As Kevin noticed early this AM (before my post from yesterday doubting the notion went live), Texas’ HB 222 has moved out of the Calendars Committee and is scheduled for a vote on the House floor tomorrow … which means it really should happen by Tuesday at the latest. Woot! Started to get worried there for a bit, but thanks to readers like you and probably the PPA and many others helping the capitol hallway soldiers … The People of Texas, man! … Step 3 of 6 has been successfully completed.

Step 1: Introduce bill
Step 2: Pass through committee
Step 3: Calendars committee
Step 4: House vote
Step 5: Senate vote
Step 6: Governor’s sig

You can see we still have a long ways to go, but Steps 4 and 5 have to be done for sure by May 23, so this is it … we’re about to see if our hard work first steps in the process properly position us to make it through the next all-important three. And by all means, we have to go undefeated … one loss and we’re dead.

Go here or here to send the whole House of Representatives an email letting them know you hear they’ll be voting on HB 222, and that you will really admire them for seeing the sensibility of this legislation.

Meanwhile, as a reminder why this bill is important, RobD in Austin lets us know:

To put a final nail into the coffin of [any] argument against HB222, I was at a Austin poker game last night and we got robbed at gun point (5/7/09, early morning). It was in a nice neighborhood and is known to regulars as FPC. At least two people got beat up. We’re all lucky to be alive. The Travis county sherrif was called and filed a report.

It’s true. And she’s been palling around with druggies and convicts just so she can “write about it” and (don’t tell anyone I said this) I’m even hearing unconfirmed, squalidly detailed rumors from an imaginary source that she’s got a thing for Somali pirates! I’ll pull short of calling her The Ann Coulter of Poker … but she certainly touched a nerve by questioning the “good fight” behind our beloved little Texas HB 222.

Player safety, protection from shady games, capitalist personal freedom not real enough issues to vote on?

I might be extra-sensitive because, frankly, the bill seems to be stalling in Calendars Committee. Why that is, I’m not sure … they’ve heard our message, they know it has passable support … throw an amendment on if you need to, but c’mon … put us on the agenda already! I’m a little removed from what’s going on in Austin during this hectic part of the Session, but I’m pretty sure if we don’t move the bill forward in like the next -2 days, we might be in trouble … Just sitting there for like two weeks seems odd, assuming it’s ready for a simple yay or nay. I suppose it’s possible we’re getting Fristed somewhere in the process. Or, perhaps they’re just having a sincere intellectual dilemma, inspired by Amy Calistri’s question:

Why Do I Want to Pay a Rake?

Why is the PPA wasting time feigning a “grass roots” issue over a Texas bill whose only beneficiary is commercial poker - in a state where poker is unquestionably legal? … It doesn’t exactly meet my definition of fighting the good fight. I mean, even the banking lobby doesn’t ask me to petition my legislators for higher ATM fees. And they can be shameless.

[OK, deep breath, find peace ... no tilt]

More…

Four masked men robbed a poker game last month — probably a $5/$10 NL game, but not certain — pistol-whipping one of the victims and making off with $78,000. Police arrested two men, ages 18 and 23, a few days ago in connection with the crime:

Here’s what happened, according to Solon police:

Sheffield police arrested the men after seeing them near a parked car off the side of a road. Officers believed they looked suspicious.

As officers approached, they saw the men throw items under the car. The items included credit cards, a drivers license and a concealed weapons permit.

Sheffield police contacted the owner of these items. He told them he was a victim in the poker game robbery.

The suspects had also thrown a wristwatch under the car. The watch belonged to a second victim in the robbery.

Also, police determined that the car the men were driving, a mid-1990s Buick, was purchased with cash the day after the robbery.

One particularly strange thing in this case: all the money from the game was apparently labeled with “WWBD”. What Would Brunson Do?

Two armed men dressed as police officers entered a poker room in rural North Carolina on Wednesday, shortly after midnight, and with weapons drawn shouted, “This is a robbery!” … to which one of the players responded, “No it’s not!”

Gun battle ensued.

One robber was shot in the shoulder and one player in the buttocks. The thieves reportedly made off with about $2,000.

Franklin County Sheriff’s Dept. say they are treating the players as victims, not criminals, as stopping the poker robbers (especially those willing to fire their weapons!) is more important than stopping 1/2 No-Limit Hold’em.

Police are hoping citizens will help them identify the bad guys, whose images were briefly captured by poker room surveillance video.

In what really sounds like an inside job, three armed gunmen (two with masks) broke into a San Antonio home game a few days ago and robbed 15 low-stakes players (1/3 NLH) at gunpoint … but when they attempted to flee the scene, the SAPD was outside waiting to arrest them. Nice! I mean bad initially — the host’s wife, two young children and a baby were also in the house — but in the end all good with no shots fired and no need to call in the SWAT team.

(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.

One would think that a man in his 80’s would stop going places where he might get his ass kicked. But when that man is Amarillo Slim, one would be wrong.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Mr. Preston was attempting to meet someone who owed him $3,000. The debtor was going to give him a four-wheeler as collateral, but he was beat down - broken jaw, hand, and thumb - and robbed instead. Evidently he had $8,000 in cash on him, which is always handy when meeting someone in a dark field, and he was wearing an $85,000 ring.

Amarillo Police Lt. Jim McKenny said, “That would not be that unusual for him to have that kind of money.” (But when going to collect a debt from people who are giving you a four-wheeler instead of cash? Okay, I’ll stop.) The lieutenant also said, “I think it probably has to do with the clientele and people he tends to hand with in the gambling circles.”

Hope Slim is feeling better, but I also hope he gets in with a better crowd, sooner rather than later. Remember this gem from 2006? Or this news from 2007?

No confirmation or details … but we are hearing our investigative internet detective robots are telling us that a room in Phil Gordon’s hometown of El Paso was robbed over the weekend or last week. More info as and if any comes in.

Without a doubt, as the poker bill gets argued in Texas this year, citizen safety will be a key issue. It’s just not right that police/hired guns aren’t allowed to protect a group of people gathering to play a game. Remember, to get this thing really going, we need a few hundred more emails reminding joe.straus@house.state.tx.us, jose.menendez@house.state.tx.us, tx@pokerplayersalliance.org, and Legalizeit@pokerati.com that you whole-heartedly support efforts to legitimize and protect the game of poker in Texas, and see it as a matter of sensible, responsible governance.

While I was away from the web space for a family visit in St. Louis, the guy who robbed the Sahara poker room on the Las Vegas Strip likely spent the holidays hoping no one recognized his mug from the photos released by LV Metro Police.

According to the Las Vegas Sun, he did use a firearm when robbing the Sahara on December 19th and escaped on foot. He was described as follows:

The gunman was described as white and about 20 to 30 years old with a thin mustache and thin build. He was wearing blue jeans, a brown cap, a brown or green hooded sweatshirt with lettering down the left side and a yellow ballcap, authorities said.

Yikes, if Metro has ever been in a poker room, they know that description alone will get them nowhere, as it sounds like two-thirds of players in any given room!

Details are sketchy here in Las Vegas, but apparently it took place Friday night near TI (Texas Instruments) headquarters on the city-limit outskirts of northeast Dallas … Ironically enough, according to what we’re hearing, this longtime-running, near-legendary game had moved to another location nearby but recently relocated again, going solo when the partner venue wouldn’t pony up for security.

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.

Does anyone say “stick-up” anymore?

Regardless, Poker Grump reported tonight that the Sahara looked as if it had been robbed, as the poker room was closed with police tape keeping patrons out. And he was right, as a local news outlet reported that there was an armed robbery at the poker room just before 6pm.

Obviously, the robbers did not know that there is a 7pm tournament there each night, so there may not have been much money in the poker kitty more than an hour before. Curious to know if anyone witnessed it, as this seems a bit brazen…to commit a robbery in a casino in Las Vegas on a Friday night.

I’m outta touch, but I’m hearing stuff. Supposedly there was a robbery in Austin in late October where someone got shot? Anyone know more about this?

From what I do understand, most of the games in Austin are small — two or three tables max — and the dudes who run them are friendly. Semi-shady on occasion, but overall good guys running games in true Austin, communal style. However, I also hear that as the games get weak, they’re a little more lax on who gets in — anything to keep that rake moving — so corners are being cut when it comes to security.

Am I out in left field on this one? Any info on the robbery with gunfire would be greatly appreciated.

I was just doing a little research earlier today on the status of the unsolved Arlington, TX, poker homicide. While I hadn’t come across anything new yet regarding pursuit of the killer(s), I had been hearing that all was calm and comfortable in the D-town underground. I was supposing this only made sense — as surely the poker bandits had learned the guy they shot died (sorry, I’m still working on getting the victim’s actual name) … and the one silver lining if you could find one in death is that it probably meant an end to their reign of poker havoc.

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 …

More…

If the New York justice system is anything like Texas’ (er …), we can expect it to take about a year before the people responsible for the killing of a low-stakes (but high-action) poker player in Arlington. Just this week, New York courts officially charged William Delvalle with the murder of Frank DeSena, who you may recall was the recreational poker player killed last November in the robbery of an underground poker club in midtown Manhattan.

Interesting to note that the courts aren’t even claiming Delvalle pulled the trigger — and yet he still faces life in prison for being the leader of the robbery/homicide. Interesting to me because the poker robbers in Dallas likewise face a similar fate. Sure, laws are different, state-to-state … but not by that much. And without a doubt, though no arrests have been made in any Dallas poker robberies and there’s no certain connection between the latest in Arlington and others around the DFW area that were very similar … poker players in Dallas have a pretty good idea about the identities of at least a few people who have may or may not have donned ski masks and wielded weapons to rape a poker room. (And no, I’m not taking about the police SWAT teams who have done that recently, too — that’s a different story altogether.)

When the Ashton got robbed, I was a little dismissive of the finger-pointing (it was a bad time to be a black Dallas rounder). But now, four or five robberies later — +1 dropped cellphone, +recurring player presences, +1 dead — the reality in this sub-subculture is becoming clearer. Not to mention that police have had their own inside players in games since at least 2006 … we know this for a fact, and even who some of those guys are, but probably not all … but regardless, point being that whether it’s a year from now or not, it’s only a matter of time before we see the poker crooks and the law come to showdown.

More…

Just to clarify for some who are writing in a bit confused … the room that got robbed/shot-up the other week was not the same place that got raided by Arlington police most recently …

That raided place was the Longhorn Room — similar neighborhood, I believe, but not certain, as South Arlington isn’t exactly small. I know it’s sometimes hard to differentiate between cops and robbers in these cases.

BTW, why does it always seem that robberies follow raids almost immediately? You’d think it would be the other way around.

Two masked men showed up at a poker game in a South Arlington apartment complex a week or so ago … they knocked on the door, one player got up to answer, and upon realizing that the game was about to be robbed, he struggled to shut the door. Commotion ensued as it became an inverse tug-of-war to see whether the robbers would be getting in or the poker players would be able to keep them out. After a few seconds of scuffle, shots rang out — eight, maybe 10 — at which point players and the dealer fled in the other direction, out a back door, jumping off the balcony. (Not sure if it was from the second or third floor — but three of them suffered minor injuries as a result.)

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.

More…

Can someone give me confirmation that this game is done, as in out of commission? I gotta think it has to be with the TV cameras and everything on it. But you know … we have standards here, and don’t want to name it and/or give out specifics about the general vicinity until we know a little bit more.

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:

More…

Was there a poker robbery in Dallas last night — or perhaps talk around some tables about an old one?

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 …

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DALLAS–I happen to be on my old stomping grounds … to play a little Batface poker and try to do the work that police can’t and get to the bottom of the string of robberies here. (Pokerati’s conclusion, despite declarations to the opposite a few weeks ago: the Dallas Poker Bandits are a single group of three or four people hitting one room after another … not random coincidental robberies by different sets of two black guys in ski masks.)

Anyhow, this post isn’t about robberies in Dallas or police raids in Houston — everybody wants the poker money, don’t they? … it’s about the April ‘08 issue of Bluff. Though these articles aren’t online yet, three of the four they highlight are about Texans:

One is about how to be like Houstonian Sammy Farha. Another is about poker politics and ledes with a certain group of Dallas players wooing Congressman Pete Sessions to get behind pending poker legislation. And a third is about Gavin Griffin, a former Dallas underground dealer who became poker’s first “triple crown” winner.

Not only do I think that is Texas neato, but also I think it says something about the state’s continued super-relevance in the game. But hey, maybe I’m biased.

There’s talk in the comments down below about poppin’ caps in the poker bandits. It’s a shame when your decisions about where to play factor an EV calculated as Expected Violence. (Fortunately most poker players I know are a bit too lazy to hunt down bad guys and show ‘em who’s boss with a barrel, and the CHL holders steer clear of premeditated homicide — no matter how justifiable — for fear of losing their license.)

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.

A little more info coming in … one thing, it was way more than $10k stolen … as one of the players‘ watches taken cost that much. So our new estimate for damage is $20k. Probably a little more.

Another North Dallas poker room apparently just got robbed about two hours ago — the gunmen making off with more than $10,000 in cash, watches, cell phones, and at least one bracelet.

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.

According to current forfeiture laws, when the Dallas cops raid a poker game, they generally get to keep whatever money they confiscate. However, assuming the DPD is operating all on the up-and-up, that money is supposed to be used for more poker busts …

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.

Inverse Underground: Small private games in luxury high-rises such as The Ashton (above) seemed a safer alternative to strip malls and warehouses as gun-wielding cops/robbers began infiltrating Dallas poker action.

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.

That’s what we’re hearing … that three games got robbed on Friday. One such robbery is semi-confirmed at a popular 2/5 locale.

Not sure about the other two. The last time guys with guns stormed in to three places simultaneously and took all the money was in November 2006, when the DPD busted out the big guns and battering rams. More TK, of course.

UPDATE: The one semi-confirmed robbery took place in an Uptown high rise. Reportedly, “the phone rang indicating that someone had entered the access code in the lobby. They authorized access without picking up the phone. Whoever opened the door did not check and the perps stuck a 9mm in the door. 2 black males. They told everyone to empty their pockets but did not even take all of the money on the floor.” One player who was there also happened to be at another Dallas poker robbery a while back and says it was the same two guys.

We continue to hear that two other rooms were robbed, but whenever there was a poker raid, we would always hear about two others with it, and only once did that check out.

Details are just starting to come in … but three armed men broke into a residence on the West side of San Antonio last night, shot one player in the chest (twice) and reportedly made off with about $3,000. The SA media is calling it a “high stakes” game — are we all sickwads to not see a $300 buy-in the same way?

Pokerati’s chief techdude happens to live in San Antonio, plays in games for the stakes mentioned above, and almost always carries a gun … he just also happens to not be reachable right now. Please no one be dead.

We knew it was gonna happen, right? It was just a matter of when and where. … two masked men busted into an 8-handed home game in Smyrna Beach (just south of Daytona) … shots were fired … and 62-year-old Damon/Dennis Turner is dead. (The Channel 9 news report features both names, one of which is obviously a mistake … but hey, I’m sure Mr. Turner’s family won’t care.)

The circumstances around this homicide are still a bit unclear … the masked men engaged in an argument with the host that escalated to the point of gunfire. If this was over an old debt with known acquaintances, of course, you gotta question why the armed bandits would be wearing masks. The man killed was a player who came to the game from a couple suburbs away.

Police say it’s possible this game was legal — if betting was capped at $10 per hand. That seems unlikely, however, since people came to play at this house multiple times a week, it was robbed a few months earlier for more than $30,000, and the owner even had cards painted on his driveway.

Julian in Dallas writes back with official (but terse?) information about last night’s armed poker robbery. Says the DPD vice unit deputy chief:

We had an Aggravated Robbery about 12:30 AM, at 13340 Audelia, #108. The offense location is a high stakes poker game room. Three suspects entered the game room with a rifle and shotgun. Shots were fired. Twelve people were robbed of a significant amount of money. One person was shot.

So there you have it. No word on whether or not anyone the injured player was transported to the hospital. But generally, getting shot really hurts.

ALT HED: Oklahoma Anyone?

As the World Series has concluded and the new poker year begins, just like that we get a reminder of some real issues facing poker players in search of a good, honest game.

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.

Yep, turns out there was indeed another poker game robbed in Dallas Wednesday night … yeesh, sounds very friggin’ scary. It appears to have been low-stakes action, but that didn’t stop three men from busting in to take whatever loot they could find. The main bad guy was wearing an orange ski mask and carried a pump-action shotgun. The other two wore black ski masks — one was brandishing a semi-automatic pistol, the other was standing guard at the door with a baseball bat, according to what two of the eight victims told police officers.

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

Cops: $1,473
Robbers: about $800

Click here to read the police reports.

Meanwhile, as Dallas Police were busting a poker game last night, an 8-Liner room less than a half-a-mile away was getting robbed. (Maybe not at the exact same time, but pretty close to it.)

I am not sure that non-poker people realize that even though the charges are the same, we could kinda care less about 8-Liner rooms getting tagged by the 5-0. We are selfish like that. I mean we don’t want anybody to get shot/robbed/killed … but, shit, they don’t even have blogs! Clearly the slot-machine players here have gambling problems, and they would be better off discovering the educational joy and subsequent Zen of Texas Hold’em.

(NOTE: My opinion might change if they ever bust Grandma Michalski, who loves her some nickel slots, but can only find quarter machines when she goes on church trips to Oklahoma.)

ALT HED: War on Video Poker?

UPDATE: It was a poker room that got robbed, not an 8-Liner room. DPD’s mistake … but hey, they were busy writing tickets to players down the street, right? Developing …

Really, it’s almost like the people robbing rooms know when the police are busting other joints. That’s three robberies (one just attempted) in a row on the same night that the cops were also confiscating cash from poker players. Whaddya think, coinkydink?

Turns out it’s true … while we were all abuzz about police poker raids last month, there was not only the attempted robbery that we already told you about, but also there was an actual robbery just a few days later in Dallas proper* — and this time the armed bad guys were successful.

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?

A thriving low-stakes poker room got a bit of a scare last night — when two unidentified visitors attempted to rob the joint at gunpoint. This comes as the state Legislature is considering a measure to legalize various forms of poker in Texas, in part to offer more protection for players. (For all you who were there and may or may not have shit in your pants … have you written your state representative yet?)

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.

More…

Amarillo Slim reportedly got robbed at gunpoint Sunday … in Amarillo. Two intruders, one masked, waiting for him in his house, with Slim’s own shotguns pointed at him. Threats of death and profanity laced psychological comebacks ensued. They made off with some of his goods, including a cherished belt buckle.

Back in October, you may recall, Amarillo told police he was chased down by some gun-wielding bandits who shot at his truck. (Very West-Coast-East-Coast Tupac Shakur, no? Where is Suge Knight these days anyhow?) It’s pretty harrowing, if not storybook stuff:

(link emphasis added)

… robbers waited for him to come into his own home to shove his own shotgun into Thomas Austin “Amarillo Slim” Preston Jr.’s stomach.

“I told him, I said now ‘Pull the trigger on that -damn thing or put it down [...] ‘I don’t feel real comfortable with that shotgun pointed at me.’”

[...]

The two men then stripped Preston and tied his hands and feet with three bolo ties they found in his apartment, and told him to lay down on the floor - a request Preston did not want to comply with.

Preston, who has a pacemaker, said he didn’t want to be placed on the cold floor, and face the risk of no one coming by to check on him.

So the robbers decided to put him on the couch, Preston said, with the masked robber saying he was going to get a pillow.

“I thought that was the end,” Preston said. “There is just one reason to go get a pillow. A shotgun makes some noise. You put that pillow over (that weapon) and pull the trigger, you are going to hear nothing. It’s not a good feeling.”

Hmm. Yikes.

I wonder how much money he had wagered on the Lakers-Spurs game.