GANG FLUSH AFTER POKER PARTY HEIST

[clevfan]

GANG FLUSH AFTER POKER PARTY HEIST

By ERIN CALABRESE and JENNIFER FERMINO
NY POST

November 19, 2006 -- A group of masked gunmen busted into a poker game at a VFW post in Nassau County - then brazenly robbed the nearly 80 players of an estimated $50,000, cops and witnesses said.

The normally placid streets of Franklin Square were brimming with blue lights just after midnight, as carloads of cops searched for the audacious thugs.

"Sit down! Put your money on the table!" shouted the robbers, who interrupted a game of Texas Hold 'Em.

The stunned group of amateur gamblers - which included at least one mother and small child - complied.

"Nobody was moving," said one person in the hall. "Nobody wanted to get shot. There were doors but nobody wanted to move."

The witness said he saw at least four masked men.

One was carrying a Tek-9, another a 45 millimeter, and a third toted a 9 millimeter, he said.

Another man trapped in the veteran's club said, "The guys came in and said 'everybody put your hands up.' So we did."

One woman who left the hall said the losses could clock in at a whopping $50,000.

"Easily there was $5,000 from my table alone," said a different partygoer. "And with the buy in, there was $20,000."

The robbers parked a van around the corner on McKinley Avenue before entering the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2718 from the rear, according to area witnesses.

Neighbor Helene Toner, 56, said, "It's kind of scary. Do I have to lock my door now?"