Re: Poker Room Busted in Houston (2)
The Houston Police Department has fired back at Pokerati’s assertion that the SWAT team was necessary for their raid on The Palms.
HPD’s Vice Division was so concerned about being able to get inside what they said was an illegal poker room, SWAT was called in to make sure the raid went off without a hitch.
This wasn’t an easy place to get into. The door was secured with locks and you had to have a special card to get in.
And a security company had been hired to watch the place from the outside.
Police tell us this was a place to play high dollar poker. Texas Hold ‘Em poker to be exact.
OK, fair enough … but they still haven’t provided a breakdown of what a month-long undercover investigation followed by a SWAT-team break-in costs. And yet they are warning players that this was just the beginning of their crackdown — more raids to come. OK, OK, we believe you. (Again, we’ve seen it all before.) But knowing in advance (with near-certainty) the results of these newfound misdemeanor cases, all we can say is too bad the elected and appointed officials with influence on police budgets apparently don’t understand the concept of “leaks.” But such is the state of Texas, at least for another couple years.
By the way … the most curious claim (to me) about this bust:
The division says its investigation revealed that the house, actually the operators and owners of the poker room, were taking in about $10 a night.
I mean really … if that number were accurate, would it even count?
UPDATE: That was a KHOU typo. The claim is that The Palms took in $10,000 a night.
beelzebubba says:
October 8th, 2007 at 10:16pm
Post or roast thus is my dilemma this evening!leaning more towards roast.the raid on the palms is the 3rd raid in west houston that is noteworthy the first being the two raids on prime.which btw is nowhere near the astrodome asshole.anyway, I heard about the raid two hours after it was over my mailbox was full and this is what I know. [NAME REMOVED — Ed.] is supposedly hiding in canada but if you have ever played w/ that super nit you would know what a pussy he is and that wouldn’t be so suprising. The owners of the room I was told have been and still are under federal RICO type investigation for bookmaking, money laundering and a variety of other illicit vice related crimes.everyone associated with them will eventually be drug in and dealing with the feds is certainly not a speeding ticket.the reputed owners at various other rooms have always maintained that they guaranteed all money in the room and it will be interesting to find out whether or not they make good on this grand boast. The fuzz took all the checks all the cash and all the players cash.the owners also mysteriously came into the room (apparently on a tip) and removed all the computers and books from the room and cleaned out the safe within hours of the raid that or they have impeccable timing!this room I heard hosted a huge cash game shortly after opening in which several celebrity type players flew in to play some were featured on the KHOU clip I heard over 250k in that game!anyways I digress, 10,000 a night is not only realistic but I would say a low or average estimate.I quit playing in games around town bc it basically came down to this- it’s hard to consistantly win in general but you have to beat the rake which in a 2k pot here they will whack atleast 50.00 then you have to beat the dealer which gets the usual 1.00 tip plus 5 or so h takes for himself and then on top of that you have to beat the tag teaming undeclared house shills and the other cheats and hustlers.I know, I am sure someone is begging for the return key out there! But wait there is more- in the vid clip I love the guy who gives the shout out to thomas ?V. Hilarious.in short all those guys are in deep shit. Their other room in s.houston makes over 1.5 million a year tax free and is a total embarrassment to the hpd.not to mention their 8liner rooms, book making it’s a joke really.sounds like I have an axe to grind?not really just hate being ripped off when I go to play and tired of giving up action to the house when their EV is 2000x greater than it should be.I hope they get what they have coming to them.
Texas Holdem Poker » Re: Poker Room Busted in Houston (2) says:
October 17th, 2007 at 12:14pm
[…] DanM wrote an interesting post today on Re: Poker Room Busted in Houston (2)Here’s a quick excerptFrom KHOU: HPD’s Vice Division was so concerned about being able to get inside what they said was an illegal poker room, SWAT was called in to make sure the raid went off […] […]
The Gambler » Re: Poker Room Busted in Houston (2) says:
October 18th, 2007 at 2:44am
[…] maxinterbrick wrote an interesting post today on Re: Poker Room Busted in Houston (2)Here’s a quick excerpt…The Houston Police Department has fired back at Pokerati’s assertion that the SWAT team was necessary for their raid on The Palms. From KHOU: HPD’s Vice Division was so concerned about being able to get inside what they said was an … […]
poker » Re: Poker Room Busted in Houston (2) says:
October 18th, 2007 at 11:40pm
[…] came across this post – Re: Poker Room Busted in Houston (2) – and thought it was worth sharing. I hope you find it interesting too and take the time to read […]
Yet Another Observer says:
May 3rd, 2008 at 11:26pm
Dan, Just a thought … but how about getting rid of beelzebubba’s post …. 1) mentioning specific names (or close enough) is a bit strong 2) Prime was NEVER “raided” 3) the rake is GROSSLY over exaggerated by him/her
DanM says:
May 4th, 2008 at 5:43am
Thanks, Yao,
Not too big on taking down comments here unless their libelous. And even then, we’ll generally just redact the identifying/incriminating info. Send me an email if there’s something in there that I’m missing, cool?
Thanks for the updates and clarifications, by the way.
Yet Another Observer says:
May 4th, 2008 at 11:43pm
Dan, Is it possible to contact you outside of this public forum? I attempted to use the email tied to your name here which did not work.
DanM says:
May 5th, 2008 at 12:00am
The email listed on this page works:
https://pokerati.com/about-us/
Not trying to avoid you — just don’t want to give it out to the spammers, who are more likely to find it here.
I tried replying to the email address you gave, but I think you know where that goes.
🙂
Yet Another Observer says:
May 5th, 2008 at 12:12am
I understand perfectly …. I tried that one again.