In shocking developments, the Legends Poker Room in Houston has come under fire from a gunman as the unidentified shooter unloaded a hail of bullets into the Texas poker club.
With poker players forced to cower under the very tables they gamble at, a scary yet situation turned miraculous when no-one ended the night injured.
Drive-By Shooting
In what has become a semi-regular occurrence in Texas, the Legends Poker Room experienced a drive-by shooting this week. As the suspect drove past the club after previously entering, several bullets were fired into the building. With the poker population inside peppered with rounds from the unconfirmed weapon, players dive for cover.
Hiding under tables, players watched stunned as bullets flew into the building, thudding into walls and ripping past chairs at a ‘seated’ head height. As the gunman drive away, players rose to their feet and looked around the card room, stunned to see that not one player had been harmed.
Witnesses told of bullets flying past their heads as they dropped to the floor and took cover, with police arriving on the scene half an hour after the incident had apparently concluded. The cops stayed there for some time to collect statements, discovering around two dozen shell casings at the property.
Chaos at the Cash Desk
According to anonymous sources who spoke to PokerNews, the suspect in question was at the cash desk when a dispute provoked the attack. Having been asked to leave after looking suspicious at the desk, he left only to return 15 minutes later, armed and most definitely dangerous.
Shooting into the building on Richmond Avenue in Houston, Texas, the suspect unloaded almost two dozen bullets into the popular poker room, with players and staff alike ducking for cover and shielding themselves for their lives. With the bullets entering the room at around a height of one meter off the ground, the danger to human life was shockingly real.
One television screen got cracked as the bullets found only inanimate objects, thumping into the brick dust and missing patrons. Some players cashed out immediately, but incredibly, others returned to the felt and were only too happy to be dealt back into the action.
A History of Drama at Legends
Former WSOP Main Event runner-up Sammy Farha was hit by a dealer after an altercation.
It’s only a fortnight since another shooting just across the way from Legends at a Houston barbershop, but while the suspect from that incident remains at large, there’s no cause to suspect it could be the same person. Just three months ago, Legends was under attack in a huge way when their security guard Trelynn ‘Tek’ Robinson foiled an armed robbery with the kind of selfless bravery that has since become local legend.
Since that day, other Legends players have experienced robberies of their person after exiting the club with profits. Just last week, one elderly patron got into a fight in the car lot and died of a cardiac arrest thereafter. It is only a few months since former WSOP Main Event runner-up Sammy Farha was hit by a dealer after an altercation at the felt spilt over outside. A recent raid on another Texas cardroom, Top Shelf, by county authorities caused more than a few easily readable poker faces on the fluctuating state of play in the state.
Despite these multiple incidents that you might suspect would put even the most passionate poker off their three-bets, Legends remains both open and busy, although rumors as to exactly how much money is on the line persist, with ‘house’ players rumored to be part of the venue’s attraction.
Whatever the truth about the latest incident at Legends, two games were running in the aftermath of the shooting, while the day after, there were 15 cash games underway with no shortage of players looking to take a seat. Don’t let anyone tell you that live poker is dead.
