Chau Giang Caught Stealing $800 at Bellagio

[Steve-O]

Where is the fucking dealer when this is going on???????????

The dealer saw it but likely didn't interfere, because they are afraid of the high stakes players.

He/she was afraid to be the "bad guy" coming down on some good-natured joking between friends, and assumed that there wouldn't be any actual stealing out in the open like that.

In general, the dealers are too passive when enforcing rules.

Always irritates me when someone barrels all the way, I call them down, and they say, "I've got a pair", hoping that I will show and they will only have to show if they win. So then I have to be the bad guy and say, "You have to show first", and then when they show pocket 3s and I show them my pair of tens, they get really pissed like I was slow-rolling them.

I really wish the dealer would just interfere and tell the guy to show first.

was this a high stakes game? I thought he grabbed stacks of $20 chips.

Inmates running the asylum. Poker room management is way too hands off, and people wonder how counterfeit chips can get snuck in.

I remember back before the boom or maybe right at the very start, this jagoff who used to play high stakes stud lost a huge pot and flipped over the table (chips flying everywhere) he was let back in a week later. It was like the fifth time he had been banned (including fighting) but they always let him back.

[Dan Druff]

The dealer saw it but likely didn't interfere, because they are afraid of the high stakes players.

He/she was afraid to be the "bad guy" coming down on some good-natured joking between friends, and assumed that there wouldn't be any actual stealing out in the open like that.

In general, the dealers are too passive when enforcing rules.

Always irritates me when someone barrels all the way, I call them down, and they say, "I've got a pair", hoping that I will show and they will only have to show if they win. So then I have to be the bad guy and say, "You have to show first", and then when they show pocket 3s and I show them my pair of tens, they get really pissed like I was slow-rolling them.

I really wish the dealer would just interfere and tell the guy to show first.

was this a high stakes game? I thought he grabbed stacks of $20 chips.

Inmates running the asylum. Poker room management is way too hands off, and people wonder how counterfeit chips can get snuck in.

I remember back before the boom or maybe right at the very start, this jagoff who used to play high stakes stud lost a huge pot and flipped over the table (chips flying everywhere) he was let back in a week later. It was like the fifth time he had been banned (including fighting) but they always let him back.

It wasn't a high-stakes game. 80-160 mix, I think.

The amazing thing about poker room management is that they are anal and difficult about stupid, petty things, and yet they allow regulars to get away with all kinds of crap that drive out the casual players (and even pros who hate the scene).

Like heaven forbid you let people in a 3-handed game at 3am have a full hour of fee-free play, but they always religiously stick to a maximum of one "free pass" per hour, and NEVER if it has more than 5 people.

One time at Commerce (where the rake is already way higher than Vegas), there was a fish who wanted a free pass, and one hadn't even been given yet. The game was 6-handed, but one of the players had been gone for like an hour, so it was playing 5-handed. Instead of just OKing it, the floorman refused, the fish got pissed, and he quit, thus breaking the game.

They are also really anal about other dumb/petty rules, such as the (now abandoned) "no playing out of racks rule" at Bellagio. I was once playing 3-handed limit, all 3 players said they were fine with me keeping racks on the table, and they made me take the chips out, anyway. Just dumb crap like that.

Bellagio also once forbade their dealers from hand-shuffling in heads-up games, even though it was faster than the auto-shuffle. I watched games break over that, too.

At the same time, they let players abuse dealers, players abuse other players, softplaying, angle-shooting, and all kinds of other BS. I really only have a limited stomach for live play, and there's a reason why regular live cash players always look (and usually are) miserable.

[shortbuspoker]

They did nothing wrong, why try to push this incident under the rug?

Well, it could be argued that they were sleeping on the job. You know if Mr. Giang stole $800 in chips from a dealer's rack (poker or table game), Bellagio security would have been all over him like white on rice. Here, it took the victim, who had just come back from the bathroom, to notice his stack was a little short, complain and ask to go to the cameras. When I leave a stack of chips at a cash game table, I'm trusting that SOMEONE (the dealer, security, floor staff, or overhead cameras) will notice if somebody decides to help themselves to a few chips, with or without chopsticks and (who)jedi reflexes.

Druff, do you know if this guy ever got payed by the casino?

http://pokerfraudalert.com/forum/sho...in-the-thread)

I got the whole story straight from the victim's girlfriend, who happened to be assigned to my WSOP $3000 Limit event table.

The victim was Niklas Heinecker, as correctly guessed by Sandwich. (How did you know that, BTW?)

Here is a picture of him.



His girlfriend is Maxi Mueller, who is a pretty good limit hold 'em player from Germany. Both Maxi and Niklas were Full Tilt red pros, though obviously neither had anything to do with the problems there.

Here is a picture of Maxi:



This was my first time playing with Maxi. She seemed nice, and was pretty in that wholesome, girl-next-door sort of way.

For several hours, I had no idea that Maxi was the girlfriend of the guy who had money stolen from his Rio cash table. The subject came up because Ray Henson was at the table, as well. Recall that Ray Henson was the guy who initially reported this to the internet (via Twitter), and apparently he is somewhat friendly with Maxi. It was a coincidence that Henson (the guy who sort-of witnessed it and reported it to the net), Maxi (the girlfriend of the victim), and myself were all at the same starting table.

Ray Henson asked for clarification of a few details he didn't know. I then asked a few questions of Maxi, which I could tell made her a little bit uncomfortable. She didn't know me, and we had barely spoken at the table, so here was this stranger suddenly asking a bunch of questions about a crime that had occurred against her boyfriend. I tried to put her at ease by saying, "I'm totally on your side here... I think it's outrageous that the Rio won't make good on this", and she opened up and gave all the details.

Here they are:

- A guy walked up to a Rio cash game table, and approached Heinecker's seat, which was empty while Heinecker was away from the table. He confidently took all of Heinecker's money.

- The theft was $22k, not $50k as originally reported. Some was cash, and some was chips.

- The dealer wasn't quite as incompetent as first thought, as he had just rotated into the game, and didn't know who was sitting in that seat. It is not clear whether the thief simply took advantage of this and pretended they were HIS chips, or if he really did mumble something about "cashing out his friend". This occurred shortly after the new dealer took his place, which I'm sure wasn't a coincidence.

- The thief was pacing back and forth at a distance prior to committing his crime, likely waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

- The thief did not cash out. He briskly walked out after taking the money.

- The dealer did call security when the guy appeared to be walking away too quickly. It is not clear if the dealer himself realized something was wrong, or if the players alerted him to it. Security attempted to chase down the thief, but he disappeared into the heavy Rio hallway crowd and could not be located. It is not clear if this was pulled during a break of an event, but the "disappearing into the crowd" would seem to imply that this is what happened, as the hallway is not crowded when nobody is on break.

- As of now, the Rio refuses to refund the money. They claim that it is the player's responsibility to protect their own funds. This does not make sense, as you are not allowed to take your money off the table unless you are leaving the game for good, so you are FORCED to leave your funds on the table if you go to the bathroom in the middle of a cash session. Niklas has vigorously argued his case, but has been turned down for any sort of refund. He has attemped to reach the Rio casino manager, but can't reach him, and is not getting a call back.

- Niklas filed a police report. That has gone nowhere, at least as of now. He has asked to see the pertinent security footage, but the Rio will not show him. The Rio (and most other casinos) has a policy not to show their security footage unless law enforcement requests it. It is unclear whether law enforcement has requested it, and it is unclear if they would show it to Niklas if they received the footage from the Rio.

- I suggested that they file a lawsuit, but at the same time acknowledged that, being German citizens only here for a few weeks, this would be very difficult. Maxi agreed that they would consider a lawsuit if they were here for a longer period of time, but that it's not practical given that they will return to Germany very soon.

- I did not ask Maxi to come on radio, as she didn't seem like the type who would want to do that. I might pitch it to her boyfriend if I can find him on Twitter or Facebook.

[Shizzmoney]

I would really like to know the percentage of "poker pros" that actually make.

70% of them are in debt

[BUBBLES]

Todd Brunson ‏@ToddBrunson 1h
Gonna start at 7pm. Might wanna turn ur timeline off if possible if you aren't interested.
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Todd Brunson ‏@ToddBrunson 1h
Been working on the Chao/Jap chip theft/joke scandal all day. Want to get everything together, get it out and then put it to rest.
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[BUBBLES]

https://twitter.com/ToddBrunson

He is tweeting as much as Druff at a WSOP event.

[lvpkr1009]

https://twitter.com/ToddBrunson

He is tweeting as much as Druff at a WSOP event.

It's funny how much this story still has legs

[Brittney Griner's Clit]

I was cued up to bash Todd Brunson but those tweets are way less asshole then I expected. Plus he strongly implies he was staking the Jap which makes it his business.