Senior Citizen Shoots up Poker Game

(Photo: Washingtonpost.com)

Poker and guns have never been a great mix, as Wild Bill Hickock and many others would testify to if only they were still around to do so, and this week saw another tragic outcome when 77-year old Larry Rosenberg shot one man dead and seriously injured two others after becoming angered by their long-running poker game.

Rosenberg was a resident of the Heritage Court Apartments in Cheyenne, Wyoming and had apparently become increasingly frustrated at the use of a common room for poker games. He shot two players outside the apartment complex and then set his sights on 65 –year old Gregory Gilbert inside the building.

Gilbert was “one of the organizers of the poker games held three times a week that bothered some residents”, according to fellow resident Mary Eastman.

The local police department were looking into "longstanding animosity" between Rosenberg and the three victims before the shooting Wednesday in Wyoming's state capital, but a letter passed to the shooter’s friend Eastman was described by Cheyenne Police Department spokesman Dan Long as “a letter of discontent”.

The victim who died was identified as 45-year-old Matthew Wilson, a complex employee who took part in the 3-times a week poker game, while Gilbert and 74-year old Larry Warwick, were wounded and taken to Cheyenne Regional Medical Center.

According to local reports, Rosenberg then “ fled on a bicycle and shot himself with a handgun as officers approached him about a mile away”. He also had a rifle and "past contacts" with police but Long said he was unable to provide details about previous police interaction with him, according to Associated Press reports.

The history of poker, gunfights and deadly shootings is a long and nasty one.

Western legend Wild Bill Hickok was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall in in Nuttal & Mann's Saloon at Deadwood, Dakota Territory, giving prominence to the term ‘Dead Man’s Hand’ – Aces and eights – which he allegedly held as he was gunned down.

More recently, Doyle Brunson admitted to carrying a .357 Magnum, having been the victim of numerous robbery attempts – the latest seeing his neighbor being robbed at gunpoint in an apparent case of mistaken identity.

There have been numerous stories this year alone concerning guns and poker, the Foggy Bottom incident becoming standard fare, but it is not always the poker playing target who ends up on a slab.

When Dennis Mendoza Jr. hosted one of his regular small-scale poker tournaments at his home in Camelot Place Apartments in Saginaw County, Michigan, he had no idea that four of the men were intent on robbing the place.

What the robbers didn’t know, though, was that one of the players had a concealed carry permit and had brought his own gun to the game, a detail which spelled very bad news for 25-year old would-be thief Ramon Vasquez. When the ‘inside job’ robbery began in a hail of bullets, the unnamed concealed carry player fought back.

Vasquez made it out the door, but collapsed shortly afterwards in the stairwell and died in hospital. Fellow conspirator, Bobian, was hit three times in the leg. The self-defence shooter’s name has never been released because Saginaw County Prosecutor, John McColgan, found the fatal shooting in Saginaw Township “justifiable”.

Naturally these incidents are few and far between – making the headlines only because of their extremeness – but it does go to show that poker and guns are a very unhealthy mix, even though some states now allow patrons to carry weapons on casino premises! Pennsylvania’s decision last year makes for interesting and rather scary reading!