Students Go ‘All In’ for Online Poker

Chips shuffling around, cards being dealt, the smell of smoke engulfing the room, and suddenly, “all in” echoes over the casino banter. Little does anyone know that this particular “all in” could mean a semester’s worth of books and tuition.

This is a regular occurrence for a high stakes college poker player.

Poker has risen from the shady back room card game of the Wild West to an accepted fun hobby of many. For many years the same set of characters dominated the high stakes poker scene, seasoned middle aged professional gamblers.

However most televised poker tournaments show phenoms barely old enough to drink. In this summer’s World Series of Poker, eight of the nine players who made the final table were 29 or younger, three were college dropouts and two had graduated within the last year. College age students have been largely successful in the World Series of Poker, the Super Bowl of poker. The most profitable story is Joe Cada’s, a 21-year-old college dropout, who won the 2009 World Series of Poker and over $5 million that came with it.

According to Annenburg Public Policy, 45 percent of college students play poker at least once a month. No longer limited to casinos, the easy access to poker on the Internet has also led to a very different way for people to spend their free time, which isn’t always a good thing when it comes to making the grade.

Bruce Friesen, University of Tampa sociologist  professor, said, “Amongst college students, poker is first and foremost a social activity.  It allows people to get together and engage in a collective activity that promotes friendship, bonding and generally positive social relations.The amount one gambles, win or lose, becomes a status symbol itself as it is tied to wealth and bravado.”

The recent rise in the game’s popularity can be attributed to the influx of television shows dedicated to poker. ESPN airs the World Series of Poker, Travel Channel airs World Poker Tour and Spike TV airs Poker After Dark, the latter focusing on celebrities playing the game with pros.

The whole perception that amateurs can “hit it big” against the professional player or in a tournament as large as the World Series, seemed to arise after the triumphs of 27-year-old Tennessee University Master’s graduate Chris Moneymaker. Moneymaker was an accountant, who qualified for the 2003 World Series of Poker by playing in a $40 online satellite tournament qualifier. At the main event, Moneymaker won first prize: $2.5 million.

“A whole new generation of kids thinks that what they want to do when they finish school is be a professional poker player,” wrote psychologist Jeffrey L. Derevensky of McGill University.

Justin Sousa, a sophomore business major, said, “College/younger students may find large success in a poker match because people are more likely to call them. I personally experienced people attempting to bluff/outbid me just because I’m young. If you just played the right hands you have the chance to make a decent bit of cash because people will be more likely to call you (because of your age).”

According to Ismail Chokhman, a Sykes Business School graduate student and avid poker player, “College students definitely have an advantage. They can play with their brains, whether they had gained that money from a part time job or getting it from other sources, they know the value of that money and in general they play wise analyzing the odds and the processes,”

Many students play poker not only because of the possibility of winning money but for the rush they get from the game.

Chokhman reiterated, “The risk enhances the feel of adrenalin and for me it’s the best thing about gambling.” Connor Sequeira, a sophomore marketing major, believes that the student body of the University of Tampa is more prone to gambling on poker. He said, “At a place like UT where most people are well off, money is less of a problem, so students can gamble with less risk.” Not all young players succeed though.

“One of my friends ended up going to the ATM a few times and before he knew it, he was down a few hundred.” Sequeira continued, “I guess we think we’re sort of invincible and will keep getting lucky like the pros.”

With any type of gambling comes the risk of addiction. There are stories of individuals becoming too consumed with the habit that they end up throwing their college life away. Gamblers Anonymous in Clearwater has a story of a former University of Tampa student in its brochure. The 21-year-old said he dropped out of college and ended up stealing money from friends and family to play poker online.

“I had a great college life, but then poker became all I wanted to do. It consumed my life,” he said.

Just as addictive as playing poker is in the real world, Internet poker can be just as addictive—if not more so. The ability to play more than one hand at once contributes to the ever increasing risk.

Students often make bets on multiple hands in real-time risking as much as thousands of dollars in a span of minutes.

College student poker players are often unassuming individuals, not necessarily showing off tons of extra money or spending long hours in the casino. Many do so quietly, mostly in the silence and privacy of their dorm rooms, according to Whittier Law School professor and researcher I. Nelson Rose.

As a consequence, the symptoms of a gambling addiction among poker players are sometimes hard to recognize.

About one percent of American adults are pathological gamblers; another two to three percent have less serious but still significant problems, and as many as 15 million are at risk, with at least two of the symptoms described above, according to a National Council on Problem Gambling study.

Regardless of the risks involved, many students legitimately believe that they can capitalize on the rise of poker.

College students are always looking for a fast way to make money and playing poker represents everything they could possibly covet. For many students, going “all in” is a new way of life.

Pranav Lokin can be reached at Pranav.lokin@spartans.ut.edu