TEXAS HOLDEM ONLINE POKER

Its brick facade and jaunty, striped awnings are home to a host of respectable, 9-to-5 businesses. It's about the last place in Greensboro you'd expect a high-stakes Texas Holdem poker parlor that, police say, ran some nights from early evening to 3:30 or 4 a.m.

That's what Chris Farland, a leasing agent for the business park, thought, too. He thought he had leased Suite F to a business that had something to do with antiques.

State investigators emphatically disabused him of that notion Thursday night when they raided the office suite, broke up an alleged $1,000-a-seat Texas Holdem poker game, and cited 16 people on misdemeanor charges of illegal gambling.

"I've been in this business 20 years, and I never had anything like this happen," Farland said.

Farland, of Guilford Realty Group, said he plans to evict the local businessman who rented the suite, Josh Augustine Andrews, 34, of Greensboro. Efforts to reach Andrews for comment were unsuccessful Friday.

Agents cited Andrews and his alleged partner, Joseph M. Ganim, 36, with "operating high-stakes Texas Hold 'em and Omaha poker games, and selling alcoholic beverages without ABC permits," said Rodney Johnson, Greensboro-area supervisor for the state Division of Alcohol Law Enforcement, which led the raid.

Ganim's wife declined to comment Friday on his behalf.

"While these (types of) games are widely televised, we are not in Las Vegas, and gambling is illegal in this state," said Johnson, whose agents also cited 14 other men who were playing at the time of the raid.

Agents testified in court papers that they infiltrated the Andrews-Ganim operation after receiving a complaint and making contact with the two men through a Web site for Tar Heel poker enthusiasts.

The 10 officers who raided at 9:30 Thursday evening were concerned weapons might be present. An undercover agent, identified in court papers by the fictitious name of "Tommy Gunn," reported that at least one man inside might be armed.

"Gunn advised that during one of his visits to the location he observed Ganim in possession of a handgun," ALE agents Michael Klingenschmidt and C.S. Poole said in an affidavit.

However, the raid met no resistance, and agents found no weapons inside, Johnson said. They did find $25,043 in cash, which they confiscated and which likely will become state property, along with Texas Holdem poker tables, poker chips and other furnishings.

Andrews and Ganim profited from each player's entry fee and the poker action by taking "a percentage of the ($1,000) buy-in and a set amount from each hand played," Johnson said. "In exchange, they furnished players with alcoholic beverages and food for their comfort."

Televised Texas Holdem poker matches on cable are increasing the popularity of the game, which is legal in North Carolina as long as money is not wagered, Johnson said. But unlike games of chance in Atlantic City or Las Vegas, such clandestine operations as the local one are totally unsupervised, he said.

He said the state has outlawed such operations at least since the mid-19th century because of the likelihood that cheating will occur, the presence of lots of cash and the high potential for disagreements that escalate to violence. When alcoholic beverages and weapons are thrown into the mix, the potential for tragic consequences escalates even further, Johnson said.

Those cited with misdemeanor gambling charges in Thursday evening's raid included Dr. Roy M. Arkin, 59, William E. Baldwin, 54, Mike Balangia, 36, Christopher J. Terrell, 34, and Ryan T. Scott, 28, all of Greensboro; Roger G. Lamb and Richard M. Pittman, both 45, of Asheboro; James B. Peavy, 47, of Burlington; Matthew J. Guinn, 28, and Gregory R. Hicks, 26, both of Durham; Kenneth A. Aldridge, 53, of Pleasant Garden; Mark Gracz, 24, of Raleigh; Scott E. Anderson, 31, of Star; and Daniel A. Gallagher, 29, of Whitsett.