gladiater in arena consilium capit

This will be my last and final post as the Limit King because I have abdicated the throne for there are too many backstabbers and unscrupulous people in the arena for me. I have walked away and don't plan on ever getting back involved in NYC poker. What once was a great run turned into a shit house run by people with no morals or respect for the game they just want to treat all players like suckers and squeeze there last dimes from them. Granted most of these shitheads deserve what is going on around them and I cant feel bad for them. They are degenerates and could care less that they are being taken advantage of. Now you might say that this is sour grapes, being that I am not involved any longer but it was my choice I had no desire to put up with winy jack-offs and there petty bickering over the most stupidest shit. I tried to keep it going but with the new breed of people hanging around I felt that it would be better for me to just walk away and I did. But at least I did get my pound of flesh, for the old king still has it. As I kicked the ever loving shit out of some snot nosed disrespectful piece of shit. I couldn't even call it a fight for I made this kids face look like chop meat. Now you ask why would I be proud of that if you ever met this piece of shit it was only a matter of time and deep down I know I probably saved him from something far worse. As a old school NYC poker guy I came up the hard way and nobody was going to disrespect that. Until I regroup and plan my next action I wish all of my friends happy trails and to my enemy's what could I say but the King is gone but not forgotten.

poker what is it good for ?

Here is my story of succeeding in NYC poker and the education I received as I can best recall. When I first showed up at the infamous D.C. in about spring 96, the club had just been open about a month. It was located in Chelsea, when you walked in all you saw was a locked gate and a camera. The stairs and walls going up to the club looked run down and seedy. You would buzz in and walk up one flight and then you were in. Once you were inside the place had a good vibe, all these books and red brick walls and a big picture of a boxer taking a knock out punch. You felt like you were in some sort of after hours, but what was being served was poker 7 nights a week. The club had 10 tables and after a couple of months they were all in use. The action was great with 3 tables of 10-20 hk going 2 tables of 4-8 limit, and usually a 2-5 pot limit that played bigger and sometimes a stud game. After I started playing and became a dealer I can't say I have looked back often. I don't know if I choose this life or it choose me. I was like a fish in water. I told one of the owners a couple years later that he should have paid me extra for all the beefs and altercations I got in the middle of. You may think I'm a sucker to put myself out there like that. To me its all I wanted to do was be around poker 24-7. People got to know me not only as a dealer but as a stand up guy. All sorts of people came through there. The action was crazy, with 30 k bad beat jackpots in a underground club. I dealt a jackpot in 97, two straight flushes in a 10-20 limit game. The place went nuts with all the players shares and of course that money came right back in the game. It was a great place to learn the ropes and be around action. This wasn't a tourist game with fresh blood in every hour. A lot of the players were very tight who knew each other for years. The 2-5 pot limit game was a real tough field with plenty of chips on the felt. They waited for fish and gutted them. Whoever it was gypsies, actors, street guys, wall street types and young trust fund babies they usually cleaned them out. With all the pros who came out of that game if you held your own you could play. The field was tough with experienced players. I remember flopping a set against a hooded pro and him putting me all in. I loved playing in that game. Not that I was a consistent winner or anything but I did become a great dealer and that aloud me to take a shot at those big games. So one way or the other I was involved in the action. I actually enjoyed dealing that game and always knowing the bet and how much was in the pot and what they could make it. That's how I became a good dealer by these pros riding me and I didn't like to take shit so I got good real fast. Players from all over the city came and the friends I met there are the friends I have today. I didn't do this alone and the people who helped me along the way from the real knish to the brothers who owned the joint I wouldn't have it any other way.

That's Life Baby

What's up limit players? I am trying to figure out where I am going with this blog. Lets say I have told the story of how I kept limit poker together and strong in NYC. In a really tough time I stayed under the radar and had some great action. Shit happens and you roll with the punches. That's life baby! What are you going to do. Whatever I'm up to right now, swinging a golf club in a warm climate, planning a trip to the series, it doesn't matter because this is as far as I go telling about the present NYC poker scene. I will now start from the beginning of my life in poker . I have been in and out of NYC poker since my first underground club The Diamond Club and it has been a lot of highs and lows since then. I first walked into the club in 1996 and knew right away I would be spending a good part of my life around poker. It became my passion! After a trip to Az. and playing my first casino style poker at Fort McDowell. I fell in love with the game! Wow I am thinking this is the greatest thing in the world 20 something tables going on. I knew that this was for me. Somebody handed me a magazine with a advertisement for poker in NYC, I didn't even know that they had big clubs back home. Social clubs I knew of but those games weren't for me. So when I came back to NYC unfortunately for me I came into a nice chunk of change. I was determined to part with it., When I first started playing hold-em in NYC and I learned the hard way playing till the morning 3 or 4 handed. The players were an eclectic mix of the city, solid people, colorful characters and some not so desirable lowlifes. Who cared? We were in action! The club was a magical place were friendships became lifelong, sure there were hustlers, bookmakers, hardcore gamblers, action junkies and civilians playing poker together but for the most part every one got on fine. The brothers who ran the place were great and a lot of fun to be around, the head one was quite a character and always promoting. A perfect place to get an education for a life in poker. I learned so much on how the place worked without even knowing it I just absorbed everything around me. After going broke a couple of months later I asked the brother if he can teach me to deal, he said some wisecrack about something cause that's the way he was. Big deal I'm a NYC bred street guy with thick skin who knew my way around. Whats he gonna say no? I lost 15k learning 10-20 hold-em when I belonged in the 4-8 limit game in his joint. He gave me a box of VHS instructional tapes from Hollywood Park that showed the proper way to deal . At the time I had a small studio on the beach and I remember staying home in the summer and watching and learning how to deal . Each tape was about ten minutes long showing all of the different technics involved in dealing. After about 2 weeks of practicing I went and auditioned for the head brother and either he liked me or he really needed a live body and the start of my dealing career was born and I loved it. When I first started I was horrible and over the next couple of months I got better and I started making some pretty good coin. The way I played back then the dealer seat was the best place for me and I soaked it up. The action was great 10 tables from 4-8 to 10-20 to 5-5 pot limit and great tournaments we had it all seven nights a week. I loved my life working as a dealer and always in action. Some great NY players either started or passed through there. Honestly it felt like you were part of something special. It was like Cheers where everybody knew your name and when you walked in you knew something exciting was going to happen.

29 ST Part 3

Fall 06 Summer and I am doing well. I always made money for other people now I was doing OK for myself a change. We had a real strong following, it was nice to reap some of the benefits. Right now my biggest problem was saving seats for players, what a slippery slope this turned into. I had this one guy I would save the 5 seat for and this caused me more headaches than I ever imagined. This guy lived about a hour outside the city so I would put chips in the seat and take time accordingly. He came to play 4 or 5 nights a week and stayed to the end playing 3 handed till the game broke. Sometimes he would be running late and my joint would fill up and I would have to tell players that seat was locked up for this guy. They would try to have me extend the same courtesy to them and I would politely say no I'm sorry but I can't do that. That's when the shit hit the fan. I had these two trial lawyers who went nuts on me trying to make me agree to it for them, man the shit they put me through saying they were just as good customers as the 5 seat and I was wrong. Sure they were good customers playing in my game about one 10th of the hours the 5 seat put in. I knew it was a bad beat and finally I backed myself into a corner and told them politely that they didn't have to play in my game. To them it was a matter of principal and I understood where they were coming from but I stuck to my guns on the 5 seat, the funny thing was that the 5 seat was a bigger pain in the ass than anyone in the game but he was great action 4 nights a week. I kept the game running somewhat smoothly, no fist fights, didn't get held up, we even got along with our silent partner. The only problem I had but didn't even know about was the upstairs neighbors, who I found out later felt I was bringing to much traffic to the joint. They had some sort of in-call bordello going on. I used to see their traffic coming and going all night, Wall St. types and lots of hot women. I used to see them on camera, all sorts of freaks going in and out. I was waiting for a donkey and a midget to walk on by! I was never got involved with them, didn't even know who they were upstairs and honestly could care less. A couple of times people would mistakenly ring my buzzer and I would go into the hallway with a brick behind my back ready to smash anyone trying to rob me. Not exactly my weapon of choice but I felt I could handle most situations. The one that I wasn't expecting was one night in Oct. when the buzzer rang and I saw two huskie guys that I did not recognize. This one night I show up early so I go in the hallway with my brick and say you guys must have hit the wrong buzzer and they say no we have the right place. Who the fuck are you and how can I help you? The first guy reaches in his coat and pulls out a gold detective shield and I notice the second guy with a chain around his neck and a bullet proof vest on. All sorts of things are going through my head! What the fuck is this, a raid no, I'm thinking robbery but these guys were definitely on the job. The head guy walks in and pulls me out of view from my game and the other one sits on the couch and says hello to my players like he didn't have a care in the world. The head guy tells me some shit about some major investigation that I am in the middle of and I should close down immediately because when it does happen I am going down hard! I tell them I will finish the night and be gone tomorrow. This sucks, so I get in touch with some guys I know and tell them what just happened we honestly didn't know what to make of it. Real? Not real? This was a big decision we had to make. We consulted a few people and they said it sounds legit. Did I want to get myself marked and always have problems? Or do I look at this as a gift and I can just walk away and move on. We choose to close shop because our players where loyal and would follow our game again. Who knows maybe the next joint I won't be saddled with back stabbing partners.

29 ST Part 2

In a small club I was able to let most players play on the sheet, meaning at the end of the night we settle up. This is a way to protect the players cash if the place gets raided. I was really underground and didn't foresee that happening anytime soon. A couple of times people came up short, lost more than they had with them. A few minor incidents but I kept a tight lid on it. Most of our players we had known for at least 3 or 4 years if not longer. Very rarely I would let someone in who I didn't know. When I did, I let them know that this was a clean run game , no angle shooting, no kitty's, all that garbage that you see in the goulash joints in Queens and Brooklyn. I had a small joint so I didn't want one guy playing and bringing four of his cousins and eating all my food. They aren't paying time , fuck them!
So I kept the lowlifes and brokesters out of the joint. To me I like a well run quiet game, I had neighbors who lived in the building so I had to keep some sense of decorum. We had to keep the yelling and screaming down and let people still have a good time. There are players in the game counting on me to keep it running some what smoothly. So I would lose my cool from time to time over the most ridiculous stuff. It was retarded how people fight over the pettiest shit; seat lock-ups, working stacks, body odor any numerous complaints you can have. What am I to do, all I hope is no one kills anyone for sucking out for a backdoor flush or capping it with 5-2 suited and cracking a set of aces with a wheel. That's limit hold-em! You want them in there anyway drawing to 4 outers on the river. What made the game so great was the action players who showed up on a nightly basis, guys in pajamas showing up after there wives would fall asleep, crazy Asian guys playing 8-3 for 4 bets, a husband and wife who bet like mad and would go crazy betting each other heads up. I myself rarely played against my own players, I didn't need to, maybe to start the game and that's about it. It got to the point where the game filled early and ran through the night some days going into the morning. On one occasion the game wasn't breaking and this insane player had 5 racks of chips, so I fired up the text machine and let players know that this maniac had 5 racks and wasn't going anywhere. People couldn't get there fast enough! The action was exceptional. The people who play limit in NYC are recreational players who are not making a living from just cards, they have jobs or they own businesses. The professional grinder couldn't make a living in my game because the swings were to volatile. One second your up 600 an hour later you could be stuck 900 that's the way the game played. It was a very hard game to beat consistently, the kill button created unbelievable action. To me it makes both the good and weak players play bad. Things are going pretty smoothly but you always have a couple of bumps in the road. One time I let this young kid deal, and he was still involved in a online tournament, while he's dealing he is telling someone else what to do when the action is on him. I am like are you kidding me. This I found very disrespectful towards my players, him worried about a b.s. online tournament when he should be more concerned about dealing my game. I tell him so and he tells me to deal myself, if you know me you know the vein in my neck was about to explode! After he throws the deck he gets up and throws up his hands at me. I knocked him so hard that he went flying across the tray tables into the wall on his ass. I then sat in the dealers chair to finish the down, smoke was coming out of my ears and all I said to my players was that's how you push a dealer!

29 ST Part 1

May 06 This is getting out of hand trying to run a game, what's a poker entrepreneur to do? I am wondering if this is even worth this much aggravation, to me I never made the big money but I somehow got by. I have been putting together limit games for a while now, all I need is a half way decent location and a little luck. A couple of weeks go by when my Russian friend calls me and makes me a nice offer, it turns out he has a space all set up with two tables in a really nice four story walk up, he has chips, security cameras, flat screen T.V.s, the place is perfect to run a limit game. I agree on the terms and he gives us the keys. I tell him we will start Monday, now it's time to go to work and get in touch with all the limit players in the city. The first night was slow but after that I was were off and running, I filled the joint up every night with some of the most maniacal players out there. The game was well run, in a great location and people loved playing there. I had all my regulars and I started picking up a lot of new players. I truly think it was one of the best run limit games ever in the city. Before you knew it I had games go around the clock, real marathons with players showing up at all hours and just loving the action. People were losing 2500 in a 10-20 hk game. It was sick how big the pots were. My club became the place to play if you wanted to play in a crazy limit game, even some of the no limit players liked my game for the amount of chips on the table. Before long I had two tables going on most nights and I also started spreading 15-30 hi-lo and 30-60 on some nights. Limit poker to me is a much better game to spread than no limit because players last a lot longer and I didn't have as much traffic of people coming and going. There was a 24 hour deli right across the street it seemed that the NYPD stopped by there every half an hour. So I really didn't want a lot of people coming and going. No need to draw attention to myself. It felt really good to be a success and not that worried about getting shut down. I had a real good group of regulars and life was good.

another close call

Late April 06, here I am without my own game so I now decide to go work for this egomaniac near 42 st. The first night he fills the joint with 60 players for a 1000 dollar buy in tournament, the place is packed. First of all the place is small, the room can hold maybe 80 people and it's got at least 150 playing and hanging around. It's long and narrow not very spacious, it gets a real big no limit game and a 40-80 limit when the tourney starts breaking down. The place is hopping. Some manager is working the floor ,I am dealing the final table heads up when he walks by and tells me to switch seats. What the fuck are you talking about I am thinking and then I look up and see nothing but NYPD's Finest. They usually lock up anyone caught dealing. It turned out to just be a walk through, a false gun shot hostage b.s. call. When the regular police come in its usually not a raid. Believe me I had been in enough raids to know when they are there to take down the club. Anyway they leave and now its just a matter of time before morals[vice] gets this. The thing about morals is they seem to always raid places at 10 30 pm on Thursdays. I don't know what they do the rest of the week. Now this place is surely on the map. What you need to understand is a lot of these places are already marked by morals. If the landlord is willing to rent out space for poker believe me they have used these spaces for other illegal uses anything from after hours to S.M. clubs to fake Rolex factories. Now I am not really looking to work here anymore after one night, so like anybody else I decide I will play for a living. If you know me you know I can play a bit. I had one of my better months playing and it helped getting hit by the deck in a crazy 30-60 game. About three weeks go by and I am playing 10-20 half kill stuck my balls I am just starting to get even when I noticed Brooklyn not looking well. I had just won a pot when I go to post my kill button when the fucking door blows up! In rush in the E.S.U. police with machine guns and anti terrorist gear screaming for everybody to get on the floor hands in the air. Let me go on record saying having machine guns pointed at you for playing poker is a bit much. In walk the morals police they keep us on the floor for what seemed like 15 minutes, now were laying all over each other I am just hoping I somehow walk out of this. They let us stand and go back to our seats, now if you sat in a dealers chair there was a good chance you were off to central booking. They start asking for I.D.s and interrogating players on who works there, who was dealing, other clubs, shit like that. Most civilians with respectable jobs you have to hit them once to talk and twice to shut up. The police scare the hell out of them. The manager was the first to get cuffed, then a couple of dealers, then they get to me. They asked me wouldn't I feel better if I was back there handcuffed to my friends and I said no thanks I'm fine. Man do these joints keep getting shorter runs I think the cops love these places. No violence, decent people playing cards and they usually walk away with the money and its in the newspaper its a win win for them. This isn't a after hours in the Bronx where there lives are in danger. They seemed a little perplexed that there wasn't much money on hand, that's cause Brooklyn seen them on camera coming up and took about 20 dimes and stuck it in one of the players purses. Most guys wouldn't have been that sharp they would have panicked. Not my boy. They are starting to let the players go home, one at a time giving them back their I.D.s when they get to me, they know me, they call out my complete name, I am ready to go when they tell me its somebody else, they love messing with me. Then they let me go and they all laughed. I am feeling pretty good about not going to jail. But first I went to the local precinct and told the desk sergeant I was in a gambling raid and asked where would my friends be getting processed, whats he going to do lock me up. He tells me downtown some place. My friend Drums and I walked the city that night, even though I had no game or a way to earn I remember telling Drums I wouldn't trade this life for anything my man.