Detectives hunted yesterday for a trio of brazen robbers who killed a New Jersey man in a Flatiron poker room during a $100,000-plus heist that went down like a scene from a Hollywood flick and left seasoned gamblers cowering for their lives, cops said.
Frank Desena, 55, of Wayne, was playing at Straddle, an underground club on the seventh floor of an office building at 251 Fifth Ave., around 11:15 p.m. Friday when three black-clad, ski-masked robbers invaded and killed him by accident, said witnesses.
The robbers – who displayed a flair for drama by calling each other “One,” “Two” and “Three” – “walked in and screamed, ‘Everyone get down on the f- – -ing floor!’ ” a player recounted.
The hoods ordered the players to put their cash on the tables and lie on the floor. They also beat the room’s cashier to make sure he handed over all the house’s money, said witnesses.
Suddenly, one of the robbers dropped his sawed-off shotgun. As he picked it up from the floor, the gun fired, mortally wounding Desena in the torso, two witnesses said.
“Everybody in the room is a bunch of hard-asses,” said a player. “So everyone was pretty calm until the guy got shot.”
After the shooting, the robbers gathered up their cash and fled. A police source estimated the haul at over $100,000.
Desena died just before midnight at St. Vincent’s Hospital. A neighbor said he was an instructor at the Stevens Institute in Hoboken who took good care of his wife and daughter, and who often invited neighbors to his home to watch Yankee games or the Super Bowl.
The poker room, which one patron said had about a dozen tables, opened within the last 10 days. Its operators had at least one other club, also called Straddle, that was shut down by police several months ago after another robbery, said customers.
To get in, players either had to be known to its operators or offer references, patrons said. Straddle’s clientele was “your local bank tellers, kids you go to college with, lawyers,” said a female gambler who was disappointed to find the place shuttered yesterday.
One witness said that in the hours before the robbery, the players included comedian and actor Michael Ian Black, who has guest-hosted the “Late Late Show” on CBS and appeared in the “Reno 911” series on Comedy Central. Black is a well-known poker player. He could not be reached yesterday.
Poker was all that went on at the club – its owners didn’t even allow alcohol, the woman said. “It’s a totally friendly atmosphere,” she said. “Everybody knows each other. It’s like your freaking book clubs.”
Additional reporting by Peter Holley, Larry Celona and Bill Sanderson