Turns out the Houston poker \”bust\” was hardly a raid in the Dallas SWAT sense of the word, but presumably reliable sources tell Pokerati that six uniformed police officers were poking around in the Houston underground last night … stopping play at one room (unceremoniously and without violence) to conduct some sort of investigation.
Either that or this police squadron just happened to include a bunch of poker players looking for a fun and fair place to play after they got off-duty.
Cops arrived around midnight to a game located in an industrial office park complex in (West?) Houston, where reportedly about 30 players had shown up for a $60 tourney with $20 rebuys — your typical white-collar assortment of lawyers, accountants, realtors and housewives with maybe a few random thugs in the mix. Police entered through doors on two different sides of the room without guns drawn … instructing players to put their money and IDs on the table. While running standard warrant checks they asked a few questions about what was being played, whether or not there was a rake, who was running the game, etc.
(Not sure what answers if any were given, nor how many players in the house had notoriously bad poker faces likely to give off tells.)
The un-armored squadron left after about two hours — no arrests or citations issued — at which point several players also departed. Supposedly a few of them got pulled over on their way out and were asked more questions. Inside the poker room, play resumed.
