Poker pro gets license to travel as he awaits trial for marijuana distribution charges
World Series of Poker competitor Amnon Filippi, released from jail on restrictive bail conditions, has been allowed by a federal judge to attend gambling tournaments around the nation.
BY DAREH GREGORIAN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
PUBLISHED: FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013, 2:00 AM
UPDATED: FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013, 2:00 AM
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Amnon Filippi competes in poker tournaments around the nation, having earned more than $3 million in winnings in the last decade.
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The feds are taking a big gamble on a suspect in a Bronx drug ring — they’re letting him take repeated jaunts to Sin City and other gambling meccas.
In the seven months since Amnon Filippi was busted on charges of conspiring to distribute marijuana, he’s gone on judicially sanctioned poker-playing trips to Mohegan Sun, Foxwoods, Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and other gambling spots in California and Florida.
That’s because Filippi, 43, had to go there for “work.” He’s a professional poker player.
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“This is his job. This is how he earns a living,” his lawyer, Jeremy Schneider, told the Daily News on Thursday. “Those are the places he works.”
Filippi has had some success — he’s raked in more than $3 million in winnings over the past decade, according to the Global Poker Index website. The New York native often sports a Yankees cap at the poker table.
Judge Ronnie Abrams of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has given poker player Amnon Filippi permission to attend gambling tournaments around the nation despite his restrictive bail conditions on marijuana distribution charges.
Filippi — whose player page says his nickname is “Guts,” and whose federal indictment lists his alias as “Jew E.”— was arrested last October along with two other people for their alleged involvement with a “grow house” on Timpson Ave. in the Bronx.
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The feds said the trio were growing over 100 marijuana plants in a warehouse there.
Filippi was charged with felony conspiracy, and released on a $250,000 personal recognizance bond. He had to surrender his passport, and his travel was restricted to the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York — essentially New York City, Westchester and Long Island. He was outfitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet to make sure he didn’t try to flee.
A few weeks later, he asked a judge for permission to go to Atlantic City for 10 days in November and Las Vegas for two weeks in early December, court records show.
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World Series of Poker competitor Amnon Filippi may be facing serious drug charges, but he can still gamble, says a federal judge.
Prosecutors agreed to the request and Filippi's bracelet was removed — and he came back from both trips when he said he would. So when he asked to attend another poker tournament at the Borgata in Atlantic City in January, Judge Ronnie Abrams — his Queen of Hearts in a black robe — gave her okay.
She subsequently approved — without any objection from the feds — trips to the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, the Bay 101 Casino in San Jose, the Wynn Hotel in Vegas, the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Fla., the Venetian in Vegas, the Best Bet Casino in Jacksonville, a return trip to the Borgata in Atlantic City, and another trip to Sin City for a tournament at the Bellagio.
He’s now been given permission to attend the World Series of Poker at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas from May through July. The filing noted that he’d be staying at another poker player’s home, and not in a hotel.
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Schneider maintained his client has been playing by the rules.
“Whenever the probation person wants him to check in, he checks in. He’s never missed an appointment,” Schneider said. “He’s done everything he's supposed to.”
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined comment on the case.
dgregorian@nydailynews.com
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