Lower Greenville has transformed over the years into a family friendly area with grocery stores, dessert eateries, coffee shops and patios, but the entertainment district has a seedier past. Arcadia Theater (where Trader Joe’s now stands) was once a sketchy nightclub and even showed pornographic films, and there were numerous night clubs that made the street susceptible to drunken fights and violence.
It was during this previous era that 1921 1/2 Greenville Ave. housed a poker club that ran illegal games, which lasted from 1969 through the 1980s. The card house posed as an AMVET, a charitable organization that supported veterans, but in reality it was the home of no-limit Texas Hold ‘Em games, and hosted several card sharks who went on to win big in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
The club saw its fair share of controversy, and the camera and steel door weren’t enough to keep robbers away. The game was on the radar of law enforcement, and in 1980 the Department of Public Safety and Alcoholic Beverage Commission busted down the front door, arresting 33 people and taking $70,000 in cash. The club dissolved a few years after the raid, and today a pole dancing studio resides in the space. Read the full 2009 story here.
