I used to play in a lot of basement poker games when I lived in DC.  In fact I played in some basement tournaments that paid out very handsomely to the top two or three finishers, and as far as I know the tournaments were legal because the host kept nothing.  In fact the only game that might have been illegal was one hosted by a guy that asked everyone to ante up a couple of bucks for food and if you charge for anything like that you’re technically running an illegal game.

Luckily for me I never found out if the basement games were legal or not because none of them were ever raided.  Some poor schlubs in California weren’t so lucky as evidenced by this first person account of a raid by the San Mateo Sheriff’s department on what sounds like some pretty low-stakes poker players. 

Back in 05 there was a raid at Ham’s Restaurant over in Greensboro that maybe is a little more understandable since it was held in a public place and the prize was pretty significant ($10,000 seat in a poker tournament). Not saying I think it should have been raided since everyone involved seemed to think they were running a legal game akin to a Bingo Night, but still it’s a little easier to swallow than raiding some suburban low-stakes basement game. Unless someone’s making serious money or scamming the players I just don’t see how busting these friendly games is a good use of law enforcement resources.

Speaking of good basement poker does anyone know a nice friendly poker game in the Winston-Salem area?  I promise I won’t breath a word about it, and as my friends in VA will tell you I’m usually very popular with the other players.  In other words I suck.