A new women-owned poker room is preparing to open its doors in Texas, giving the Dallas-Fort Worth area its first card room built from the ground up by and for women in poker. The Den Poker Lounge, founded by Marjorie Bradford and Jamie Kempf, will hold its grand opening on November 12 in Rowlett, Texas, with doors opening at 3 p.m. local time and a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 4 p.m.
Two Years in the Making
Bradford and Kempf are both longtime poker players and advocates for growing the number of women at the tables. According to Kempf, the project has been “over two years in the making,” a long runway that reflects just how much groundwork is required to open a card room in a state where gambling law is notoriously strict. Kempf, who finished runner-up for a WSOP Circuit ring in 2024, brings real tournament credibility to the venture, while Bradford’s background as a poker enthusiast rounds out a partnership built specifically around changing who feels comfortable walking into a card room.
Kempf has been candid about the motivation behind The Den, describing poker as an industry that “has traditionally been a male-dominated” space. Rather than frame the room as exclusionary, she has stressed that the goal is an environment where “everyone feels welcome,” with the women-first branding meant to signal openness rather than restriction. “We wanted The Den to be more than just another poker room,” Kempf said, adding that early reaction has already been encouraging. “We’re really proud of what we’re building, and can’t wait to share it with everyone.”
How Texas Card Rooms Operate
Texas does not permit raked poker games in the way most other states do, so card rooms in the state typically rely on a social club membership model instead of taking a percentage of each pot. The Den will follow that same structure, selling memberships to players rather than raking the game directly. It is a workaround that has allowed dozens of clubs to spring up across Texas over the past decade, from Austin to Houston to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, even without a formal regulatory framework for commercial card rooms.
The room itself will feature 15 tables when it opens, a solid footprint for a new venue entering a market that already has established players. No-Limit Hold’em will anchor the schedule, with stakes expected to run from $1/$2 cash games up toward $50/$100 for bigger action. Pot-Limit Omaha, mixed games and bomb pots are also planned for the rotation, with the exact mix to be shaped by player interest once the doors open. That flexibility is typical of newer Texas clubs, which often start with a core game and expand once they understand their member base. Players unfamiliar with how these variants differ from standard cash play can brush up on the fundamentals with a guide like Poker Pro Academy’s how to play poker guide before their first session at a new room.
Not the First Women-Owned Poker Room in Texas, But a Significant Step
The Den is not the very first attempt to build a women-focused poker space in Texas. The Royal Card Club in Austin experimented with a similar concept back in 2024, targeting female players as a core demographic while remaining open to the general public. What sets The Den apart is that it is being described as a women-owned operation from the top down, with Bradford and Kempf controlling the business rather than simply marketing toward a female audience. That distinction matters in an industry where “women’s initiatives” are often run by male ownership groups looking to tap into an underserved segment of the player pool.
The timing also lines up with a broader, slow-moving shift in live poker. Major festivals and tours have increasingly rolled out ladies’ events, mentorship programs and media spotlights aimed at female players over the past several years, part of an industry-wide recognition that poker’s player base skews heavily male and that growth depends on changing that balance. A room built and run by women, rather than simply marketed at them, is a more direct answer to that imbalance than a single tournament flight on a festival schedule.
Competing in a Crowded Market
The Den will not be entering an empty market. The Dallas-Fort Worth area already supports well-known rooms including the two Texas Card House locations and Palace Poker, both of which regularly draw hundreds of players across their tables. With roughly 8.5 million residents in the metro area, however, there is a large enough pool of players that Kempf and Bradford are betting there is room for a venue with a different identity and atmosphere, rather than one competing purely on table count or rake structure.
Whether The Den can carve out a sustainable niche will depend heavily on execution once the doors open on November 12. Membership-model card rooms in Texas live and die by repeat business and word of mouth, and a 15-table room needs consistent traffic across both peak and off-peak hours to stay viable long-term. Early interest, by Kempf’s account, has already been positive, but the real test will come once the grand opening excitement settles into a normal weekly schedule.
Why It Matters Beyond Texas
For the wider poker community, including markets like Brazil where women’s participation in live tournaments and cash games has been growing steadily in recent years, The Den’s launch is a useful data point. It shows that there is enough appetite, and enough available capital and credibility among female players themselves, to build a venue rather than simply attend one built by others. If the model proves sustainable in a tough regulatory state like Texas, it offers a template that other markets, including Brazil’s own expanding live scene, could eventually look to adapt.
The Den Poker Lounge opens its doors to the public on November 12 in Rowlett, Texas. As with any card room, players should treat poker as entertainment rather than a guaranteed income source and must be 18 or older to participate.
