Luck ran out during 'friendly' poker game

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Luck ran out during 'friendly' poker game
Players grouse after 'mini-casino' raid

Thomasi McDonald, Staff Writer

The Texas Hold 'em poker tournament had been under way about two hours Saturday evening when state alcohol agents and other officers rapped on the front door of the single-story, wood-frame building on a back road outside Benson.

What officers describe as a Las Vegas-like "mini-casino" had drawn three professional poker players, business owners, at least two lawyers and a police officer, among others. They had paid a $500 entry fee to take part in a Texas Hold 'em poker tournament, but there was also craps, a blackjack table and a roulette wheel.

Officers ordered 71 players, dealers and the owner to put their hands on the tables and began issuing citations for illegal gambling and seizing cash -- more than $71,000 altogether.

N.C. State Fairgrounds police Maj. Edward Melvin Lefler, 59, of Raleigh called Chief Joel Keith early the next morning to tell him he had been busted.

"It was some kind of way to start the day," said Keith, who said Lefler, a non-sworn officer with more than 30 years experience with the fairgrounds police, was immediately suspended with pay pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

Both attorneys cited during the raid -- personal injury lawyer Joseph Anthony, 59, of Durham, and Chad Wunsch, 26, who practices law in Lillington -- declined to comment. Wunsch said it would not be appropriate for an attorney to talk about the incident, but he did say the players are not criminals.

"The people who were there are hard-working people with families," Wunsch said.

A Raleigh standup comedian who was cited for gambling called the raid "hypocritical."

"The officers present at the raid admitted to us that they play in home games for money," Greg A. Brainos 25, of Raleigh said via e-mail Thursday. "Two of the officers involved in the raid said that they didn't think law enforcement should have been there and that if they had any say in the matter, they wouldn't have been raiding this friendly poker tournament taking place in a remote location."

Officials with the N.C. Division of Alcohol Law Enforcement characterized the raid as perhaps the largest of its kind in state history. Agents used a tractor-trailer truck to haul away the gaming tables and other evidence.

Ron Kaylor, ALE's deputy director of operations, said state authorities learned of the casino after the agency fielded complaints from nearby residents. Kaylor said the Johnston County Sheriff's Office had been aware of something unusual happening at 156 Bear Road for about a year.

The owner of the building, Marvin Ray Johnson, 58, of Middlesex has been a licensed private investigator since 1988, said Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman with the state Attorney General's Office. It does not appear that a misdemeanor gambling citation would affect Johnson's license, said ALE director Mike Robertson.

Also cited were pro poker players Christopher Bell, 36, of Raleigh, winner of the 2005 Trump Classic Poker Tour in Atlantic City, N.J., with lifetime poker earnings of more than $1.4 million; and Jody McClure Garaventa, 31, of Youngsville, who took home $96,224 after placing fourth in last year's World Series of Poker Tournament at Harrah's in Atlantic City.

Maciek Gracz, 26, a World Series of Poker winner from Raleigh and others said they had come out to Benson for a tournament that had a $500 entry fee.

"It was a group of friends who meet a couple of times a year to play poker away from the city because we don't want to bother anybody," Gracz said.

Gracz disagreed with the ALE's characterization of the place as a Vegas-style mini-casino. Agents described a commercial kitchen with two employees, for example, but Gracz and others said a couple of the guys' wives would make hamburgers, turkey or ham-and-cheese sandwiches free of charge for the players.

"It was just a room to play poker in. It wasn't like the place was raking in dollars," said Gracz, who figured the top prize winner of the one-day event would pocket about $21,000.

Gracz said the officers who swarmed the casino were cordial, but he also disagrees with the state law that asserts poker is a game of chance. He said it's a game of skill not unlike traders on the commodities market who watch for trends and then bet on whether the price of wheat will go up or down that day.

Gracz is headed to Atlantic City next week for a World Series of Poker tournament. He recalled that when a poker tournament in Greensboro was busted in 2004, he won a major tournament the next week.

"If I win this one, the next time I come home I may call the cops to let them know where I'm playing," Gracz said.

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