bomb pot.
Some of those side games will come to life in tournament format at the Wacky Weekend of Poker, set to run from the Lodge Austin location Jan. 31 through Feb. 2.
The Wacky Weekend features six tournaments, all of which feature unique poker formats.
Lodge Round Rock Wacky Weekend Schedule
- Jan. 31 - $200 Deuces Wild
- Jan. 31 - $200 Double Board PLO Bomb Pot
- Feb. 1 - $200 Mystery Bounty Chaos
- Feb. 1 - $200 Mix Game Dealer's Choice
- Feb. 2 - $200 NIT Game
- Feb. 2 - $200 Blood River (Ocean)
All six tournaments offer a $200 buy-in. For more on the structures and the rules of the different games, check out this page on the Lodge website.
Getting Wacky at the Lodge
The upcoming tournament mini-series marks the second annual edition of the Wacky Weekend of Poker.
"Since Lodge Card Club is a private social club, we can do a lot of things that casinos in Vegas, for example, can't do," Lodge Marketing Director Mike Brady told PokerOrg. "So last year, when we ran the first Wacky Weekend, we wanted to create a unique series that you could really only play at a club like ours.
"We came up with a lot of unique games; in some cases, existing games, in some cases brand new games, most notably the Mystery Bounty Chaos."
The Mystery Bounty Chaos event runs like a standard mystery bounty tournament, but it's not just monetary prizes up for grabs in the bounty drawing. Players might draw a cash prize, but they also might draw a penalty or an advantage.
The advantages include everything from a seat/table change button, the ability to add an average stack to your own stack, and a ticket straight to the final table.
Penalties can include not being able to raise for an orbit, having to switch stacks with the shortest stack in the room, and many other things you would generally want to avoid in a tournament.
The Mystery Bounty Chaos is perhaps the "wackiest" of the unique slate of tournaments on tap.
"We had countless brainstorming sessions, coming up with random ideas, " Brady said. "We'd get random 2 a.m. messages from our general manager because he just came up with a cool idea."
"Last year we tried a bunch of different games. This year we've trimmed it down to just the top six. Really the ones that performed the best last year, that people really liked. So people that came out to our Wacky Weekend in 2024 are going to really like the schedule because it's really just the cream of the crop from last time."
