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.