Justin Hammer is a 2nd Annual Gulf Coast Poker "Industry Professional of the Year" award winner and a Global Poker Awards nominee. Also, he is among the most prominent and successful poker directors globally.
The poker professional has succeeded on the felt for many years, and he won a Thunder Valley side event. Hammer traveled to Houston in 2021 to aid the Prime Social card room's growth.
Prime Social is currently holding its largest series in history, the $ million guaranteed Texas Poker Championship. It is bigger than all other series that Texas has ever hosted. This was Hammer's idea when he held the same position at the Los Angeles-based Commerce Casino before the Coronavirus outbreak.
Hammer said on a PokerNews Podcast that they organized numerous tournaments at Commerce before he began trying out different things in California. Unfortunately, the pandemic disrupted all his plans.
Relocating to Texas
In 2020, Hammer didn't imagine he would work outside California. Yet, the global health crisis affected him just like it did to other poker players. It forced him to move to Texas to work, and he caught the attention of Prime Social, which hired him despite being a successful poker room.
The poker director stated that he realized that Texas Poker's first Main Event had a $250,000 guaranteed cash prize, and they are now having a $250,000 satellite into a $2 million Main Event.
Besides, he praised his staff's efforts as they have embraced his dream of hosting unusually large poker events in the state. He said that Prime Social has an amazing team, ownership, and management which has a clear vision, and they want to steer the card room to greater heights.
Texas Has Big Things Including Poker Games
Texas-based poker rooms operate differently from those in other states due to legal reasons. For example, operators in the Lone Star State-run card rooms as clubs, and they charge players hourly seat fees or a monthly membership rather than earning from cash game pots.
Hammer stated on the podcast that that benefits amateurs and experienced players. The rooms earn money when a player rents a seat and pays a particular fee for it.
This prevents the room's owner from taking money from the pot. Generally, a card room will come off the table if it constantly spends cash in its pot, and it might adversely affect its financial position.
According to Hammer, a poker operator with huge sums of money on the table can offer larger pots and give players more money. For instance, several people can buy in $500 for a specific poker game.
Typically, the $500 will be spent in less than six hours. It will be like an individual is gone despite the number of people who lost or bought in. Yet, the money stays in Texas.
Hammer is determined to grow Prime Social's tournaments more than he has already done. Its $2 million guaranteed Main Event will be a $5,300 buy-in competition that will run from March 24 to March 29.
Players can win one of the available satellites to enter the upcoming tournament. Hammer is also aiding Prime Social to attract top poker players from different countries like Adam Friedman.
