The raids on May 26 - dubbed "Black Thursday" by one poker Web site - and two more last month have sent a chill through the city's clandestine poker scene.
Several members-only card clubs closed their doors after 13 arrests on Oct. 16 at the Broadway Club in the Flatiron District, where the Yankees' $25-million-a-year third baseman, Alex Rodriguez, reportedly had played. On Oct. 28, a second-floor parlor on the Upper East Side, the EV Club, became the site of more vice squad arrests.
Regulars at the Manhattan clubs, including professional card player Phil Hellmuth, have questioned the crackdown while predicting the popularity of poker and its potential for profit make it unlikely the chips will be down for long.
"People just want to play poker, and because there are no legal clubs in the city, they turn to underground clubs," said Hellmuth, a former World Series of Poker champion.
Authorities elsewhere also have taken a hard line.
In Passaic County, N.J., police converged on a shopping center basement that allegedly was home to an illegal parlor posing as a soccer club. They arrested dozens of people and seized about $60,000.
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