Blf Social Club Poker Run
Federal authorities say the Donato Social Club, center, at 188 Grant St., is a “front for a casino-style gambling business.” middle-aged buddies kill time playing cards and swapping stories about the old days on Buffalo's West Side. Sign-up for the poker run begins at 9 a.m. Then kickstands go up and vehicles will be off at 10:30, rain or shine. All vehicles are welcome, though making the rounds to all five stops without considerable engine power would likely be tough, as they are spread over a 70-mile course, Greenberg said. The Viking Breed motorcycle social club poker runs raises thousands for Inverell Cancer Support Group - General News Biker News Network.
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In less than two weeks, the Prime Social Club in Houston, Texas will play host to the inaugural Lonestar Poker Series, which will run October 23-November 1. PokerNews will be offering daily live updates from the series, and you can see the full schedule at the bottom of this article.
In the meantime, I wanted to take a look at the rise of poker in my hometown as the aptly-named Texas hold’em has changed so much in Texas over the past 15 years. While I currently live in Las Vegas and love to frequent rooms on and off the Strip, I grew up and fell in love with poker in Houston.
One day, my dad and I were driving down West Gray in the River Oaks area of Houston when we passed a bar called “The Tavern”. They had a large vinyl sign out front that said “Free Weekly Poker Games on Tuesdays and Thursdays!” That was enough to get us to stop and check it out.
Bar Leagues & Underground Poker
National Pub Poker League (NPPL) was the company partnered with the bar hosting these weekly events. You didn’t have to buy-in but they suggested purchasing food or beverage from the venue and if you did, you were rewarded with extra chips for the nightly tournament. The last man or woman standing was awarded a card protector (I still have one that I won) or a branded t-shirt. It was here where I made my first friends in poker and really grew to love the game.
'If you had accidentally walked in, you would be immediately escorted out.'
Before long, I ventured into the underground poker scene. One room I remember well was the “Ring Room” in downtown Houston. This room was blocks away from the Toyota Center where the Rockets play basketball. What appeared to be a boxing gym with a small parking lot had a second door that opened to a basement room.
Cameras were on the parking lot and faced the door to view anyone approaching this unmarked door. Once the remote locked door was open to you, you found yourself inside a large cage. A room full of poker tables and big-screen TVs were able to be seen but you could not access them until someone from management came over and spoke with you. If you had accidentally walked in, you would be immediately escorted out.
Otherwise, you had to have someone on the inside speak up for you and bring you into the game. This was my first experience with a room like this and it was my favorite of the underground venues I’d come to visit occasionally. Boxing matches or MMA fights would frequently be on the televisions and the games were pretty serious.
Becoming a Legitimate Enterprise
Today, poker has a new life in Houston and it’s in the sunlight instead of being in the shadows. Prime Social is one of many poker clubs in the city that offer Houstonians the opportunity to play the game they love without having to stress out about the fears that once enveloped the game there just a few years ago.
Gambling isn’t illegal in a private establishment if there is no rake taken from each dealt hand of poker. With this information, these private poker clubs have produced a unique transaction. You are able to purchase a membership and rent a seat at the poker table in the game of your choice. Once there, you can play without having any money taken from the hands.
Prime Social is in a great situation with confident leadership in Brent Pollack, who has been in Houston for three years but built a strong reputation in the industry while living and working in Las Vegas for over a decade. Starting at the Gold Coast, Pollack’s career took him to Stations Casino poker rooms and Caesars Palace as well. Pollack and his team have worked hard to create a “Vegas Casino Experience” for their customers.
“My goal was to get the procedures correct. I wanted our room to be completely transparent and offer true professionalism to show our players what was available,” Pollack told PokerNews.
With Prime Social in a good position, they’ve decided to expand their offerings. Pollack and well-respected player Kim Stone have teamed up to create the inaugural Lone Star Poker Series, which offers over $300K in guarantees and 16 tournaments including NLH, Omaha, HORSE, and a “Triple Triple Draw” event featuring a mix of 2-7TD, A-5TD, and Badugi.
Catching Up with Kim Stone
Last year, as Houston poker was growing, Stone was surprised by how backwards things were in the tournament area. They were available but didn’t seem to focus on the right things. She wanted an established tour like Run It Up Reno or the Run Good Poker Series to come to town because they offered such a fun experience. However, because of the vague Texas laws, the tours wanted to wait.
Stone, having been in the business for 16+ years, decided not to wait but instead create the experience on her own. The Lone Star Poker Series will be geared towards bringing a professional tournament environment with great structures, and seasoned tournament staff like Tournament Director Justin Hammer.
“I just want to show that we can offer a series in a market that doesn’t have any kind of real professionally run poker events and I can bring it on a professional level while bringing in additional pieces that will make it fun,” said Stone.
Lone Star Poker Series will have 16 “Lone Star Champions” who will be awarded engraved handmade money clips featuring the name of the tournament they won. In addition to these prizes, the Kickoff Event and PLO Championship Event will step up and include a unique Trophy Buckle while the Lone Star Main Event will award a sterling silver Trophy Buckle.
Houston has had a unique experience when it comes to poker but with rooms like Prime Social and events like Lone Star Poker Series, the future of poker in Texas looks bright.
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7 charged with illegal gambling say it's just fun.
By DAN HERBECK
Buffalo News Staff Reporter
3/28/00
| BILL WIPPERT/Buffalo News Federal authorities say the Donato Social Club, center, at 188 Grant St., is a “front for a casino-style gambling business.” |
The FBI and U.S. attorney's office call the club something else: a front for a 'casino-style gambling business.'
Ultimately, a jury may decide, as seven men from Buffalo and Tonawanda - including one who is 76 years old - face felony gambling charges in connection with the club at 188 Grant St.
A federal grand jury recently indicted the seven men after a lengthy investigation that included the installation of hidden recording devices and video cameras in the social club.
Charged with conspiracy to run an illegal gambling business are: John 'Johnny Catz' Catanzaro, 57, of Norwalk Avenue; Donald Panepinto, 58, of Brighton Road, Town of Tonawanda; Frank 'Babe' Mambrino, 64, and his son, Carmen Mambrino, 30, both of Lovering Avenue; Joseph 'Peppers' DiGioia, 76, of Claremont Avenue; Annuncio 'Rod' Cannizzaro, 66, of Cottage Street; and Robert Chimera, 63, of Linden Avenue.
Prosecutors also have filed court papers seeking forfeiture of the building, a former children's clothing store located near Grant and Lafayette avenues.
'The indictment charges the defendants with running poker, ziganette (an Italian card game) and dice games, both on the premises at 188 Grant St. . . . and at stags run at various locations in the area, from March to early September of 1999,' said Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony M. Bruce.
According to law enforcement officials, the amount of money gambled in the club was in the thousands of dollars, and some of the figures involved with the club have ties to organized crime.
Catanzaro is a former Laborers Local 210 official who served prison time after his 1990 conviction in a no-show job scheme. In December, the U.S. Justice Department called him a 'made member' in Buffalo's Mafia family.
Despite the criminal charges, the social club and its members have some supporters among business people and residents of the Grant Street area.
Some of the supporters claim the FBI is trying to turn a harmless series of dice and poker games into something out of 'The Godfather' or 'Good Fellas.'
Blf Social Club Poker Runner
'We have some serious crime problems in this neighborhood - including drugs, panhandlers and prostitution. But there's nothing that goes on in that club that spills out into the neighborhood,' said Dwayne Robinson, president of a neighborhood block club known as the Ferguson Street United Residents Group. 'From everything I can see, they're just some older gentlemen who like to play cards.'
Three neighborhood business people made similar comments on Monday.
'To me, that social club is an asset to the community, not a problem,' said James Lorigo, who runs the Meating Place, a butcher's shop across the street from the social club.
'They took over the property and completely renovated it. They keep up the property. At night, the lights are on. These men, they keep an eye on things in the community. We have gangs roaming the streets around here at night - that's what the authorities should be cracking down on.'
Similar comments came from Ronald Charlton, who is renovating a medical building in the neighborhood, and Nick LaFornara, who runs a barber shop two doors away from the social club.
'I see prostitution and drug dealers openly operating in this neighborhood, and you're telling me they're hustling these old guys for playing cards? What about the casino across the river, making millions?' Charlton said. 'They're harmless, in my eyes. I'm 55, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone in the place who wasn't older than me.'
All seven suspects pleaded innocent in the case before U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie G. Foschio.
The government case is blown way out of proportion, according to defense lawyers Joel L. Daniels and John P. Pieri, who represents Carmen and Frank Mambrino. Carmen Mambrino owns the social club building.
Nobody was making big money on the gambling, said Pieri, who has known several of the suspects since he was a youngster growing up on the West Side.
'The government has told us they have 300 hours of audio and videotapes. It's very boring information about people doing nothing,' Pieri said. 'From what I understand, if there were a few hundred bucks on the table for the whole night, that would be a lot. A small part of that was put aside to pay for rent and food at the social club.
'The government's perception of 'Good Fellas' is something the government tries to enhance. I think you have too many FBI agents sitting around with nothing to do. They send them to go out and bust up a $2 card game.'
Not true, according to Bruce and Paul M. Moskal, spokesman for the Buffalo FBI office.
While declining to discuss specifics about the case, Moskal said illegal gambling operations have caused many problems in Western New York, going back decades.
'Much of the illegal gambling that goes on in Western New York does tie in to organized crime,' Moskal said. 'Illegal gambling, over the years, has cost society hundreds of millions of dollars. We're not trying to say every person who gambles is a criminal. At first blush, an operation like this might seem harmless, but we've seen operations like this lead to loansharking, extortion, gambling addictions. We've seen families ruined.'
Lorigo said some of the men associated with the social club told him that FBI agents are targeting the club in an effort to secure information about bigger organized crime operations in Buffalo.
'I can tell you exactly what happened,' Lorigo said. 'The FBI went to these guys and said, 'We want you to snitch on some other people.' I think they're disturbing the wrong people.'
Moskal declined to comment on Lorigo's remarks.
Blf Social Club Poker Run Games
'The law is the law,' Moskal said. 'Congress makes the laws. Our job is enforcement.'