You can LOL all you want because nobody got shot … but as things usually go with poker robberies, attempted or otherwise, someone in the Stratosphere poker room probably has more than a sneaking suspicion of who attempted to rob a single table Wednesday night of its low-stakes casino chips. Or maybe not … because from the sounds of it there might not have been any players around … which makes sense, because as far as I know no one tweeted from the actual scene … so did it really happen?

Hear for yourself about the man police are seeking:

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[audio:https://pokerati.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/lvpmd-strsatosphere-call.mp3]

Sound like anyone you know?

Dude … I’m actually pretty sure I’ve seen him at the tables somewhere.

Minimal info at the moment … but around 12:30am today, according to Las Vegas Metro Police, a lone gunman walked into the Stratosphere and reportedly headed straight for the 8-table poker room, where he jumped a table, attempted to grab a bunch of chips, and then fled on foot. But apparently he ran into a casino employee on the way out and left empty handed.

Police tell local Channel 13 they have a “vague description” of the suspect and are looking for him now.

Pic: Rex (2009)

Probably shouldn’t be laughing about violent crime FAILs, but LOL … just realized I wrote “walked into the Stratosphere” … so clearly the wannabe robber must be Criss Angel. OK, I jest … but what do you think the odds are that this amateur thief could be an online poker player who just lost his roll and is considering new career options? I’ll bet … either that or a neighborhood crackhead.

More tales of the Stratosphere poker room from a local low-stakes grinder here.

What looks to have been a rookie armed robbery of a min-stakes poker game in Michigan caught on video … just like EPT Berlin … you know, if PokerStars ran live events in the $30 to $40 buy-in range that start at 7 and have 15-minute levels.

At about 1 am Wednesday night/Thursday morning, two armed men entered “The Tilt Room” at the Bob-Hi Lanes near Muskegon, Michigan (a small port town of about 174,000). Upon being laughed at by players and managers, one of the robbers pistol-whipped a room employee as the duo grabbed cash on the bar, then stuffed their pockets with the rest of the money on hand. No one was seriously injured. Police say they are looking for two black males, one about 6’4″ the other 5’9″.

No word on how much money the “blue-hoodied bandits” got away with. By law, Michigan poker rooms are allowed to sell up to $15,000 in chips each day.

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photo: WYFF4 – Greenville

No charges have been filed, despite yellow tape identifying this site of a deadly poker game as a crime scene.

This time it was player-on-player violence … leaving one man dead and another injured after a gunfight broke out early morning at a warehouse poker game in Anderson County, SC.

Jermaine LeCorey Scott, 34, supposedly was losing in the wee hours of a game last week, and at some point pulled a gun on five other players. Though not clear whether or not the triggering incident had anything to do with a bad beat or involved accusations of cheating, police contend Scott was attempting to rob his opponents … even though he was not wearing a mask like most (99 percent?) armed poker robbers.

From local news reports: Channel 4 (with video), more Channel 4, Channel 7

Players supposedly called flagged down police at a nearby intersection around 7 am on Tuesday to report the shooting, and deputies arrived to find two men shot, lying on the ground in the empty warehouse, which may or may not have been cleared of poker supplies before their arrival. Scott died at the hospital from multiple gunshot wounds a few hours later. The other player, unnamed, had bullet wounds to his hand and a concealed weapon permit. Police investigators have ruled the deadly shooting a matter of self-defense — justifiable homicide — and say they have no plans to press any charges.

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A relatively routine raid of a low-stakes poker game in Greenville, South Carolina turned bloody yesterday night — as police tried to gain entry to a poker house. The game host, now known to be Aaron Awtry, 72, shot through the front door, striking sheriff’s deputy Matthew May with a bullet that went through his arm.

A vice squad in SWAT gear returned fire, hitting Awtry with multiple rounds in his arm and thumb … which was followed by a 20-minute standoff between cops and players, according to a spokesman for the Greenville County Sheriff’s Department. Both shooting victims were taken to the hospital where they are in stable condition.

There were 12 people and Awtry in the house at 502 Pine Knoll Drive when police arrived at about 9:20 pm last night. According to frontline witnesses, they had just finished a small buy-in dinnertime tourney … and a 1/2 cash game was just getting underway when someone saw 5-0 approaching on a security monitor. Before he could clearly vocalize an alert, a battery ram begin slamming the front door and players froze. Awtry, who players say has notoriously bad hearing in his senior years and presumably believed the game was being robbed, began shooting at the door with his pistol, firing “at least once” according to a player, “multiple shots” according to police. At least four officers returned fire at the door with at least 20 bullets from their higher-powered assault weapons.

As Awtry fell back into the poker room entryway, he balked, “Why didn’t you tell me it was the cops?”

click to enlarge

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Scott Montgomery, 2008 November Niner … he has a bracelet now, but presumably wasn’t wearing it this weekend when he says he got accosted by a knife-wielding bandit inside a Bellagio bathroom. (While taking a leak? That could make a difference in this sitch.)

With all due respect to Montgomery’s 5th place WSOP main-event finish and his donkament bracelet this summer, he’s clearly no Greg Raymer. Montgomery declined his assailant’s implied invitation to brawl for money, and instead simply handed him $2,000 in cash (mo chips?) … yeow, what does it say about the economy when Bellagio doesn’t have armed shoe-shine guys on duty?

From the Cake Poker blog:

Montgomery was at Bellagio to play in a Festa al Lago preliminary event and went to the bathroom on a break from the tournament. As he described it on his Twitter account, “Got mugged today at Bellagio. Black guy pulled a knife on me in the restroom. I gave him the $2k in my wallet and he left.”

“I called security, but they took like 15 mins so they didn’t catch him. They are useless twits. Didn’t even ask me to look at camera footage,” Montgomery continued. “Security pretty much just said oh well, life sucks, have a nice day. I’m pretty annoyed.”

Bellagio Poker ≈ Binion’s Self Park?

Though two instances (that we heard about) over the span of nearly 6 years hardly constitute a trend, you just don’t expect certain kinds of violence in luxe resorts with multiple guards outside the parking garage looking for casually waving through possible Al Qaeda terrorists. I mean what is center-Strip, not dark-alley downtown Vegas or daytime Berlin!

But it was indeed at Bellagio — during the 5-diamond — where armed robbers discovered not all bracelet-winning poker players were easy marks. In that situation, December 2004, Greg Raymer, poker’s newest big world champ, fought off two attackers with guns. According to reports, they got away, too (as security let them pass) … however, were caught some five months later in California, and brought back to Las Vegas for trial. (I believe sentenced to something like 3 years, not sure though …)

Pokerati PSA: Remember, next time you’re being attacked in the Bellagio or anywhere in Vegas really, you can tweet for help @LVMPD, hashtag #911.

Details are sparse … but a suburban Dallas poker game erupted in gunfire last night, resulting in two people dead — an attempted robber and a player trying to stop him.

According to Fox 4 and Mesquite police, Tracey Moore, 35, apparently the game’s host, was shot and killed while scuffling with the armed intruder at an apartment in the 5900 block of Northwest Dr, shortly after midnight yesterday.

Another player, Jerome Johnson, 34, carrying a licensed concealed handgun, shot back, killing the suspect, too. Police have not yet released the alleged robber’s identity. And though they say it appears to be a case of self-defense, a grand jury will decide whether or not Johnson will face any charges.

Police say they are hot on the case … details emerging about the Austin poker game that got robbed EPT-Berlin style (only for less money and with more gunfire) … and apparently this one — occurring in a middle-class residential neighborhood in northwest Austin — ain’t gonna go the way of poker robberies in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and others recently in Austin.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2010/03/29/police_investigate_card_game_r.html

The Travis County Sheriff’s Dept. (woking with APD) has caught at least one of the suspected bandits after tracking down a (coincidentally German-made) possible getaway car. Osaro Osagie, 22, is currently in custody on felony charges of credit card abuse, for possessing one of the poker player’s stolen cards.

An investigation on the aggravated robbery is still ongoing, and thus police are saying little else at the moment.

This all shook down at a game in near West Anderson Lane and Mopac.

UPDATE: More on the heavily armed robbery from KXAN here.

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.

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Jihad Chetwie, the final suspect in the March 7th heist at EPT Berlin, turned himself in at Tegel airport after flying in from Beirut, Lebanon. Chetwie left the country shortly after the heist, but he could not handle living in Lebanon, and decided to turn himself in rather than being arrested in Lebanon.

News this morning from Germany that a third suspect has been arrested in connection with the armed robbery at EPT Berlin that took place two weeks ago today. According to the Associated Press, Mustafa Ucarkus, aged 20, was arrested at Tegel airport after his lawyer informed authorities of his whereabouts.

Earlier this week one member of the group of alleged thieves — a 21-year-old man of Turkish origin — turned himself in and identified his three accomplices. One, 20-year-old Ahmad el-Awayti, was arrested on Wednesday. The fourth member of the group, Jihad Chetwie (aged 19), remains at large.

Photo: Reuters

These three suspects are still on the lam.

Bild.de (translated from German) and Bluff Magazine (in English) are reporting that one of the suspects in the EPT Berlin robbery from two weeks ago turned himself in on Monday to German authorities. The police in Berlin released names and photographs of the three other suspected bandits: Mustafa Ucarakus, Jihad Chetwie and Ahmad El Awayti. The article in the German newspaper notes that the suspect mentioned they did receive help from someone on the inside as to where the money was stored and that the security staff was unarmed. More details to come as more news is available.

UPDATE: Bild.de reports that that German police have arrested Ahmad El Awayti.

From the Associated Press:

A spokeswoman for Berlin police — who did not give her name in keeping with department policy — said the suspect had been set free due to a lack of evidence. The suspect, who was detained late Friday, denied throughout several hours in questioning having taken part in the heist at the Grand Hyatt hotel in the capital.

Hmm. While it briefly seemed like the case might be unravelling for the robbers, maybe not so much … apparently just because a guy robbed one casino in Germany doesn’t mean he committed all casino robberies in Germany.

UPDATE UPDATE: The suspect has been released. Apparently German coppers got the wrong guy … or are running a high-level police play where they detain a person and let him go hoping he will lead them to someone else. No word on whether or not they are still looking for a black Mercedes somewhere in Germany.

Police have arrested a man in connection with last weekend’s armed robbery at the Grand Hyatt during EPT Berlin:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35849559/ns/world_news-europe/

Few details on the suspect himself, other than that his arrest has something to do with info police received about a black Mercedes getaway car … and that he may have been a guy convicted and sent to prison for a casino robbery in 2004.

The thugs made off with $331,000 in the daytime heist, pulled off as cameras rolled at the biggest poker tournament in German history.

Supposedly, we’re also hearing, the robbers left behind a lot of clues, and more arrests are likely to follow. Police don’t think it was an inside job, but are looking into whether or not there was an accomplice who entered one of the events.

UPDATE: A little more news from Germany … the heist took place while guards were on break and the money was being prepared for transfer to the casino’s main cage. Also, from TheLocal.de:

The arrested man was thought to have taken part in another high-profile robbery in 2004. That January four armed masked men stormed the casino at the top of the Park Inn on Alexanderplatz in central Berlin. They were later arrested and convicted, receiving jail terms of between two and four years.

The eventful EPT Berlin Main Event final table came to a conclusion Sunday afternoon, and it would be American Kevin MacPhee taking down the first prize of 1 million Euros, defeating Ilari Tahkakollio heads-up. MacPhee also had the chance to do this brief interview Monday about his weekend:

An interesting footnote to the excitement from Saturday was a decision Tahkakollio made when play eventually resumed. With 21 players remaining, he was involved in a hand with Luca Canielli, who was all-in for his last 600,000 with As-Qd, against Tahkakollio’s Ad-10h, with the board showing 3c-Kc-8s-4c. At that moment, the armed robbery took place, scattering players and chips leaving this for the players to return to about four hours later (picture from pokerolymp.de):

As the players and tournament staff came back to their seats, and exact chip counts impossible to determine, tournament director met with the remaining players in the main event. It was decided that the players would go by the honor system to determine each player’s chip stack.

Next was to decide how to handle the Tahkakollio-Canielli hand. Since it was impossible to know if the deck had been tampered with amongst the confusion, Kremser ruled that the hand be ruled dead. However, Cainelli was unhappy with this decision as he was in need of doubling up. Kremser then ruled that the deck could be reshuffled so the river could be dealt, but would also need the approval of Tahkakollio, who could have decided to have the hand ruled dead and the two get their chips back. After thinking for several minutes, Tahkakollio decided to allow the river to be dealt, and when the 5h came on the river, Cainelli received his double up, while Tahkakollio had lost about a third of his chips. Tahkakollio recovered from that setback to make the final table third in chips, and after a tense back and forth battle with MacPhee when play got to heads-up, eventually collecting 600,000 Euros for finishing 2nd.

The original reporting of the hand was done by the PokerStarsblog.com team.