This is not a stock photo. It is recent KHOU footage of poker players being rounded up so they can plea down to a traffic ticket and receive deferred adjudication.

So I just took a look at the pictures from the Houston poker bust at The Palms, which really I think has to be called a “raid” any time machine guns are brought into play. Maybe I’m just getting sappy, but these photos — they look soooo familiar — actually offend me. If HPD is trying to put a scare into poker players and operations, congratulations on your short-term success.

Now if you don’t mind, could you provide the people of Houston a detailed accounting of how much Operation Drawing Dead cost?

I thought we were moving into a “sensible government” phase in this country … but apparently not. And if the HPD would allow me to call at least one of its bluffs:

HPD said SWAT was needed because the building was secure and guarded by a private security firm.

Not true. Just ask the Dallas police about this … it only causes you more trouble, and makes the prosecutors and citizenry less sympathetic to your cause. Hey, I’m just a blogger — not a law enforcement specialist — but I can tell you a better way to do your job. If you want to shut down a poker room, simply park a marked police car outside the front door. It’s that simple. Dealers won’t go to work, and players won’t go in. And it will cost you the citizens you are paid to protect a lot less money.

ALT HED: Strong Means Weak

And, of course, you won’t be clogging the courts.

Speaking of … again, I’m just a blogger, but I’d like to remind the people of Houston that fighting their charges is generally positive EV. (Insist on a “jury trial” — that’s key.) Though I know Harris County hands out more death sentences than any other municipality in the United States … and though I am sure some of my lawyer friends would disagree … the law is actually on your side. I don’t have exact numbers, but I can tell you that of the hundreds of poker-related cases brought forth in Texas over the past few years (across the state, not just in Dallas), NONE have led to convictions on the original charge, and NONE have actually made it to trial.* I say this with about 94 percent certainty. And if I am wrong, you face a fine smaller than a medium-sized pot in a 5/10 NL game.

Show them at least that poker players know how to assess risk, so someday, eventually, the right people will realize that shutting down these games isn’t worth their while.

* In 1998, the same charges you face were brought against a father and son operating a poker room in Dallas. They went to trial and were found not guilty on all counts.