My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

Ok, I don't host it, but its my regular Wednesday night game. I've played in it every Wednesday night barring vacations and occaisional conflicts for the past ten months.

And the only reason I wasn't there Wednesday, was I was blowing it off in favor of the Duke/Carolina game (to those of you who think that's screwed up priorities, I am a graduate of the finer of those two institutions...ya don't miss that game).

So Wed, no one of my rare no-shows to the game, three guys come in with guns and robbed it.

It's only a lousy .50/1.00 NL game for Christs sake. They made off with about 700 bucks. I'm aware of a half dozen much more lucrative higer stackes games around town just off the top of my head.

It really makes me sick to think that one of the players might have set that up. We have a pretty good pool of players. On any give night the game goes from 8pm to 4 am or later and we get at least 14 guys filtering through (about a quarter of the time we get enought at one time to break into two tables, the rest of the time guys leave and other guys come) so I expect that translates at least 40 and maybe more folks who play in it at least occaissionally and a small core of us who are there every time. So that's a lot of people who know about it.

My wife, by the way, is completely freaking out about it.

The other thing that sucks is that we have a regular thursday night league tourney, hosted at another place, which I don't play in much because I like playing cash better, but I showed up for thursday because of my Wed conflict, and the host had canceled that game because there is a ton of overlap between the players in that game and the one that got robbed and he was understandably nervous.

I have more to say, but I'm going to stop. I'm incredibly depressed. My weekly game is now dead (understandably, the host doesn't want to do it anymore) and I don't have a game to take its place. Because of job and family obligations, I only get out to play live once a week. And, while I know a great 1/2 game on Friday nights, I don't think its fair to my family to be gone every friday night.

Anyway, no advise or cautionary tale or anything, I just want to vent.

--Zetack

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

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My wife, by the way, is completely freaking out about it.


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Standard.

Sucks you lost your game. If the guys playing are shady enough to set up a robbery for a game that small, you dont want to be playing with them anyways.

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

dude that blows. Something leaked out from someone in the game i'd say...

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

That was convenient you "decided" to skip out. I guess your share of the $700 wasn't worth it now that the game's dead huh?

Just kidding, that sucks man.

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

Why I stopped going to the "home game" near me:

Some of the hosts were doing lines of coke before the game.
Some old guy (60s - this is a game of college students) was selling white pills and beef jerky on the table
I inquire to one of my friends where these kids get their money. I am told "You don't want to know."

I, personally, am drug free and I have never done illegal drugs, so this all really bothers me.

This late 30s black thuggish looking guy keeps coming to watch. He's friendly so I don't think anything of it. Eventually one night someone asks him what he does.


His response?
"I just got out of 11 years of jail for armed robbery. I robbed a jewelry store."

This game usually has total cash holdings of 4-5 grand.

I'm never going back.

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

After a few days, when you are ready to talk about it, I have some questions for you. The answers might help other home games think about security:

1) Is the area the game was in a more likely robbery target than others? Would you have been as likely to get carjacked or mugged on the street?

2) How was the game advertised? Since it was every Wednesday, was that an easily-discovered fact (by the volume of cars)?

3) How were new players brought into the game?

I'd want to chase down the possibly source of this and (kill) cut off the robbers (maim). It could (destroy) happen again, at different area games. You don't want to let that happen, if possible.

Tough break for them, lucky break for you (except for the game death).

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

That is bad. Definitely one of the reasons I've been hesitant to join any home games around me. It's hard to justify walking into a strangers house with a few hundred or so on your person when you know no one.

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

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That is bad. Definitely one of the reasons I've been hesitant to join any home games around me. It's hard to justify walking into a strangers house with a few hundred or so on your person when you know no one.

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Ah, THAT explains it! Of course, we're not that close to you... so what's the deal? :P

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

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This late 30s black thuggish looking guy keeps coming to watch.


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Doesn't every home game have a late 30s, black, thuggish looking guy railbirding that just got out of an 11 year stint for armed robbery?

So, so standard.

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

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Some old guy (60s - this is a game of college students) was selling white pills and beef jerky on the table.

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FYI: That wasn't beef jerky.

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

Oh wow, that sucks. I was just today thinking about security at my game. We have about the situation you describe, except 25c/50c, and usually about $1200 in the room. I always figure there are enough of us that just some brutes wouldn't be able to pull anything, but if someone wanted the purse, hey, take it, you need it more than I do.

I am in a mildly not-friendly place after dark. I'm in a back house through a gate and a yard, perhaps I should put up a combo lock. Wouldn't stop someone setting it up, but would cut down on randomness.

It's entirely possible the offenders merely overheard someone talking about the game. Sickening to think someone involved set it up. I don't think any of my current crew would do that. So far the biggest danger is keeping sharks at bay.

I hope the game's able to get together. Pare it down to only trusted people. You're not the only one who wants to play. Change the location, tighten security measures, keep it private. In time, it'll grow again.

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

[ QUOTE ]
After a few days, when you are ready to talk about it, I have some questions for you. The answers might help other home games think about security:

1) Is the area the game was in a more likely robbery target than others? Would you have been as likely to get carjacked or mugged on the street?

2) How was the game advertised? Since it was every Wednesday, was that an easily-discovered fact (by the volume of cars)?

3) How were new players brought into the game?

I'd want to chase down the possibly source of this and (kill) cut off the robbers (maim). It could (destroy) happen again, at different area games. You don't want to let that happen, if possible.

Tough break for them, lucky break for you (except for the game death).

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Larry, unfortunately, there isn't anything really obvious to do on this one to make it safer.

The area seems decent, its in a brand new development, either a condo or townhouse or something, with no real drive by traffic other than people going to or from their houses in the development. Wasn't particularly near any bad areas either. I'd say no chance of carjacking or mugging anywhere near the game.

2. The volume of cars was not something that I think would've given the game away, there were plenty of parking spaces and everybody pretty much fit into a space. It wasn't one of those, the cars spill out of the driveway and all up and down the street situations. The only way a robber would have heard about this game is from somebody playing in it.

There was no advertisement, it was all word of mouth. The host for a while (and may still have been, I'm not sure) was giving players a who brought a new player a bonus of 10% of the starting player's first buy-in (up to ten dollar bonus). Players who came got on his cell phone or email list and got a text msg or email before every game. No other advertising.

3. New players either came with somebody or called and said hey I know so and so. So it was all referals but there wasn't any kind of strict, somebody's got to vouch for you kind of thing.


Other points you didn't ask about. The players were predominantly college kids or college age with a smattering of older dudes like me.

No real obvious suspects. We have one major (at least by our standards) gangster but quite frankly, 700 bucks split four ways would't be particularly interesting to him, and I'm sure he wouldn't want to kill the game either, he just likes the action. Not to mention that his federal probation officer would probably frown on it.

A couple of kids like to show up having taken a few bars (ah the slang we learn hanging out with the kids these days) and drink beer, generally not much alcohol drinking other than those two guys though.

There was one pretty obnoxious kid who liked to hit and run, but was such a chip spewer that he rarely got the opportunity. And the fact that he was kind of a jerk doesn't really make him a suspect.

The three robbers were apparently black guys, which is suspicious only because we don't have many black guys on our list (for some reason we actually have more chineese guys playing than black guys). One of our fairly infrequent guys (he started up his own game and doesn't show up at ours much anymore) is a big scary looking black dude, but it turns out he's a really nice guy so its hard to imagine him setting us up. He has a cousin, though, who's played with us a handful of times who is a bit of a punk and has been in some trouble with the law and spent some time in jail. He'd be a good one to be suspicious of, but I've played with him in three or four different games going back a year and a half, never had any trouble with him, or heard of anybody having any trouble with him, and he absolutely knows of games around town with much more money on the table and no more security than we have. So that doesn't make sense. And we certainly had no reason to bar him. Heck, If anybody had asked I would've said he's fine based on my prior experience in other games.

The game had a small rake (10% capped at three dollars). Host provided food and drinks but no alcohol (you could BYOB) and asked folks not to smoke pot outside the apartment.

He started off just running a Wed game and then went to Mon and Wed and had just recently added a Friday night 1/2 game.

It was a real nice, small limit, friendly game. With no real obvious security problems other than a large player base and widespread word of mouth about the game.


So I don't really think I have advice for anybody. Just one of those fluke things I think, word getting into the wrong person's ear. Hard to avoid when you depend on word of mouth to keep your game thriving.



--Zetack

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

Honestly, it sounds like too many people knew about this game. Figure every one of the players (especially the college kids) told at least 3 of their friends and then multiply how many of those people passed that information on. Once you go past the one table, same players game you open your game up to these kind of attacks. I'm not sure if there's anything you can do to prevent this except for making the new game smaller.

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

HS home game security = dog in the yard + security system with accessible panic button + couple regulars who can carry + 911 on speed dial...

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

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[ QUOTE ]
2) How was the game advertised? 3) How were new players brought into the game?

[/ QUOTE ] The host for a while (and may still have been, I'm not sure) was giving players a who brought a new player a bonus of 10% of the starting player's first buy-in (up to ten dollar bonus).

3. New players either came with somebody or called and said hey I know so and so. So it was all referals but there wasn't any kind of strict, somebody's got to vouch for you kind of thing.

The game had a small rake (10% capped at three dollars). Host provided food and drinks but no alcohol

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Offering that 10% bonus seems to me like it could be problematic. It provides a monetary incentive to tell people about the game which could inhibit discretion.

Perhaps getting someone to vouch for new players wouldn't be a bad idea.

You consider 10% to $3 a small rake? 10% is a huge rake. The host of this game must be making some profit from it unless he is putting out one hell of a spread. That factor is at odds with excercising discretion in who comes to the game too.

I think those three factors made this particular game more at risk that it could otherwise have been.

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

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You consider 10% to $3 a small rake? 10% is a huge rake. The host of this game must be making some profit



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Given that I like to play big pots and there's not dealer tipping, yeah not too bad. Of course he's making some money, the large outlay for some pretty nice paulsons, table, and chairs, notwithstanding.

Perhaps it just seems like a small rake to me, though, in comparison to my favorite local 1/2 NL game, which I don't get to play in much due to scheduling issues, which has a (bend over and spread-em) cap of nine bucks on the rake AND has dealer tipping. And that's still a great, juicy juice of a game.

--Zetack

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

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couple regulars who can carry

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Not to jack this thread too much, but I don't think that if three dudes showed up with guns I would really want players pulling out their guns as well.

http://restauratrice.altervista.org/jules.jpg

"Now when you yell at me, it makes me nervous. And when I get nervous, I get scared. And when motherfers get scared, that's when motherfers accidentally get shot."

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

Couple of Mossbergs with some 00 buck or even slugs in plain view might go a long way to discourage things like this.

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You consider 10% to $3 a small rake?

[/ QUOTE ]Given that I like to play big pots and there's not dealer tipping, yeah not too bad. Of course he's making some money, the large outlay for some pretty nice paulsons, table and chairs, notwithstanding. Perhaps it just seems like a small rake to me in comparison to my favorite local 1/2 NL game which has a cap of nine bucks AND dealer tipping.

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It's a small rake compared to a casino or card club I guess, but it seems like a big rake for a home game...big enough to take it out of the Friendly-Bunch-of-Guys catagory and into the Host-Is-Running-a-Game-For-Profit catagory. He's probably pulling in about $50/hour before expenses I'd guess. Cheers.

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

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Couple of Mossbergs with some 00 buck or even slugs in plain view might go a long way to discourage things like this.

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If anyone would try to rob my homegame, it would be buck buck for them.

Who said tehy had $1200 at a 25/50c game? $600 would have been the biggest night ever at mine.

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

this is almost always a setup. The problem is at these home games you get idiots who can't handle losing - sometimes for amounts as trivial as $5-$20 and then [censored] like this happens

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

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this is almost always a setup. The problem is at these home games you get idiots who can't handle losing - sometimes for amounts as trivial as $5-$20 and then [censored] like this happens

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Hi,
Is you comment anectodal or is there a specific occurance you have knowledge of?

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

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Couple of Mossbergs with some 00 buck or even slugs in plain view might go a long way to discourage things like this.

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If anyone would try to rob my homegame, it would be buck buck for them.

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I mention slugs because we would want to lessen the chance of harming legit clientele and theres always the hope of less property damage [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

It's amazing how cowardly would be thieves become when they notice their mark is armed.

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

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[ QUOTE ]
couple regulars who can carry

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Not to jack this thread too much, but I don't think that if three dudes showed up with guns I would really want players pulling out their guns as well.

http://restauratrice.altervista.org/jules.jpg

"Now when you yell at me, it makes me nervous. And when I get nervous, I get scared. And when motherfers get scared, that's when motherfers accidentally get shot."

[/ QUOTE ]



brilliant

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

I play at two home games around town. One of them is $1/2 NL that usually has between $3K and $10K on the table at one time. The other game I play at is a .5/1 NL with usually around $1k on the table.
Recently at the .5/1 game I've heard stories about the ridiculous amounts of money at the 1/2 game, which are true.
The game is in an apartment in a location out of the way. The only way to get into the game is if someone vouches for you. However, because of the amount of money, plus all the money that players carry on them, I'm worried that it will be robbed eventually. Is there anything security-wise that I can mention to the host, or is there anything I can do?

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

its real easy, its called LOCKING THE DOOR. we run a game out here and never have any problems. Hows someone gunna walk into your house and rob you when there is only one way in and one way out? Wont happen if the door is locked

Re: My Effin Home Game Got Robbed!
 

It's always nice to have some cop buddies that like to play cards.