Amarillo Slim Robbed at Gun Point

According to Amarillo.com the Texas News Site,
Thomas Austin “Amarillo Slim” Preston Jr.
was robbed on Sunday night. He returned
home after a night out to find two men, armed
with Slim’s own shotgun, waiting to rob him.

This all comes 4 months after a robber shot
at his pickup truck striking it with 2 bullets.
“I told him, I said now ‘Pull the trigger on
that damn thing or put it down,’” Preston said,
recalling the robbery at his home Sunday night.
“I said ‘I don’t feel real comfortable with that
shotgun pointed at me.’”

But it isn’t the trauma of the robbery that has Preston, a famous poker player and gambler, worried, he said. It is a prized belt buckle he had made in Seattle more than 40 years ago.

The belt buckle has “Amarillo Slim”
emblazoned on it in platinum along
with jade. Slim is willing to pay big money
to get this belt buckle back. Fortunately,
Preston was not hurt during the robbery.
“Nobody in the world is going to wear it,”
he said. “They are going to either melt it
or throw it away. Just tell me where it is
and I’ll go get it.” The robbers also made
off with two shotguns and a large amount
of cash he had on him, Preston said.
He would not say exactly how much.

This is the 2nd incident Slim has had
with robbers in the past 4 months.
On October 4th, he was cut off by robbers
who demanded cash from him at gun point.
Slim declined, slamming his car into
reverse, which led to the robbers firing
3 rounds at his car.

Preston said he had been watching
a Los Angeles Lakers-San Antonio Spurs
game Sunday afternoon at a friend’s home.
But when he walked into his home about
6 p.m., he saw two men, one masked
and the other unmasked, in his apartment
with his shotguns in their hands.
“They were just waiting for me to
come in,” Preston said.

The masked robber then told Preston
he was going to kill him, Preston said,
which spurred a profanity-laced retort
from Preston. The masked man then
took one of Preston’s shotguns and
shoved it into his belly, Preston said.

“The man without the mask didn’t
abuse me at all,” he said. “He was
damn near cordial.” The two men then
stripped Preston and tied his hands
and feet with three bolo ties they found
in his apartment, and told him to lay down
on the floor, a request Preston did not
want to comply with.

Preston, who has a pacemaker, said he
didn’t want to be placed on the cold floor,
and face the risk of no one coming by to
check on him. So the robbers decided to
put him on the couch, Preston said,
with the masked robber saying he was
going to get a pillow. “I thought that
was the end,” Preston said.

“There is just one reason to go get a pillow.
A shotgun makes some noise. You put that
pillow over (that weapon) and pull the trigger,
you are going to hear nothing. It’s not
a good feeling.” Preston said while the
robbers took a large amount of money
off him, he was just worried about surviving.
“Money is just how you keep score,” he said.
“It was of secondary importance.”

Preston said he was able to loosen the ties
around his hands and feet and went to his
apartment complex’s office, where
a woman there called police, he said.
“I probably would have never called
(the police),” he said.

Despite this traumatic incident, Preston
said he has no plans to move from Amarillo.
“I am too old to let some pimp, drug dealer,
dopehead make me do that,” Preston said.
“I have been advised to, but I am going
to stay right where I am, and I want
everyone to know it.”

Amarillo Slim said anyone who has information
about the robbery or the buckle should call
Amarillo Crime Stoppers at (806) 374-4400
or the APD Detective Division at (806) 378-4251.

No more Tony G Poker for USA

Tony G Poker Closes Doors To U.S. Players

Tony G Poker will be closing its doors
to U.S. Players. According to a post on
PokerWorks by Tony G, the hand of the
U.S. government has left them with
no other choice, but to stop allowing
U.S. players on their site.

In his post, Tony G says:

“I feel very sad for all of you good
folks in the USA but your government
is very aggressive right now and is
running loose. $55 million dollars in
Neteller money has been seized from
people that have done nothing wrong.
Who knows if and when it will be
returned to the people it belongs to.
And where will the government stop in
its quest to wipe out internet poker?”

This news release comes only a few days
after an annoucement was made that the
FBI has freezed Neteller accounts.

Tony G Poker is continuing to work
with U.S. players to get the money
out of their accounts. They have
provided the following instructions
on how to remove your money:

“*The only way possible to withdraw
your funds from Tony G. Poker at this
time is by doing the following:
1) Transfer your funds to Tony,
his player id is “Tony G”
2) Once the transfer is complete,
send an email to “support@tonygpoker.com”
detailing the amount you transferred,
your player id, and one of the three
accounts you would like your funds
transferred to: UltimateBet, FullTilt,
or PokerStars - also giving your player
ID on the site you want your funds
transferred to. Regrettably, there is
no banking option open at this time
since everything is being closed to
USA citizens and the government’s
strong arm tactics of protecting our
borders from poker has removed yet
another freedom.”

Will's note: Bravo to Tony G. Many other online rooms have simply chosen to freeze players accounts, holding their money without any stated future plans on if/when they will return it.

No More Paradise Poker

Sportingbet effectively closing down
Paradise Poker Sat, 10 Feb 2007

The British online gambling group
Sportingbet.com has had to make some
tough business decisions regarding its
poker operations, culminating this week
in the announcement that it will effectively
be closing its Paradise Poker.com platform
at a cost of some GBP55 million (US$107million).

The company intends to transfer Paradise
players to its existing Boss Media-managed
Sportingbet poker platform. Facilitating the
move, Sportingbet has extended its contract
with Boss for for a further three years of
both poker and casino services.

Explaining the numbers that led to the decision,
Sportingbet CEO Andrew McIver said in the
three months to October 2006, rake from the
Boss platform amounted to GBP4.3 million,
up 72 percent year-on-year. By comparison,
Paradise Poker generated rake of
GBP3.8 million from non-US players in the
same period, up only 9 percent year-on-year.
Average daily active money players on both
systems amounted to around 6 500, with yield
per active player approximately 60 percent higher
on the Boss platform due to its bigger action.

"This deal combines all our poker players in
one destination, maximizing liquidity whilst
reducing the complexity of running two
separate poker operations. The addition
of the Paradise Poker players to the Boss
poker network will make the Boss network
one of the largest in Europe," McIver explained.

"By combining all poker players in one network
we aim to maximize yields," a spokesman said.
Sportingbet will retain the Paradise poker brand
and migrate all Paradise players to Boss
"in due course" the announcement said.
The combination of the two poker businesses
will provide some cost savings for the group,
however this will be offset to some extent by
the loss of revenue that may occur as a result
of migrating players from one platform to another.

Investor reaction to the move will not be
long in coming - Sportingbet will announce its
results for the second quarter on 28 February.
The deal is good news for Boss Media.
Johan Berg, Chief Executive Officer said:
"The partnership with Sportingbet is material
to the success of Boss Media and is one very
important reason that we are one of the leading
providers of e-Gaming software. The strengthened
partnership will enable the two companies to work
together to bring second to none e-Gaming
products to the market."