NY Post article about "Illicit NY Poker Scene"

[IgorSmiles]

Read today's Post if youre interested. Names are named. Locations are given. Even a picture taken inside Satillite. With all the noisy reporters playing in our cardrooms these days, I imagine we're playing with cops too.

[Luv2DriveTT]

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Read today's Post if youre interested. Names are named. Locations are given. Even a picture taken inside Satillite. With all the noisy reporters playing in our cardrooms these days, I imagine we're playing with cops too.

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oh my. Advice for those who are in the know would be greatly appreciated.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Evan]

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If I see I guy 'on tilt' and he runs down to the ATM, when he comes back up, I stop him from getting in and say, 'You know, tomorrow's another day.' "

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Apparently GoT has quite a gambling problem.

[NJchick]

POKER CRAZE SWEETENING THE POTS FOR CITY'S HIDDEN CARD HOUSES

By HEATHER GILMORE

ALONG the streets of New York at almost any hour of any day — above nail salons, next to Star bucks and under corporate offices — there are hard-core gamblers dropping wads of cash in the city's secret poker parlors.

The Texas hold 'em poker craze has hit Gotham's gambling underworld, with six clubs opening in just the past six months.

The Post went inside the shady and sometimes thrilling underground scene to talk to players and managers whose livelihoods depend on the flip of a card. As they chase tournaments and cash games, cops and prosecutors are never far behind.

Oblivious office workers grab a hot dog on a Midtown street, while upstairs in rented rooms, high-rollers called "whales" and free-spending amateurs called "fish" loose their bankrolls, stake other players and argue over a newbie's lucky fortune on the "turn."

There are professional players practicing for Vegas, Hollywood actors getting their gambling fix, superstar ballplayers blowing off steam, Internet-poker whiz kids trying their hand at real live games, and respected old-timers with nicknames like Mike "Falafel" and Johnny "Noodles" beating down hood-wearing punks on "trips" — slang for three of a kind.

At some joints, you can enter the cheapest game with $10 in chips and bet as low as a buck. In the richest cash games, high-rollers "buy in" for $10,000 and sweat out six-figure pots.

"I've been playing in clubs for years, I think they're good for the city — they represent a long tradition of gambling houses that should be respected," said world-class backgammon player and poker prodigy Abe "The Brooklyn Kid" Mosseri.

The multimillionaire from Midwood cut his teeth playing the illegal club circuit for over 10 years before he became a television star on the World Poker Tour.

"Now, every Tom, Dick and Harry wants to open up a club and cash in," said Mosseri, 31. "It's just a matter of which ones survive and which ones don't."

The longest-running poker club in the city opened three years ago — before Bravo, the Travel Channel and ESPN started televising tournaments, triggering a national fascination with poker.

At 4 a.m. on a Saturday, almost every seat at 14 tables is filled. Muted televisions in almost every corner play the fights and NBA and baseball reruns.

"It may be Friday night, but it could be any night to these guys," says one tattooed man wearing a trucker cap as he waits for a "$4/$8" game to open up. The dollar amounts allude to the small and big bets forced on two respective players in each hand.

This club is certainly no glamour hall — it's all about the gambling. The bare, beige walls reflect blinding fluorescent lights. A brunette waitress wearing a red oriental dress and chopsticks in her hair hands out cans of Coke, cups of tea and chocolate biscuits for $1 chip tips.

An Asian man is asleep in a room no bigger than an elevator, set aside for smokers and cut off by a plastic curtain.

At a $10/$20 no-limit table, a man who looks like he came straight from work dressed in a navy suit moves "all-in" with about $550 in chips. A college kid matches his stack of chips, jumps up and flips his cards — two aces.

"Suck my d - - -!" yells the gloating frat boy just before gathering up $2,000 in winnings after "the flop." (In hold 'em, the flop refers to the first three "community" cards dealt face-up after the initial two cards are given face-down to each player. The fourth card, also an upside community card, is called "the turn" and the final card, also up, is called "the river." Players make bets before the flop, turn and before and after the river.)

"What's it feel like to have my c - - - in your mouth?" the kid screams. Shocked players at other tables peel their eyes away from their game to see the commotion. Most shake their heads in disgust — "What a monkey," comments an online whiz kid at the next-door table.

The city's second oldest and most popular gambling club, on the Upper West Side, also has its share of drama — but mostly the acting kind.

Stars of the cult poker film "Rounders," Matt Damon and Edward Norton, have played here on occasion. The club's manager, who wished not to be named, said another regular, Macaulay Culkin, telephoned to apologize for bringing attention to the joint after a "spotted" item ran in a tabloid gossip column. Culkin, who plays modest, no-limit cash games and keeps to himself when he goes for a cigarette in the tiny smoking room, has not been seen in the club since the Michael Jackson trial started.

HANK AZARIA, mentioned in the same gossip item, is still a regular at the club, and his witty "table talk" is a favorite with many players.

"We had a meeting to work out if celebrities should still be members after that story, and we decided they should be allowed to play," the manager said. "They're all great, down-to-earth people — we shouldn't let the fact that they're famous stop them from enjoying themselves here."

This big-money, underground scene employs dozens of card dealers, floor managers and waitresses. A dealer can make $300 in tips on a good night.

But all these livelihoods hang by a legal thread. "It is illegal for anyone to profit from gambling," said an NYPD spokeswoman. "These houses are illegal, and we are always investigating them."

Knowing the law, the clubs try to dodge prosecution by running as private, members-only clubs. They make money by charging "table fees" — averaging $3 per player every half-hour — rather than "raking the pot " — taking 10 to 15 percent off the top of each pot, a more obvious violation of the law.

"Generally speaking, illegal gambling is the house taking a percentage of the pot," said Barbara Thompson, spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.

Club owners rely on this gray area to stay open. And they say they run clean clubs to keep police attention at a minimum. "We don't serve alcohol, and you have to be over 21 and a member to play," said the manager of the second-largest club. "We think of it as a sober environment where people can compete and socialize. If I see I guy 'on tilt' and he runs down to the ATM, when he comes back up, I stop him from getting in and say, 'You know, tomorrow's another day.' "

Of the six clubs opened in the past six months, one was closed by the cops and another by fire.

Park Slope's Brooklyn Players' Club was raided as part of Operation Kings Flush on Feb. 6 — three managers were arrested for promoting gambling and are facing prosecution.

East Midtown's All-in Club, advertised on the Internet as a "plush, 4,500-square-foot club with 12 tables and a lounge," closed after only two weeks last month. Players said it was doomed by mismanagement and bad luck. On March 28, with two tables running cash games, an alarm sounded and gamblers heard someone shouting, "The building's on fire!" Instead of running for their lives, college kids and men in suits grabbed armfuls of chips before dashing out onto Eighth Avenue. Some players walked east to a Midtown club called Satellite and were nailed trying to cash in the other club's engraved chips.

SATELLITE opened in mid-March and, unlike the Spartan parlors in drab walk-ups, looks like they brought in a decorator.

The orange, rendered-brick walls reflect the multicolored track lighting. Exotic fish swim in a spacious tank built into a wall that separates the gaming floor from the lounge, which is outfitted with two couches and a big-screen TV. At the other end of the fifth-floor railroad loft, dealers on their break play pool near a coat rack.

At 8 p.m. on a Monday, six Internet-poker whiz kids, including Shaun Madison, 26, sit down for a $3/$6 cash game "with a kill," meaning if a player wins two consecutive pots, all bets are doubled in the next round.

Madison said he knows most of the young players at the table and everyone is playing nice by showing their hands after an opponent folds.

At about 10 p.m., a nervous-looking, middle-aged man in a suit sits down at the table, and the whiz kids pass knowing smiles. "He doesn't know what hit him," Madison said.

Within an hour the "fish" is filleted — forced to buy another $100 in chips. The fast-paced game seems to confuse the businessman, but he stays alive with "trip" aces to win about a $250 pot.

Eventually, with empty pockets, the man picks up his briefcase and leaves.

"Tonight's just for fun — and it's always fun when there's free money at the table," Madison said.

[bicyclekick]

That's actually one of the best organized poker articles I've ever read.

[sfer]

I can see several inaccuracies, and the lewd table banter strikes me as made up. And who's this effing Madison punk?

[BottlesOf]

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six Internet-poker whiz kids , including Shaun Madison, 26, sit down for a $3/$6 cash game

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nice...

[RacersEdge]

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other players and argue over a newbie's lucky fortune on the "turn."

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Shouldn't that be the "river"?

[BottlesOf]

Then you must not have good newspapers where you live.

I think it took a very unsophisticated treatment of the whole thing, "organization" not withstanding.

[bdk3clash]

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"What's it feel like to have my c - - - in your mouth?" the kid screams. Shocked players at other tables peel their eyes away from their game to see the commotion. Most shake their heads in disgust — "What a monkey," comments an online whiz kid at the next-door table.

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AHAHAHAHAHA

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Could this incident possibly be real? If so, it's the funniest thing I've ever heard.

I assume that the "online whiz kid" actually said "donkey" and not "monkey."

donkdonkdonk

I am so going to say "What's it feel like to have my cock in your mouth?" when I show down my next bluff (ETA February 2007.)