After it was revealed last week that Eric Ulrich, now the former NYC Buildings Commissioner, was under investigation by NYC prosecutors over a gambling-related probe, a poker-world source had advice for The Post.

Speaking of the so-called backroom poker games in Ozone Park, Queens, where Ulrich is said to have possibly racked up debts with mob associates, the poker-world source said:

“Are you planning on playing there? My advice is, don’t. It’s not a good environment. You might find yourself dealing with nasty people, which is normal for a poker game — but in Ozone Park, the people might also be tough.”

It’s a warning that could have been job-saving for Ulrich, who resigned after the probe came to light.

These illicit back-room operations have little in common with public casinos such as Resorts World NYC, which aim to provide glamorous atmospheres. In the illegal joints, it’s only about gambling.

“These guys there, 99 percent of them are degenerates. They are not regular guys. Theyare there to make money,” Frank DiMatteo, publisher of Mob Candy magazine and a former member of the Gallo crime family, told The Post. “They are not coming to socialize and make friends.”

According to Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa — who claims to be well versed in the Ozone Park underbelly — “games take place in the basements and side rooms [of neighborhood restaurants and cafes] or else in buildings nearby.”

Generally not fancy, the rooms are large enough to fit a couple of felt-topped poker tables, chairs and an area set up with drinks and food: “Cut hero sandwiches most of the time, but sometimes hot food as well,” said DiMatteo.

As per the poker-world insider, there are usually around 10 players per table and a manager keeping an eye on things, as well as a dealer, a waitress for food and drinks, and sometimes a for-hire massage girl who sells shoulder rubs to fatigued players.

“Games start at 8 p.m., go until the next morning and usually take place on weeknights,” a former poker-room manager told The Post. “On the weekends, guys go to Atlantic City or spend time with their families. The games move around. It’s not like the floating craps game in ‘Guys and Dolls,’ but you don’t want it to be in the same place for too long.”

As explained by DiMatteo: “You don’t want 12 guys leaving the same place at 7 a.m. every day. It becomes obvious, a nosy Rosy starts talking, and that draws heat. The cops are not stupid. They will bust a game.”

While it’s unclear exactly what Ulrich’s involvement was with illicit gambling enterprises, the New York Times reported that the Manhattan district attorney’s office is looking at gambling and mob doings at Aldo’s Pizza, located on 100th Avenue in Ozone Park. Ulrich is said to have spent in excess of $5,000 at the restaurant. He has not been charged with any crime.

Reached for comment about Aldo’s role in all of this, the restaurant’s owner Anthony Livreri told The Post, “That is totally out of line, sir.”

Added Ulrich’s attorney, Sam Braverman: “I appreciate the opportunity to comment. But I am not going to try this case in the press.”

As recently as 2014, Ulrich supported Michael Conigliaro, then a GOP candidate for state Senate. While on the City Council from 2009 to 2021, Ulrich helped move $44,000 in taxpayer funds to a Queens “crisis pregnancy center,” Bridge to Life — an organization for which Conigliaro sits on the board, per his website — according to the Daily News.

Conigliaro told the Daily News that he had been a member of La Nazionale Soccer Club, a non-profit whose tax filings reportedly describe it as promoting soccer to local kids. The United States Attorney’s Office maintains that the Bonanno crime family used the club (among others, including the Soccer Club in Valley Stream and Glendale Soccer Club) as “an illegal gambling parlor.”

According to the Daily Mail, prosecutors claimed that the Nazionale and other operations could generate more than $2,000 per day in profits. 

Conigliaro had no connection to the recent indictment involving La Nazionale.

Ulrich has had public brushes with gambling, the mob and Aldo’s. In 2016, he revealed to NYC’s Conflicts of Interest Board that he had a successful run with gambling, winning between $5,000 and $47,999. In 2018, Ulrich wrote a letter of support for Bonanno crime family associate Robert Pisani, who pleaded guilty to running an “illegal gambling business,” per the Daily News..

As for the money spent at Aldo’s, Ulrich has attributed it to a fundraising event and “campaign food.”

Sources told The Post that Ozone Park games feature professional dealers divvying out cards and players buying in for chips.

“In case of a raid, chips on the table look better than cash,” said the poker-worldsource. “Plus they make for a livelier game. People are quicker to bet a $100 chip than a $100 bill.”

Stakes, said the source, “are nothing compared to what you find in Manhattan, though you can still lose $5,000 or more per night. And winning in these games is not easy. The guys running the game will take 5- to 10-percent out of each pot.”

In Las Vegas, a 10% rake is common, but it maxes out at $5 per hand. In Ozone Park, things are less regimented and less limiting in terms of how much the house can earn.

“Nothing is written in stone,” the poker-world source said. “Whatever they want to do, they do.”

And when the rake gets the better of a player, it is not a problem. “If a gambler blew all his money, we loaned him money, so he could keep playing,” said DiMatteo, recalling his bad old days with the Gallo crime family. “We got six or seven points on each loan” — which translates to six- or seven-percent interest each week until the debt is settled. “If he pays the vig [the interest], comes back the next week to borrow more money so he can try to win back what he lost, we loved it.”

Sliwa knows how lousy that can get. “A relative of mine, he kept borrowing money to gamble until the mob owned his fruit stand,” he said.

According to DiMatteo, that is just the way the operators like it. “You want somebody to win. But you want most guys to lose,” he told The Post. “You want them to keep coming back and to keep chasing their money.”