This tournament, btw, part of the Second Annual Tony and Eva Parker Celebrity Casino Night, is now, I’m almost certain, the biggest charity event in Texas — one of a few, if not the only one, that raises hundreds of thousands of dollars at a pop.

Awesome, and good for the beneficiary, Eva’s Heroes.

The guy instrumental in making this event happen, btw: Phil Hellmuth

Dallas (and Houston) people will note that first prize for this $500 buy-in event is a $10k WSOP main event seat. That sort of real-money-value prize is exactly what caused problems for La Riata — Dallas’ highest society charity poker event (also hosted by Phil Hellmuth), which had raised more than a million dollars before a few yahoos from the TABC successfully convinced charity organizers that prizes had to be awarded by raffle, as opposed to tournament outcome. (We told them they were bluffing!) As you can imagine, that can really kill incentive to rebuy. And sure enough it killed La Riata, which is no longer part of the Texas Stampede.

Poker people might find interesting the brands willing to tie their names together for this event — a major national grocery chain, the maker of industrial tractor equipment, and NBA franchise, and Ultimate Bet.

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.

Earlier this month, with approval from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, Bexar County officials released the names of Lee’s alleged punters. Some 3,200 of them — the juiciest ones, presumably, redacted … complete with cell phone numbers, you know, so other bookies can find these customers in need. Click here to see for yourself, and let us know if you recognize any celebs on the Lee-List. I definitely maybe know one dude from Dallas on there. I think he plays poker. He lives kinda near where there used to be a poker room. Sounds vaguely and theoretically familiar.

From KSAT:

According to [Bexar County District Attorney Susan] Reed, though, the list does not mean her office will pursue charges against those on the list.

“Being the number of names on here, being a Class C misdemeanor… the cost of that would be incredible,” she said. “(It’s) not something I’m interested in spending a huge amount of taxpayer money on.”

Pleading no contest and saying goodbye to that much money means one of two things. Either:

1) He made so much money from his legally questionable online gambling business that $2.2 million is simply an affordable nuisance “cost of doing business”

or

2) This was a deal worked out not just with prosecutors (who wanted to send Lee to jail on felony charges) but also with Lee’s top customers, who supposedly included some of the most powerful people in San Antonio, including the former mayor, in which case they might have let him know they would make it up to him.

NOTE: Link fixed.