Live from the Foreclosure Front Lines …
It was a not-so-happy Easter for one family a few houses from Pokerati’s LV headquarters, where some foreclosures are proving to be messier than others. Not sure how exactly it all went down, but big trucks arrived at 7 am, along with some angry door knockers … the occupants either ran off or were chased off … it coulda been a rental boot — where the owner gets foreclosed on, and the tenants, who may well have been paying rent on time, are suddenly on the streets. Whatever it was, there was lots of early-morning screaming and children crying, suggesting it was not an amicable move-out. Of the dozen or so “aggressive evictions” in Pokerati’s tiny 4-block compound over the past year, few have ended with furniture being tossed from windows. There are stories in some neighborhoods of angry former-owners absolutely trashing their places before they depart — like busting drywall and smashing cabinetry — so the bank takes over a place that is practically totaled … and other stories of people pouring cement down their toilets to destroy plumbing systems.
Anyhow, while visitors to the Strip may be noticing slightly smaller crowds and cheaper prices, this is what’s been going on for the past year or so in the areas where the people who work the Strip live. Even if you’re not subject to some component of it — and I don’t really know anyone who hasn’t been in some capacity — there’s so much tilt in this town right now … every once in a while someone just loses it.
I like to troll Craigslist every so often for some hot, anonymous NSA poker action. Not looking for games — there’s no shortage of ’em here in LV — just wanting to take the pulse of what people are pushing related to poker. Look at the ads all together and you get some interesting tells on the state of the poker world and its semi-anonymous inhabitants:
