Posted by Johnnymac 6:15 PM
I just saw on the Channel 11 news that a place called the "Palms" (on Westglen near Westpark and Hillcroft) was raided last night. There was a news crew there and they had all kinds of pictures of guys getting chained together and loaded into a paddy wagon surrounded by cops with automatic weapons. Jiminy. The surprising part of this story was that they said that this place had been watched for quite some time by undercover cops who had infiltrated the clientele.

Are any of our regular readers familiar with this place and/or with the raid? It looked like a big place, the news story said there were 14(!) tables in action at the time of the raid.

5 Comment(s):

Posted by  Anonymous, at 12:28 AM, October 05, 2007  

ummmmmm. wow. is that serious?

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Posted by  Beau, at 8:25 AM, October 05, 2007  

I've been going here about 3-4 times a month and thought it was great (too good to be true, huh?) and actually was headed up there on Wed, until one of my buddies suggested we go Thurs. I guess I owe him a beer.

Beau

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Posted by  Anonymous, at 8:36 AM, October 05, 2007  

Yeah that was my regular place too. Oh well, I guess Houston has finally decided to join Dallas and crack down on cardrooms. It had to end sometime.

This was a REALLY big operation. They would have 80 player tournaments 7 nights a week. My guess is that Houston's small 1-2 table cardroom will not be bothered much. But who knows. It's a good think I don't play poker anymore. :)

MJ

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Posted by  Dr Fro, at 11:35 AM, October 05, 2007  

While MJ was busy "not playing poker anymore", we played there together.

Very nice - Vegas quality card room.

If this is anything like Dallas, expect every big room to get raided over the next couple months.

Also expect all players to get off their tickets - I don't understand the legal stuff, but evidently none of it help up in court. Now as for the guys running the place - different story.

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Posted by  Anonymous, at 4:44 PM, October 05, 2007  

There are a handful of larger Houston cardrooms that have sprung up recently. I believe this joint was the nicest of the bunch and while I've never played there everyone I know who has echoed the sentiments from the other comments...supposed to be a great room with a good crowd.

These places have one big thing in common - they give out invites like A&M gives out football scholarships...if you've got an email address then you're getting one. I've had two friends who don't play poker forward me emails with their game schedules, address, phone numbers, link to mapquest directions, etc. The police almost had to do something because the owners/operators so flaggrantly paraded their operation around for all to see. It's like no one told them the whole "cardroom" think was illegal.

I'd be surprised if the rest of the rooms using the invite carpet bomb approach don't get busted up as well.

-compton

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