Austin Arboretum Game Gets Pinched

AUSTIN–Had a fun, legal home-game tourney with April, Amy, Scott, and a few others today/yesterday. I didn\’t do particularly well — but hey, it was April\’s 30th birthday, so the Tuaca was flowing and she made one or two brilliant bad calls that caused me to lose.

🙂

Such is how poker apparently works in Austin.

Also learned that one of the underground games here got busted recently — \”the Arboretum Room.\” That sucks, of course …

The details are a little hazy, as I got this info second- and third-hand. But I don\’t think it was like the Aces raid in Dallas with an armored SWAT team, TV cameras, and machine guns … and I\’m pretty sure no one got arrested or even ticketed. (Can anyone out there provide confirmation or further info?) From what I understand, the cops simply became aware of the game when residents noticed a lot of foot traffic in and out of the first-floor, two-bedroom pad … and, fearing the occupants were drug dealers, alerted the cops. Two (?) APD officers showed up one day (last week? the week before?), knocked on the door, and had a chat with the proprietors — telling them it was time to shut down. Simple enough … and very little paperwork.

I remember the Arboretum game well — a couple nice house guys running a friendly possibly-for-profit \”home game\” in a large, semi-upscale apartment complex. Three tables, acceptable chips, decent snack foods, and a generally lighthearted, jovial, donkey-rockin\’ atmosphere complete with free wi-fi. On my first visit I somehow lost $580 playing $1/$2 NL.

Really, I played great … made spot-on reads and laid beautiful traps while thinking, \”sorry boys, that shit just don\’t fly up in Dallas,\” only to lose to a variety of less-than-four-outers to a bunch of drinky Asians. Like seriously, about five hands that night had me leaving Austin with vehement hatred for the entire Orient … so much so that I could hardly talk to that Kim Jong-il sympathizer Sang upon returning home. The second time I played there I won a few hundred dollars despite the presence of a female hottie with a healthy chip rack at the table. (The room operators really just wanted everyone to have fun — so they hardly enforced the no-trays-on-the-table-for-more-than-a-few-hands rule, and a few others.)

Will let you know more if I learn more. About the bust I mean. Not poker itself, which clearly is still in high demand, legal or otherwise.