Greadiest SOB's ive ever met.

[ordnaryjam]

Here in the Land of Cleve the only leagle Hold 'em games around are run for the benefits of charities and general non profit organizations. Two weeks ago it breaks that one group that runs these games has been skimming off the top, wow this is a shocker- dishonesty in gambling, well i have never heard of such a thing. Except that it turns out that skimming doesnt quite explain what they did, they were actually stealing OVER 50% of the take, for nearly 10 years, for about 3 million.
Balls my friends,
pure balls

[Lottery Larry]

They were stealing? or it was a listed rule that they would take most of the money?

I have been invited to several fund-raiser poker nights recently, the last one which was in effect a $46+54 tournament (they took $54 out of your $100 entry fee).

So, was it "legal" stealing or actual skimming?

[Randy_Refeld]

Most of the chairty games work by the dealer writing down that he raked half of what he really did. The half that he didn't write down is where the operators make their money. In Ohio the charity poker is only legal if nobody makes money (they have to find dealers to donate their time). Does anyone really believe that the same group of people (dealers operators etc) have nothing better to do every weekend then dontate their time to charity.

Randy Refeld

[Allan]

Yeah and putting that cash right into their bank accounts directly after the weekend events. Uh.......hello?
I thought he ran the best games up here though.


Allan

[gk2400]

Check out the cleveland scene magazine article. Pretty interested article about the scum bag. On a side note those games he ran in the Akron area were the softest games I have ever played. The 3-6 were so loose and passive I will miss those games. Ohio should legalize cardrooms of some kind (wishful thinking)

[ordnaryjam]

They were stealing? or it was a listed rule that they would take most of the money?

They were supposed to be "volunteers" and getting nothing at all. They were stealing, there are also stories about a guy who ran them several years ago, and the charities he would name didnt know anything about it, and he would keep the whole take.

[ordnaryjam]

"Most of the chairty games work by the dealer writing down that he raked half of what he really did. The half that he didn't write down is where the operators make their money. In Ohio the charity poker is only legal if nobody makes money (they have to find dealers to donate their time). Does anyone really believe that the same group of people (dealers operators etc) have nothing better to do every weekend then dontate their time to charity."

I understand what the signs on the wall mean when they read "All tips go to charity", and i understand that those who run the games get something out of it. But i never would have guessed that a 50% take was going on, especially with the cops showing up and taking pictures every now and then.

[tablerunr]

http://www.clevescene.com/issues/2004-02-04/feature.html/1/index.html

[Lottery Larry]

Does it sound like this one I received via email last year?

"THE SPINAL CORD FOUNDATION IS HAVING ITS FIRST ANNUAL TEXAS HOLDEM POKER TOURNAMENT APRIL 10TH.

ONLY 200 PLAYERS AND ALL MUST GET AN APPLICATION TO FILL OUT.

$1,000.00 ENTRY FEE FOR ALL PLAYERS.

TOP FIVE PRIZES EQUALING: $40,000.00

CALL FOR DEATAILS AND APPLICATION: (631) 696-5847 JOE

PLEASE PASS THE WORD AROUND ABOUT TOURNAMENT.
THIS IS A CHARITY EVENT.

THANK YOU!!"

Unless my math is off, that makes this a $200+$800 tournament fee

[Allan]

The Vegas Nights in Cleveland are 3-4 day long events that spread live action Poker from 3-6 up to 15-30 with tourneys on the weekends. In addition they also spread Blackjack, Let it ride, etc and sometimes even have a few slot machines. The money they rake and the profits the house makes are all supposed to go to the charities the event is being sponsored by. In this guys case he was skimming off of these profits. The charity is supposed to recieve all profits generated from the event. The only way the people running the event are supposed to be getting money out of the whole deal is from the rental of the tables, chips, cards and supply of dealers, etc.


Allan

[mosch]

That article makes gambling seem so evil, it's almost funny. But not quite.

I almost went to one of the Las Vegas nights last time I was on Cleveland, but I didn't, since I assumed it would probably be nothing but low-limit. Sounds like I missed a good time.

[TheRake]

Mosch,

I agree...Makes it sound like all people who gamble have no control over thier lives.

I actually played in the 3/6 game while I was in Akron over the holidays. The game was ridiculously loose....very nice /images/graemlins/smile.gif.

TheRake

[Kevin]

I played in Cleveland last year. I was happy to find a live 5/10 game. The dealer was great, the host kept reminding us of the baseball team that was getting the rake. I had no issue - I actually assumed that I was tipping the dealer for his time (this seems to make sense).

The biggest thing I remember is when one big fish who called everything down went through his 3rd $500 buy-in, the host pulled him aside and told him that he would not let him play any longer. The guy was mad and wanted to establish a line of credit - said he was just running bad - but the host insisted. He said he could stay and watch, eat and drink as much as he liked, but he was done playing for the night.

When I read this article, I couldn't help but think about that. The game tightened up after that and became a matter of playing against pretty much equal strength with the rake winning in the end - but this guy would have burned through 4-5 grand had he continued to play throughout the night.

Kevin

[KJS]