The only thing that stands out to me is that the dude was so short — 5’5″, 110 pounds. Probably just a coincidence, but in many of the DFW robberies that we attributed to the “Dallas Poker Bandits”, there was always one distinctly tall guy (6’4″ish), and one distinctly short guy (5’5″ish).

But Boutte definitely seemed to be a Houston thug, not a Dallas guy who moved to Harris County when the games up North dried up.

Click here for details on Barron Boutte’s poker robbery gone awry, and below for his pre-poker criminal record.

(Thanks Mrs. T for the research.)

The dead robber’s name is Barron Glenn Boutte. (Anyone recognize the name?) He was a 24-year-old black male. The official cause of death is homicide/multiple gun shot wounds. It’s not clear where Barron was from, though one mention of him on the internet does suggest Houston.

From the Houston Police Department:

Houston police are investigating the fatal shooting of a man at 5645 Hillcroft #203 about 1:45 a.m. on Thursday (Sept. 3).

The victim, 24, suffered a gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at the scene. His identity is pending notification to family members by the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office.

HPD Homicide Division Sergeant E. Cisneros reported:

Patrol officers responded to a shooting-in-progress call and found the victim had been shot to death by unknown suspects inside of a business. Further investigation and witness statements determined the victim had been involved in a robbery of persons inside the location when he was shot.

The suspects are described only as three black males.

Anyone with information on this case or on the identities of the wanted
suspects is urged to contact the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600
or Crimes Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

So how did it all start? And what happened from there?

Deadly Re-Raise

Supposedly a 5-5 game. One table going. Fairly well-lit parking lot but no additional security.

One source says the robbers just barged in through the front door as a player was leaving the game. Another says the bad guys had trouble getting in and shot the lock to gain entry. The masked intruders then reportedly fired multiple shots in the air (not confirmed) and told everyone to get down on the ground before corralling patrons into a back “break room”. One dealer supposedly was not moving fast enough, at which point one assailant shot him in the leg. (Others say he wasn’t shot until the multi-way barrage of gunfire erupted.)

Players were also supposedly taken out of the break room individually, presumably to be fleeced, and at some point in the process were ordered to remove their clothes. This is when the player carrying his own 9mm began firing — 11 shots from about six feet away, five or six of which hit Barron Boutte and killed him. The gunslinging player also shot twice at one of the other robbers, and claims to have hit him as well, but he was still able to escape.

Police Call

When police arrived — not sure how many minutes later — not all the players had stuck around. The shooter is saying he left to chase down the other two robbers … though eventually he did show up at the police station with legal counsel (and presumably Concealed Handgun License) to answer questions. In Texas you are allowed to use deadly force to protect your property, and you can tell from the comments in the Houston Chronicle story how the supermajority believe this was indeed a heroic killing. Police supposedly let the man go and have no intent to file charges.

HPD Homicide also questioned the game runner, and called in HPD Vice to confiscate the tables, cards, chips, etc. No word on whether or not any money was left behind/confiscated … but no charges thus far against any players or room operators either.

Supposedly there had been a handful of poker “hijackings” in Houston in recent weeks … all with similar stories of three gun-wielding masked black males. Suspicion abounds about one player who supposedly had been at more than one of these games and left shortly before the gunmen arrived.

Similar Texas Poker Robberies

April 2007
Two unmasked black 20somethings attempt to rob a popular suburban card room in north Dallas with a pistol and a shotgun, but are stopped by players and room operators at a second security door.

Shortly thereafter, two unmasked black 20somethings succeed in robbing a Dallas 5/10 game in an industrial warehouse part of Dallas. Lots of speculation abounds about the possibility of it being an inside job by the game operator.

May 2007
Two weeks later, a lower stakes game in Dallas was robbed by three black males wearing masks (one of them orange). It took place about a half-mile away from a game at a VFW hall being raided at roughly the same time by police.

Click here to read the police report on this one.

July 2007
Three men armed with what players say are AK47s and a sawed-off shotgun rob a big Omaha game in Dallas. Shots fired, one player mildly injured.

February 2008
Three masked men break into a home in San Antonio where a $300 sit-n-go was going on. They fire two shots into the chest of a player who stood between a robber and a file cabinet where the $3,000 prize pool was being held. The player survives.

March 2008
The Ashton in Dallas — a very high-stakes game in an uptown high-rise — gets robbed (on a relatively low-stakes night) by two black males, one brandishing a 9mm. One of the players robbed in this game was also present in the April 2007 5/10 robbery, and says the robbers were the same two guys.

April 2008
Two armed, masked black males rob The Office in Dallas, a relatively new 15/30 Omaha and 2/5 NLH game, and make of with more than $25,000 worth of stolen cash and property. Dallas players continue talk about the possibility of an insider being in the game to tip off the assailants and debate the merits of shooting back at robbers.

August 2008
Four masked armed robbers succeed in robbing the biggest 1/2 game in Dallas — the same room where an unsuccessful robbery was thwarted by game runners in April 2007.

September 2008
The Dallas underground experiences its first homicide when two masked men attempt to rob an apartment game in Arlington — shots are fired when one player attempts to blockade the door, hitting him three times. “John” dies at the hospital shortly thereafter from internal bleeding. [Ed note: apologies for not following up on this.] On the day of the deadly shooting, APD reportedly were raiding another game in Arlington — but it was an off-day for the room and no one was there.

October 2008
A Cedar Hill home that had been the site of a high-stakes Asian game gets robbed on a night that a low-stakes surprise birthday tourney is going on. Robbers are two black males, fitting the descriptions of assailants in similar robberies — tall skinny guy wearing an orange ski mask, shorter guy wearing a “Scream” Halloween mask.

December 2008
Two black males wearing masks and hoodies rob players and room operators outside a near-legendary game in northeast Dallas, shortly after a schism between two owners over the need to spend money on additional security.

Two rooms in Houston are reportedly robbed by two black males wearing masks and hoodies that same week.

April 2009
And another one in San Antonio earlier this year, where three black males (two of them masked) fled the scene of a robbery only to be nabbed by the SAPD, who were waiting for them outside, successfully responding to a player who dialed 911 and left the line open during the robbery.

August 2009
Unconfirmed reports of poker room robberies in and around Houston …

September 2009
Gun battle at Club 203. Poker players rejoice over “winning one” by killing would-be poker robber Barron Glenn Boutte — it remains to be seen if he had indeed struck before, and who all abetted and/or abandoned his final heist.

(Note to non-poker media: do the math; $100-$200 per person isn’t “high stakes”.)

A firsthand account of the robbery/bust here. I’ll stay off my political soapbox for just a bit and say only wouldn’t it be nice if you could play poker in Texas at a place that can hire off-duty police officers for security? (Note to non-poker media: There’s a bill in the Legislature right now addressing this issue, fyi — HB 222 — that you may want to tie in to future stories of this ilk.)

From Vinnie the PastaTeke:

He kept repeating, “Don’t move; I’ll kill you, I don’t know you”. Maybe it’s just human nature, or maybe I watch too many movies but I couldn’t help but play over and over in my head the different things that could be done to overtake the guy with shotgun. Of course, I knew that this wasn’t smart because these guys were only there for the money and, besides, there were kids in the room. If someone tried to do something and it went wrong, one of the kids could have been hurt.

My first thought when I started reading (and before I knew the cops got’em) was wondering if these were indeed the Dallas Poker Bandits, perhaps just relocating their business because there was too much heat (and a homicide victim) in the DFW area. But the robbery sounds a little too amateur for Dallas’ now seasoned poker criminals. At the same time … there are some MO … so maybe? If you happen to be familiar with any of the Dallas poker robberies, take a look at the news videos here to see if you recognize any of the now un-masked men:

http://www.ksat.com/video/19198835/index.html
http://www.kens5.com/latestnews/stories/KENS20090416-GAMBLINGROBBERY.dd0e8f26.html

Kudos to the game host for dialing an operator and hiding his phone so the call could be forwarded to police — and nice work by the SAPD not just in ending this situation positively, but also for protecting other games … because as we have seen in Dallas, poker robbers tend not to quit after a single hit. I haven’t had a chance to get the police report yet and find out the arrested people’s names, but this story will continue to have life … not just because of the pending bill that would look to eliminate these sorts of potentially violent occurrences … but also because police are now investigating the legality of the game itself and may or may not press charges against the robbery victims as well.

Hey Dan,

So some friends and I are going to throw a poker tournament in February here in Dallas as a fundraiser for a theater production company that we started this fall (www.UpstartTheater.com). Blue Mesa Grill is going to host the games (free appetizers and happy-hour-priced drinks) and we are going to have a $20 per player donation buyin with rebuys. I was wondering if you had any advice/suggestions:

– How often should we up the blinds so that a game starting around 3 on a Sunday will be over by 8 or 9 at the latest?
– Do you know any poker company/group willing to lend/donate us enough chips and cards for 100 people or so?
– Do you know any poker company/group that would be interested in donating a prize?
– Do you know any poker company/group that would be interested in financially sponsoring the event (we’re tax deductible) in exchange for publicity on our event fliers, website, and performance playbills?
– Do you know ways to publicize this to the Dallas poker-playing community?
– Anything else you think would be helpful?

thanks a lot,
Nick

Nick, as always, good to hear from you. One of these days you will find purpose in your life and ditch the restaurant-service/medical-technology career combo, as well as your passion for the arts and philanthropy, to discover your true calling as a poker blogger. Either that, or you are clearly nothing without Markus and Andy.

In the meantime, click below for answers to your questions:

– How often should we up the blinds so that a game starting around 3 on a Sunday will be over by 8 or 9 at the latest?

You probably want 20-minute blinds. That gives you roughly 15 levels to work with. Generally, the best tournaments start off slow to give everyone play, pick up some blind pressure in the middle, and then slow down to bring skill back into when the money counts. But this will be a charity tournament, so you’ll want to facilitate rebuys. Don’t start with an insultingly low stack, but maybe like 3,000 or 3,600 with blinds starting at 25/50. Also, in addition to rebuys, be sure to offer an “add-on” … meaning anyone, no matter what their chip-stack, can pay an extra $20 for another initial buy-in’s worth of chips at the end of the rebuy period, which probably should come at the end of the 4th level.

(You know, I used to actually have different blind structures for different events posted on this site. But i can’t for the life of me find them … kinda like your posts from back in 2005!)

– Do you know any poker company/group willing to lend/donate us enough chips and cards for 100 people or so?

Sadly, I do not. The poker biz is full of greedy bastards, and most are hurting for money moreso than back in ’06. At the same time, you may find some group that used to throw big events but no longer does that has a bunch of extra poker gear lying around. (If any Pokeratizens can help on this, speak up!) I also recommend contacting karridy – at – gmail dot com for tables.

– Do you know any poker company/group that would be interested in donating a prize?

Sadler & Carter have helped out with some prizes in the past. And they always had good gear. Bluff Magazine has donated subscriptions … that’s always a nice throw-in … top 3 get subscriptions to Bluff or something like that. And, of course, you could always hit up The Lodge for lapdance coupons.

– Do you know any poker company/group that would be interested in financially sponsoring the event (we’re tax deductible) in exchange for publicity on our event fliers, website, and performance playbills?

Ha ha, too funny. You said “financially sponsoring”! You know, it occurs to me that this isn’t a charity event — it’s just a fundraiser for the arts. (How are you tax-deductible?) That makes it more difficult to get help, because while poker players love to say they’re helping a good cause, few of them have read any Samuel Beckett.

However, there’s always an interest by those in the poker biz to reach poker players. And with that in mind, I would try hitting up Choctaw in Oklahoma for flyer sponsorship. WinStar’s good, too, but I suspect you’re too small for them to give you the time of day.

– Do you know ways to publicize this to the Dallas poker-playing community?
Yes, you should send an email to danm – at – pokerati dot com. If you get lucky, he may actually answer it. You also should probably take out a big ad on Pokerati. In the alternative, the guys over at BigStack.com (formerly Weston Poker) are nice dudes always looking for some good low-stakes action.

– Anything else you think would be helpful?

Good luck! I look forward to seeing coverage of the event on YouTube … and I’m sure everyone playing would too.

Oh, also, pack heat in case the Dallas Poker Bandits show up. I’ll vouch that you’re a good shot!

This robbery does not appear to be the work of the homicidally notorious Dallas Poker Bandits, unless they drastically changed their MO. The unconfirmed word spreading around D-town is that a dealer had stepped outside to smoke some pot, and when one of the owners went looking for him (good help is hard to find), a couple black males jumped out (of some bushes?) and began “throwing down” … the owner ran off … and as two or three others came out of the poker room to investigate what was going on, they too were robbed, at which point the assailants took off on foot.

Though Pokerati hasn’t yet talked with police for an official report, the cops were supposedly all over it with multiple patrol cars and a helicopter.

No specifics, btw, on the robber’s (or robbers’) weaponry.

It had to just be too risky, robbing poker games in Dallas now … with a potential murder charge should they get caught. After all, the DPD has a pretty good idea who the gun-toting, ski-mask donning poker thugs are … rooms have been getting hit in similar fashions for about a year-and-a-half … or at least a short-list of primary suspects. And while that’s no guarantee that the string of robberies in Dallas is connected to the homicide at an Arlington apartment game … shit, even Pokerati knows of more similarities than just “two black guys” that would at least merit a look by law enforcement.

Or so I thought … From a Patrick the Pokerati commenter:

dan,

you hear about the same robbery bandits strike again. This time in an asian home game in Cedar Hill. Gated $500K homes community. Very bold. Same MO tall black and short black… guns.. police arrived just 2 mins too late…

Sigh … I had not heard about this, but now I have.

Not sure what to make of this — reliable sources, please feel free to share any info …

I know something doesn’t add up. See above. Really, the same bad guys can’t be back on the poker-room trail, can they? Too much heat! And copycats? I suppose maybe with the original and/or homicidal Dallas Poker Bandits laying low the market could be seen as untapped by aspiring violent criminals … but that would just be stupid, right? After all, we know how things work in Texas … even if you weren’t the killers, it’s at best a coinflip situation of having the Arlington homicide pinned on you, especially if you happen to be black.

UPDATE: The Cedar Hill robbery did happen — a couple days ago, in a place that supposedly sometimes hosts a higher stakes game. They were having a birthday party the night of the robbery, however, not “the big game” … so a lot more players/cars in the neighborhood than usual. The Cedar Hill Robbers reportedly got away with about $15,000.

IMPORTANT NOTE: While Patrick is hearing the Cedar Hill Robbers had the same MO and appearance as the Dallas Poker Bandits and Presumed Arlington Poker Killers … two other secondhand sources are saying the exact opposite … that these were not the same guys, right down to different skin color.

The player who originally got up from the table to answer the knock (“John” is all I know of his name right now) got hit by at least three bullets … one in the shoulder, one in the leg, and one somewhere else … and he died last night from blood-related complications to his wounds.

To be clear, this was not your typical Dallas underground game — you know, the strip-mall and warehouse sort run by good and sometimes not-so-good people trying to provide a valuable albeit legally questionable service and good-clean-safe place to play. This was more like the under-underground, where almost no one went by their real name nor had a regular job … OK, not the place for blogger jokes … but the livelihoods and nicknames start to matter when what might look like any other poker game turns into the scene of a homicide …

It was an apartment game where some of the regulars were apparently of an extremely thuggish ilk — not the kind of place that sends out subscription emails or emissaries to Oklahoma searching for players and runs satellites to the WSOP. A few of the guys here may have stepped foot into the Dallas scene at times — but for the most part, they weren’t welcome in the more legitimate games around town, despite their intense desire to gamble-gamble-gamble with fatter-than-usual bankrolls.

So the apartment in Arlington became their home game — and reportedly it was more than just poker. No one set up a full casino or anything, but supposedly itwasn’t uncommon to see a player bust out some dice on the felt and roll for money between hands. The biggest sums wagered, however, were on XBox action, sources say.

At the time of the robbery they were playing an 8-handed game of 1-2 NLH … a big 1-2, with at least a few thousand-dollar stacks in play.

(Note to any non-poker media who might be reading this: Please know that 1-2 is not a “high stakes” game. It is low-stakes, believe it or not, even when there are thousands of dollars on the table. Give me a call and I’d be happy to explain to you in further detail.)

More TK on this, for sure. Naturally, speculation and rumors will abound — these sorts of things don’t happen in a vacuum, and there are already hints that the assailants may indeed be connected to the Dallas Poker Bandits who robbed The Office five months ago …

Related:
Guns and Poker Pose Difficult Decisions for Players [Apr 13, 2008]
Dallas Poker Bandits Strike Again [Apr 11, 2008]
Poker Robberies [tag]

UPDATE: Huh, wow … we are not going to name the game (yet) … because right, why would a regular Veterans club shut down after a robbery, right? Everything’s normal … nothing to see here. (And on a serious side, I may sound semi-mocking, but I haven’t forgotten that some of the people who work there are friends of mine whose livelihoods may or may not be in jeopardy.

An eye-witness guy who sat next to an eye-witness the next day put up his full report on Weston Poker. Am starting to think these aren’t the same Dallas Poker Bandits that robbed the Ashton, and then presumably The Office … but they do seem like the same guys who attempted to rob this room and failed (at least) once before. What went down late-late in the Wednesday a.m., shortly before sunrise, according to one second-hand source:

Hay guys,

Well a well known room in North Dallas, was robed at 5AM Wed morning. I’ve been going to this place a few times a week for three years, I’m glad I wasn’t there that night (although I’m never there that late). Anyway I was there last night and it was all the talk of course. As luck would have it, I happened to be sitting right next to a guy who was there and I got the full story.

1st my disclaimer, everyone was talking about it at the room, and there was a story on all 3 local networks 10pm news. So I don’t think I’m really talking out of school here.

Ok, so at about 5am the game was down to 1 table. When it’s that late and down to 1 table they cut the security guy loose, so there was no security (oops). Two players leave and when they get to the parking lot they get jumped by 4 guys wearing masks with guns. They are tied up, put in a car and told that one of them is going to go back and get them in are they’re going to kill them both. They wisely comply. Player 1 goes back to the door with the perps a little bit behind him. They have cameras, the brush saw the player and assumed he left his keys or something, so he went and opened the door.

All 4 perps are in the door immediately, the grab the brush and player 1 with guns to their heads and are in the main room fast. The player I was talking to was in the game, he said it happed so fast he didn’t know what was going on until there was a gun to his head. They made everyone get up and stand facing the wall, they then duct taped their hands. So the guy I was talking to was wearing sunglasses and they didn’t make him take them off, where they placed him facing the wall there is a framed poster on the wall and he could see what was going on through the reflection.

They went into the cage and took the money from the cage, then demanded the tape from the video. Unfortunately, they have no tape just video, they didn’t believe the brush on that one and roughed him up a bit.

They then robbed all the players and staff, took money, wallets, jewelry, watches, and everyone’s cell phones. And they made everyone take their pants off (they found them in the parking lot after it was over).

Not trying to start anything, rumor or otherwise … I just happened to notice a few visitors coming to us via Google searches overnight for “dallas poker robbery”. Not to give my secrets away, but monitoring Google traffic isn’t too different from the way night-shift journos used to listen to police radios back in the newspaper day … and when I’ve noticed a quick surge in such searches before (or more commonly, “dallas poker room raided”) it usually meant something was up. But other than this “hunch” I’ve got nothing.

UPDATE: Yep … VFW hall that screams poker room was popped last night:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26065611

VIDEO: http://video.nbc5i.com/player/?id=283511

UPDATE: Oh, dude, I recognize exactly where this is! One of the best and biggest games kinda-sorta but not really in Dallas. Have played there a handful of times, and always enjoyed the action. Interestingly enough, both cops and robbers have been here before. This was the place where the guys who just might be the Dallas Poker Bandits got their start …

It was a totally botched robbery about two years ago … where one (Michalski-trained) lovely boisterous lady dealer crawled inside a garbage bag to hide during the commotion. (We didn’t teach that in Lodge amateur dealer class, of course, but I applaud her creative thinking in the face of bad guys with guns.) I forget why the police were there like six months ago, but they did a walk-through and play was hardly halted. Then sometime earlier this summer (or maybe spring?) some robbers did show up and again were thwarted!

Previous to that I had been hearing from someone who supposedly had an inside connection with a cop that people might want to steer clear of this game because the Dallas police were finally all over it and just waiting for the right moment bust in and take it down.

But still … guns were in play in last night’s robbery. Not just on the thugs who obviously come in not wanting to shoot anyone, but also on a player or three … At least one guy last night had a (legal) gun on him when being robbed. Afterwards, some apparently questioned his decision not to use it. The rub is that had he fired as robbers were kicking their way in through the wall, the ski-masked duo woulda turned right around and skeedaddled. True enough, but as liberal as Texas is when it comes to shooting people messin’ with your property, the nature of the venue might negate that defense. And what if it was the police?!? Yeow, shooting blindly at what may or may not be a SWAT team can never be good for a game. Hmm, Class C misdemeanor or Death Penalty … decisions decisions.

Clearly a good fold. In general I’d prefer loaded weapons to be in the hands of a rock more than a maniac.

The 15/30 Omaha game had just broken a little after 10 pm central and a full 2/5 NLH table was going strong when players heard Smash! Crash! “What the fuck?!?” one player screamed.

“I know what that is,” another player answered as he ran toward the back room and others followed. It sounded like a police raid — we all remember how the cops busted through the walls at Jackie’s on semi-live TV — only this time it was robbers. Two armed black males wearing ski masks and hoodies came busting through glass windows and sheet rock to enter through the smoking room. Players looked for an escape in the seconds that followed, but there was no back door. This game – located in an office building near the Galleria – was relatively new … had been open just a few months … and seemed plenty secure with a two-door entry system monitored by cameras.

“Where’s the fucking money at?” the lead thug shouted as he emerged from the smoking room into the main area and made his way to the gace.

“There are a couple 50s beneath the drawer,” on of the room operators said.

Four or five players had crammed into a supply closet in the back room and locked the door behind them. Huddling together in the dark, they scrambled to find places to hide their wallets. One player had wedged his in some plastic wrap behind a stack of plates just a few seconds before the robbers realized there were people in there and ordered them out. They were told to lay on the ground with their faces to the floor – all complied – at which point the other robber frisked them one-by-one for their valuables while his accomplice made a quick check of the closet but apparently found none of the stashed goods.

The whole robbery lasted just a few minutes … as of last night, no decision had been made about whether or not to call the police, which you can suspect whoever is behind this latest string of poker robberies is partially banking on.

In addition to what I was calling “Henser’s Game” (have since learned it might be “Gennser’s Game”), DC’s Poker House also got raided last week — Friday, I believe, about the same time as the robbery at the Ashton.

From a Pokerati citizen journalist on the ground:

Another game that got raided was DC’s POKER HOUSE in dallas off of shiloh & northwest highway. The cops single handedly busted that game because of money laundering. DC had about 40 slot machines in the building that caused his place to be shut down. I beleive what made DC’s place get so hot was when he pulled out a 9mm on one of the players who were getting a little out of hand.

Yikes, mix 8-Liners and 9-millimeters together and you kinda gotta expect some problems, no?

Also, maybe this is where the reports of a triple poker robicide came from … within a few days last week you had two busts and one robbery nearly simultaneously … and as we know in poker, it’s often difficult to distinguish between the two, because the action and results are usually pretty much the same.

UPDATE: Hmm, this is the second time that a robbery and police bust went down at two separate poker rooms nearly simultaneously. Strange coincidence? It’s possible that both sides make similar assessments when it comes to game selection — picking nights when they expect the most money to be in play.

More info coming in about last week’s robbery of a Dallas game in Uptown. First, we have no indication of any synchronized Al Qaeda-type attacks … it appears to be a single robbery, committed by two black males … which has some people speculating that the perps were the same two black males that have been seen brandishing guns in at least one other poker robbery. Because you know, two black guys is very specific.

The poker venue that got robbed Friday night was known as “The Ashton,” after the building it was hosted in. There were actually two games there — a “little game” (2/5) during part of the week, and a bigger one less often that attracted pros and somtimes saw five-figure bricks of cash on the table. The robbers poked their 9mms in the door during the little game, which suggests that either they didn’t know that there was less money in play with more potential players/potential troublemakers, or they just were being less criminally greedy, thinking thousands of dollars stolen from many players would be nicer than taking 10s of thousands from just a few. With that said, the robbers left cash on the floor, so they musta been in a hurry, too.

Security was apparently the problem … dudes got lax, or at least comfortable. So much so that others involved in the game(s) reportedly had been complaining about security procedures to poker authorities at The Ashton, but no one really tightened up their game. The more details I give you here, the less certain I am of my accuracy, but one (theoretical) dealer supposedly lobbied successfully for hallway cameras, but they weren’t used very diligently. Hey, play too loose with a comfortable stack and its almost certain you’ll eventually lose it, right?

The Ashton’s non-poker management reportedly knew about the game(s) all along — I suspect they thought it was kinda cool to have a two-table poker speakeasy in their joint, especially one that paid the rent reliably — but have since asked their poker tenants to leave, who of course, being the good clean pokerers the are, are complying.

Details are sparse as they filter in to Las Vegas, but we’re hearing that a room in Northeast Dallas was robbed at about 1 am central. According to unconfirmed reports:

• Three men burst into a big Omaha game firing rifles and shotguns.
• One player hit, either from ricochet or shrapnel.
• Dallas police were called to the scene and responded.
• Local news crew in tow.
• Typical player here lived in Plano, Richardson, Frisco, or McKinney.

This has been at least the third armed robbery of a Dallas poker room in the past few months, fourth if you include the attempted pillaging where the gunmen were briefly locked in a lobby and a dealer tried to hide herself in a trash bag.

Wednesday Night scoreboard (amongst armed, masked men acting out of turn):

Cops: $1,473
Robbers: about $800

Click here to read the police reports.

Pokerati’s “facts” are still fuzzy … perhaps we’ll get some more right here. What we do know is that the victims were at a $5/$10 game located somewhere along what many of us have called “Poker Row” or the “Dallas Poker Corridor.” The perpetrators were two black males (as was the case in the foiled robbery above), and one of them put a shotgun to the face of whomever answered the door — I believe it was a woman. From there they barged in and took somewhere around $7,000 (an extremely rough number based on the typical size of this game) … and as far as we currently know, police were not called.

Perhaps these robbers are just building their bankrolls for the WSOP?

*NOTE: It is Pokerati’s editorial policy to not name poker rooms in Texas unless the operators are overtly public about it and/or it has been shut down. Ahh, remember the good ole days when they used to buy ads?

The (unconfirmed) story we’re hearing about the attempted armed robbery …

It was reportedly about 11 pm, with at least two full tables of 1/2 action going strong when the two aspiring criminals showed up at the typical suburban office park locale and rang the telltale wireless poker-room buzzer. The manager thought he recognized one of the young 20something black guys as a semi-regular player, so he buzzed them through the first door. But when he went to greet them at the second door, he recognized neither, and apparently sometime in the seconds that followed, the dudes pulled out their weapons. A mini-scuffle ensued, but the manager was able to wrestle the security door shut before any shots were fired.

Not sure how long the wannabe thugs were trapped in the lobby. But amid the commotion, play halted … some players began shoving their chips in their pockets, others left their stacks on the table and scurried to a back room. Once the immediate threat was gone, a few players (and dealers?) began talking about going out to the parking lot and kicking some ass. That raised fears for some that perhaps the bad guys still might be waiting outside to score at least a little bank from a hapless winner walking back to his car.

The manager then voiced concern for any unlucky players who might just be arriving, unaware that a gun-wielding duo was somewhere in the vicinity and likely on tilt. The room operators couldn’t really call police, of course. So eventually, after things had mostly settled … the games were ready to resume. Except at one table …

“Where’s our dealer?” someone exclaimed.

She was apparently hiding in the kitchen … crouched down in a corner, in a garbage bag that she had crawled into and tied shut from the inside.