Texas · Home Market
CISO Marketplace is built out of the Houston–Austin–Dallas trifecta. Texas card houses are legal, accessible, and already part of the culture — the perfect format for community security poker games. We're building that here, starting after HSC 2026.
What Texas games are
What Texas games are not
The Markets
Each city has a distinct security community shaped by the industries that drive it. Click through for the full breakdown.
Greater Houston Metro
Critical infrastructure capital. The highest concentration of operational technology and energy CISOs in the country.
Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex
The southern enterprise corridor. Finance, telecom, defense, and one of the fastest-growing technology markets in the country.
Austin Metro
The research and startup layer. Red teamers, security engineers, and a tech-native CISO community that actually wants to play cards.
San Antonio Metro
The cyber command capital. DoD, NSA, and military cybersecurity form the backbone of one of the most unique security communities in the country.
Corpus Christi Metro
Port and petrochemical corridor. OT/ICS security for critical maritime and refining infrastructure on the Gulf Coast.
El Paso Metro / Borderplex
Border infrastructure and military operations. Fort Bliss, DHS, and one of the most unique security environments in the country.
The Venue Model
Texas operates legal social poker rooms — card houses — under state law. Unlike casino poker rooms, they don't take a rake. They charge a time fee per seat. The game runs clean, the dealers are professional, and the facilities are built for exactly this kind of event.
For a 9–18 player security community game, a card house is the right venue. It's accessible, familiar to players who already use them, and doesn't require negotiating a private venue contract or a hospitality budget that only makes sense at 100+ people.
Community sponsors cover the tab — food, drinks, maybe a small prize for the winner. The card house handles everything else. It's a low-overhead format that can run monthly in every major Texas city once the local community is organized.
Community Sponsorship
Community sponsorship for a Texas card house game is a different model than a flagship event. You're covering a card house tab for 9–18 security professionals in your city — not underwriting a flagship enterprise prize package.
In exchange, your company is the reason the room happened. You get genuine credit with the people at the table, a logo mention in the hacker.poker event listing, and the kind of relationship you don't build at a trade show booth.
If you're a local MSSP, VAR, security vendor, or recruiting firm with a Texas book of business — this is the most direct access to the market that exists.
◆ Powered by FeltIQ
CISO.POKER events run FeltIQ — our anonymous, real-time intelligence capture platform. Tablet kiosks at the table ask fast, adaptive questions throughout the night. Sponsors receive post-event anonymized aggregate intelligence showing what the room actually thinks about AI risk, vendor trust, budget priorities, and emerging threats — captured from the people at the table, without any PII or lead lists. Learn more about FeltIQ →
Sponsor a Texas game
Cover food and drinks for a 9–18 player community game in your city. Houston, Dallas, Austin, or San Antonio.
Get in Touch ◆Find or host a game
The Texas games live on hacker.poker. Join the community, find a game in your city, or organize one yourself.
hacker.poker ↗Community Platform
Texas community games are organized, listed, and joined through hacker.poker — our community cousin site and the operational layer for all non-flagship events. Every Texas city has a dedicated page where players find games, hosts organize them, and the local community builds up over time.
hacker.poker/texas ↗The Next Level
The community games are the feeder. When Hacker Summer Camp comes around, the Texas security community travels — and the people who've been playing together at local card houses already know each other. The invite-only flagship format feels different when you've already sat across the table from half the room.
Invite-only Texas Hold'em for 75–100 CISOs and senior security leaders. Free entry. No badge scans. No pitches. Real conversations across the table.
75–100 seats · Applications reviewed manually
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