Eddie. I think you may be a little confused or mis-informed here. I can't be certain, obviously, how they do things in the game you use as an example, however I am certain about the following:
1) In a big enough game, it is most certainly worthwhile for the house to take a percentage. I should watch the episode again to be sure, but in the Sopranos game where Davey loses $30,000 (?), my guess is to lose that kind of money it would have to be something like a $200 limit game. In a game of that size, each pot would be a few thousand dollars, so it would be more than worthwhile for the house to take just 5% of each pot.
2) Every "organized" 7 card stud game I've ever been in--at local NYC "clubs", as well as in Atlantic City and Las Vegas--will allow eight players at the table. The thing is, players in these game almost always know what they are doing, so it is exceedingly rare, and I can't stress that enough, for all eight players to stay around for all seven cards. In the unlikely event that they do, then for the 7th and last card, the dealer uses the next remaining card from the deck, dealt face up, as a "common" card that everyone at the table uses.
3) I believe that you are mixing up a "fee" for playing, with a "buy-in". If they use chips at the game you are talking about, then the $350 on the weekends sounds like a minimum amount worth of chips that someone must buy before they are allowed to play. It's not fair to the other players in the game if, for example, they all sit down with $350 each, and someone else sits down at the game with only $50, because the person with the $50 has a chance to win all the money, but is risking far less.
No poker player in the world that knows what he's doing is gonna pay an up-front fee to sit down and play, because there is no guarantee how long the game will last. Suppose the game has me, a guy we'll call "Johnny The World's Greatest Player", and six suckers.
So "JTWGP" beats everyone, almost every hand, except me, because I won't get involved going against him because I know he's JTWGP. So after one or two hours 5 of the 6 suckers are out of the game, I'm about even, and Johnny is winning several thousand. So he picks himself and leaves too, since he doesn't care about the $350 entry fee because he's winning a ton. So I'm left with no game, and I'm out the $350.
BTW, Eddie, there's a store in NYC around Houston Street and Avenue A or B, called, I believe "Eddie The Plumber". Any connection?
