Another Another Austin Raid

A poker-gamer in central Texas (not Lavigne or Austin Pete) informs us about another shakedown in A-town, Sunday night (!) … Cops reportedly shut down (temporarily?) a rather large, long-standing game that is somehow connected to a host who may or may not be going through an divorce with a low-ranking civilian employee for the APD.

Now granted, below is just one player\’s word passed to another, but still … apparently we\’ve got fissures in the Austin underground semi-related to overabundant junk mail, turf wars, and marital tilt … uh-huh … sounds like everything should smooth over nice and fine for everyone, no problem. Go poker!

The game has been running for about 3 years now. From what I understand 2 weeks ago they decided to have a larger than normal Tournament. They decided to advertise this by placing flyer ads up all over the area they are locate (dumbass move #1!) The ad was found by the President of the Home owners Assoc. for the neighborhood… who also happens to be a bible thumping wrath of god type (dumbass move #2!). The HOA sent a letter to the Game and told them to basically get out or they would run them out. with a LARGE tournament in the works they got the bright idea to move the game to a Hotel in the area. Well the Hotel they moved it to is the same Hotel that another LARGE monthly tournament is held at and when the guys running that game got word they flipped monkey balls and called the Hotel and told them what they were doing was ILLEGAL!!! The Hotel says thanks to the Tattle Tells and oh by the way dont ever come back you never told us this was illegal what YOU were doing and we dont want your business! Now 2 large tournaments are homeless.

So the the guys decided the night before the tournament to move it to a now 3rd locations in one week to the red lion hotel in Austin. From what I understand the DAY OF the tournament they are told it is a no go by Hotel management thus canceling the tournament. The host sends an e-mail telling everyone sorry and that they will be back to business as usual at the regular location for the Sunday tournament that holds about 40 players weekly.

Fast forward to this past Sunday. Last night the game starts and about 30 minutes afterwards comes a knock on the door. It is the Austin Police department responding to a call from a HOA and a formal complaint. They supposedly tell the host that they are shutting down the game for him \” running a business in a non zoned area\”! They come in get everyone\’s name and tells them to leave without issuing tickets and proceeds to seize all the equipment in the house. I have heard ,second hand, that they took no ones money. They also told the host to not reopen the game.

Now for the Soap Opera twist. This morning I get a call from a friend that is a dealer in the game. He hung around after the cops left and found out that the HOA got wind of the game not from finding a flyer floating around but from the WIFE of the host of the game that is currently going into divorce proceedings with him!!! Word is she is mad as hell and not going to take and dropped the dime on the game to the head of the HOA including giving them a schedule of days and times the game is running! To top this all off she is an ADMIN ASSISTANT FOR THE APD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was not there for any of this so everything I got is second hand. I will say this. The host of this game […] last year someone set his garage on fire in retribution for an unnamed evil he preformed (word was he shorted a guy REAL bad).