It was a seemingly lucky night for Thomas Gigliotti until the moment he pulled into his driveway.

Thomas Gigliotti, 74 and his wife Josephine 71, were returning home to their house from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood after a lucky night on to the tables.  According to Police, several masked bandits robbed the couple of their winnings in their driveway of around $4,000 in cash. The masked men rushed towards Gigliotti, pulled him from his car knocked him to the ground and stole his cash, credit cards and mobile phone.

However, this was not the end of this crime tale. Rather than being shaken up after being robbed and assaulted, the feisty senior citizen jumped back in his Lincoln Navigator and took off in a almost Hollywood-esque chase after the bandits. He spotted the bandits jumping into a white getaway car near an intersection not too far from where the robbery occurred.

Gigliotti tailed the robbers through the streets of Plantation and at one point even attempted to ram the smaller getaway vehicle in an effort to make force the car to spin out. Gigliotti bumped the car twice from behind in a scene that  could only be reminiscent of a Jason Bourne movie. “The chase was one of the greatest chases you've ever seen, they took rights and lefts, rights and lefts. They couldn't shake me. They just couldn't," Thomas said.

Eventually at speed of around 65mph, he rammed the getaway car sending the vehicle out of control and the bandits skidded off the side of the road.

The suspects bailed out of the vehicle and abandoned the car, "I put my high beams on and reversed to see the vehicle, it looks like there's nobody in the car.' Gigliotti said he as he cautiously approached the vehicle but the men had fled by this point.

Although, in the meantime his wife has said that her card –playing days are over. “I’m not going back there she said. “I don’t ever want to go back there.”The senior bravado was however not on the same opinion, and believes he was not tempting lady luck; “I like to go down to the casino” he said.

And this is why I play online. This same sort of robbery seems to happen far too often. 

 

A couple of months ago, that Ocean 11 type robbery escapade shocked the poker world, with the robbery of the EPT in Berlin. Slowly, more and more of the culprits were caught and finally it seems that have apprehended the mastermind behind the robbery, a man who played in the tournament himself.

Mohammed Abou-C, as identified by German authorities as such because of the countries privacy laws., apparently observed where the money was kept as he took part in the poker tournament and then apparently passed the information off to his accomplices.

As brave and ridiculously confident that these guys, even going so far to having a McDonald’s meal a couple of hours before the tournament, it seems the long arm of the law did finally catch up with them. Personally; If I was involved in such a heist I’d have gotten out of Berlin, but it seems that Mr Mohammed Abou-C decieded that Berlin was the safest place to stay, which ultimately lead to his arrest.

This brings the total number of people involved in the robbery to 6.

 

                                 Does Not Happen on PokerTime

Most of you already know the advantages of playing online poker, but one that has been constantly coming to mind over the past couple of weeks has been the fact that us online poker players and poker rooms do not constantly get robbed at gunpoint. I’ve yet to be sitting on my living room, multi-tabling a couple of games, when suddenly masked men break through my front door and demand my poker winnings and other valuable belongings.

A group of 24 poker players playing at underground games in Texas this week had this unfortunate situation happen to them. It might sound like something that happens in the Wild West but it seems to be a regular occurrence constantly.

The latest heist Happens during a poker gaming in Austin, Texas. During the early hours of the morning an armed gang stormed the building armed with AK47s, and started firing their weapons into the air. Players were forced to lay face down as their belongings were lifted from their pockets before making their getaway.

A witness told the Pokerati website:

“Gunshots were fired inside. They kept yelling at us not to look up or move, so we didn’t know if people were shot.

Joseph saved our lives. He obeyed them, rationalized w/ them, showed them closet w/ money, but had no key, they harassed him, they shot or kicked doors in,

Over 9 cops were arriving as we drove away. They stopped us and interviewed us individually, were very concerned for our safety and catching criminals, not even a question of poker game. Helicopters, forensics, detectives and K9 were all there lining the street.”

Plus if you do play online poker at work, hope there is no camera pointing at your screen in case you do get robbed.

 

We’ve been keeping tabs on what’s been happening with the EPT Poker tournament Robbery on March 6 in Germany where a couple of robbers successfully stole a couple of hundred thousand dollars from the hotel.

The arrests began on the 17^th of March when one of the suspects turned him in and from the point onwards, the Berlin police had the names and photos of the other thieves and claimed it was only a matter of time until the suspects were in police custody.

The first suspect to fall under police custody ratted out all his accomplices. So much for a good bluff I say. The trio was apprehended as Ahmad el-Awayti, Jihad Khaled Chetwie, and Mustafa Ucarkus all saw their dreams of making away with €242,000 disappearing into thin air.

The latter two were arrested at Berlins Tegel airport last Sunday and last Wednesday, el-Awayti was arrested in a subway station and brought into custody.

Bluff Magazine Europe quoted Berlin police officials of a 28 year old Lebanese man involvement “According to the current state of our investigation, the suspect is thought to have been the organizer… He also drove the getaway car””

In something that was seemingly straight out of Hollywood, The high-rollers games was underway at the European Poker Tour in Berlin when  masked men burst through the doors with more than poker on their mind.

The men, armed with numerous pistols, a machine gun, and strangely enough a machete burst into the poker tournament in the Hyatt Hotel just after 2pm and announced in true Hollywood crime style “This is a hold up!”

They were not bluffing either – video stream caught the action on the robbers which landed up turning the ballroom into chaos as tables were overturned, people scurried out of the way, those watching ran for the exits, and generally fled causing several injuries. In one of the videos one can see a security guard taking on of the masked robbers but he escapes by his fellow com-padre. This initial footage was caught on live television but was quickly cut off as people ran from their tables.

The men forced security staff and hotel employees to hand over a part of the tournaments jackpot money which according to police could be as high as $1.36 million.  It had been previously reported that the figure was $272,000 however as the news travels the figure has risen to the million mark. During the incident the security guards tried to fend off the attackers, and a substantial part of the money was lost in the scuffle.

Following the brazen daylight heist the robbers escaped on foot through a nearby shopping mall – not wearing black masks any longer – and finally fled in a getaway car.

According to Olaf Wagner, photographer for Germany newspaper Bild, ““When I entered, I saw a number of security people struggling with three masked men, One guy stood in the corner stuffing 500 euro notes into his backpack, while a second man pinned down a security man with his machete.”

The tournament began March 1 with 945 participants who together paid nearly €3.7 million in entry fees.