Late 2000s poker short stacker Lorin Yelle killed in wrong-place-wrong-time gas station murder
Lorin Yelle found poker in his mid-20s, becoming a pro in 2005. In the late 2000s, he realized that his best "talent" was shortstacking -- the act of buying in to NL Holdem tables with the smallest stack possible, and then playing optimally, usually getting all of your money in preflop at the right time.
Yelle did fairly well shortstacking on Pokerstars, which was NOT against the rules, but frowned upon by some experienced pros. He developed a $300 course in 2010 called "Short Stack Hero", which revealed his tactics. The course was a moderate success.
He wrote on his blog about shortstacking:
Quote:
Let's start by setting the record straight, I'm not an angle shooter...I'm an opportunist. That is, I probe the system to look for exploits and vulnerabilities within the rules for personal gain. The final outcome may offend (many) players' concepts of how the game should be played and their aesthetic sensibilities, but I have learned firsthand how making it too easy to practice can create a hostile gaming environment, yet efforts to completely thwart the practice will lead to predatory play and ultimately the collapse of a delicate poker ecosystem both in NLH and Omaha.
Yelle was not a major tournament pro, amassing only $18k in cashes. Ironically, his first cash was a deep stack event.
He was still playing poker through the present, though not professionally. He lived in the Louisville area.
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Unfortunately, Lorin Yelle took the ultimate bad beat -- he ended up witnessing a domestic violence murder at a gas station, and the murderer then killed him next.
Yelle was at a Circle K getting gas, in New Albany, Indiana, on April 4 at around 10am. Cherok Douglass, a criminal who was about to go back to court over a matter which he knew would send him back to prison, was in a terrible mood. He had a gun with him, and got in some kind of argument with his wife, Brandee Douglass. He shot her dead in the car, riddling her body with 10 gunshots.
Right after that, Yelle walked out of the Circle K attached to the gas station, toward his car, which happened to be next to Douglass' car. Douglass, presumably worried that Yelle was a witness to the shooting, shot him. Yelle wasn't dead, and tried to run away, at one point throwing something at Douglass. Douglass chased him and shot him again, and that was that.
Douglass then kidnapped an nearby restaurant owner, and forced her to bring him to her car. When he sped out of the lot, he ran her over, breaking several bones of hers. Eventually he crashed the car while attempting to escape. Police attempted to shoot him dead as he attempted to run them down, and did hit him. He didn't die, but instead crashed the car, and they arrested him.
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Here's an article and a video about the matter (though it doesn't provide surveillance footage): https://www.whas11.com/article/news/...0-52e8330c4739
Had Yelle just walked out of that Circle K about one minute later, he probably would still be alive today.
Terrible tragedy. Criminals like this are the reason I support the death penalty.
RIP
