There were really big guns, shouting, and shots fired. That\’s the word circulating in Austin poker circles right now about a scary armed robbery somewhere on the west side of Travis County late last night — just before the bars closed … always an action time in Texas poker rooms.
Here\’s an email from one of the players there, with names redacted for now …
HORRIBLE Robbery at *****\’s tonight, around 1:40am. I was there 3-4 black guys w/ AK 40\’s, shot their way in back door. **** was running game, 24 people there. Amazingly, No one hurt. ***** was downtown, **** and ***** hid in laundry.
They specifically asked for ***** by name. Must have known back yard had no cameras. Climbed fence from mopac.
Made us all go face down, empty pockets, took most wallets, phones keys. My wallet was found by cop, amazingly a mile down feeder laying in road, all intact except $1000 in cash (i had won $600 last night and forgot to remove it before going to *****\’s).
Gunshots were fired Inside. they kept yelling at us not to look up or move, so we didn\’t know if people were shot.
****** saved our lives. he obeyed them, rationalized w/ them, showed them closet w/ money, but had no key, they harassed him, they shot or kicked doors in,
Over 9 cops were arriving as we drove away. They stopped us and interviewed us individually, were very concerned for our safety and catching criminals, not even a question of poker game. Helecopters, forensics, detectives and K9 were all there lining the street.
unbelievable.
UPDATE: Unconfirmed word is that Austin police caught at least one of the robbers, when he used a stolen credit card at a \”club\” either later that night or the next day.
The cops seem to have arrived in force pretty quickly albeit after the fact here. Let\’s see if Austin authorities do as well as police in Berlin, where they seem to capture their casino bandits right away: Two weeks, arrest five to get four … let the innocent guy go and put pictures out to capture the ones you don\’t yet have. That seems to be the way it works in Germany. But In Texas cops have a much spotter record when it comes to solving poker crimes.
In more than a dozen armed robberies over the past three years … from Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio to places out in the sticks … We\’ve had one trio of bandits caught in the act after the host successfully dialed 911 and hid an open phone; and in another case two high school football stars now face major-serious prison time … but only after the senior citizens they were robbing chased them down through a wet, muddy pasture and held them at gunpoint until police arrived.
Nothing else in all the other cases — including one where robbers shot and killed a dealer, and one where a player shot and killed a robber. (His mom stopped by Pokerati a few days ago to say hi, btw.)