The Dollar Dances On Our Asses

Where little dogs wear suits and ties

Fried Oreos

ready to eat
Originally uploaded by spies.

Josh and I found a recipe for fried oreos while looking for photos of oreos to photoshop and email to our Vegas email list.

Out of sheer boredom and tilt from busting out of the $215 tournament on Party, we decided to make them tonight.

This flickr set has our step by step instructions.

Our apartment is totally saturated with nasty oil now, and I feel a little sick, but that shit tasted soooo good. Just don't say I didn't warn you.

Playstation Busted, gg nh

Here is the article from the NYTimes about the Playstation being raided.

Playstation is a club in NYC where we all play poker. We hate the playstation. The guy who runs the place is a total asshole. The place is decorated like a bus station, and at times it feels like one with all the derranged players that hang out there.

But sometimes cool shit happens there, and I certainly have plenty of good memories of the Playstation, like winning 3 grand in the pot limit holdem game and playing 10-20 with Paul Rudd and three final tables in the Sunday tournaments. Even though on its best day it was nothing like the Diamond Club on its worse, its still another tragedy in the NY Poker scene.

This article was especially hilarious, in that it scoops all the other NYC papers on reporting that Playstation served us with Chips Ahoy and Oreo cookies.

Well, its true I suppose. The paper of record. How about that?

It certainly spawned a new gag among the upper west side game.

Who needs Playstation anyway? We're headed to Vegas.

The New York Times
May 28, 2005
2 Manhattan Poker Parlors Are Raided and 39 Are Arrested
By JENNIFER 8. LEE

The police raided two of the city's largest underground poker parlors late Thursday night, arresting 39 employees and charging them with promoting gambling. Police officials described the raid as part of a campaign to counter the growing number of illicit poker establishments in the city.

In coordinated sweeps, more than a dozen police officers stormed two Manhattan poker casinos: Playstation at 4-6 West 14th Street and New York Players Club at 200 West 72nd Street. At the time of the raids, about 11 p.m ., there were between 100 and 150 players at each casino, the police said. Only employees of the parlors, however, were arrested. Prosecutors said it was not illegal to play poker in New York State, only to profit from promoting it.

The casinos were members-only establishments that drew thousands of players weekly, among them men and women including cabdrivers, businessmen and actors. The management kept records of who came to play and new members could join only if they were referred by current members.

Neither establishment served alcohol. At Playstation, members were served Oreo and Chips Ahoy! cookies. New York Players Club offered its customers valet parking and massages. Games would go until 7 a.m. or around the clock on weekends, the police said. Tournament prizes could be as much as $10,000. The most popular game was Texas hold'em, a version of poker that many say requires the most skill and the least luck. The clubs were incorporated businesses that followed fire codes, the police said.

But the police and prosecutors asserted that the operations were nonetheless illegal, and the more than three dozen employees were charged with possession of gambling instruments as well as promoting gambling.

Lt. Pasquale Morena, who oversees special investigations in the Police Department's vice squad, said the parlors would bring in between $20,000 and $30,000 a night in fees that they charged their players to play. The police, he said, recovered $100,000 in Thursday night's raids.

"We realized that this was the start of a problem because there is lots of money involved," Lieutenant Morena said. "We don't know where the profits from the gambling are going."

Waves of police raids have followed the explosive popularity of poker across the country, including the arrests of 70 people in Passaic County, N.J., last month.

The decision to raid poker clubs walking a finer line with local laws has caused concern for lawmakers and individuals who believe that law enforcement authorities are overreaching and prosecuting legitimate recreational activity.

Many clubs, for instance, say that as long as they are simply renting space and not taking in a percentage of the money wagered, they are the equivalent of billiard halls.

And some members and an employee of the two raided poker casinos in Manhattan made just that case, saying members paid to rent space by the half-hour - $5 at Playstation and $4 at New York Players Clubs.

"It was done in every way like a legitimate business; you crossed your t's and dotted your i's," said an employee of Playstation, who was not among those arrested, but did not want to be identified.

People with alcohol on their breath were barred at the door, the woman said. The company had a payroll, deducted social security taxes and gave its employees health insurance, she said. "I can get unemployment," she added.

But the police said even the rental fees the clubs charged are illegal and amount to promoting gambling. Lieutenant Morena said the clubs also took a percentage of the tournament proceeds.

Janon Fisher and Daniel J. Wakin contributed reporting for this article.

Vegas Fever

WSOP is coming



every year around wsop time i start getting poker on the brain. vegas fever. it infects all of us, my whole group of friends. we start calling each other just to talk about the upcoming trip, about poker, about gambling, about whatever... anything feels like getting a head start on our yearly pilgrimage, our yearly adventure out in sin city.

this year promises to be unlike any other. the wsop will be capped at 6600 players. it will be larger than life, a small fucking city posing as a poker tournament. im still frantically trying to win my way in to the main event, and furiouslly practicing my tournament skills in preparation for the action out in vegas.

i will, as i do every year, post daily updates on rec.gambling.poker newsgroup, and maybe to this blog as well. after its all over, check the poker page i linked above for the full recap and some incriminating photos.

wish me luck.