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Copyright 2004 The Diamondback via U-Wire
University Wire
December 8, 2004 Wednesday
LENGTH: 860 words
HEADLINE: Online
poker gives gambling a facelift
BYLINE: By Sam Sessa, The Diamondback; SOURCE: U. Maryland
DATELINE: COLLEGE PARK, Md.
BODY:
It's Monday night, but that doesn't matter
to Evan Silverman.
Sinking back into his black leather couch with
a laptop on his lap, fresh delivery on the table and "Jeopardy!"
on the tube, the senior criminology and criminal justice major
is in the zone. He's playing online Texas Hold'em poker, betting
real money on digital cards.
It's been a year since poker became the rage
among college students (courtesy of ESPN's "World Series
of Poker"), and now online poker is the latest wave to hit
the gambling world. For recreational gamblers, it's a hobby. For
serious gamblers, it's an obsession.
Silverman plays
online for about four or five hours each day (once
he spent
12 hours at it), usually at tables with $5 and $10 blinds hosted
by www.partypoker.com. He says most of his Internet opponents
are "fish," or easy prey to any experienced player.
He thinks professional players don't waste their time on small-blind
tables and prefer higher stakes.
"To be honest, I think there's a lot more
fish online than live, and there's a lot more dead money on the
computer," Silverman says. "You'll see a lot of times
people will just piss chips away, piss money away because they're
just clicking a button, and they pay you more money."
So far, Silverman estimates his winnings at
about $6,000 over the year that he's played -- much more than
he ever won in live poker or during frequent trips to Atlantic
City, N.J. He started with $200 in capital, and steadily built
a bankroll big enough to finance a trip to Walt Disney World with
his girlfriend.
For Silverman, the advantages to online poker
wildly outnumber those of playing live poker. While playing online,
he can have two or three people looking over his shoulder offering
him advice, he doesn't have to keep a stone face and he can blurt
out when he has pocket queens.
"Playing
online gives me more of a rush, because I get to
share the excitement with others," Silverman said. "You
can show a lot more emotion."
But online
poker also has its drawbacks. Game speed is much
quicker online, where playing a hand all the way to the end only
takes a few minutes. Silverman estimates he plays twice the number
of hands online that he does in live poker.
This means if your head's not in the game, your funds can quickly
dip into the red.
Alex Joffe, a senior criminology and criminal
justice major, says he's lost about $500 since he started playing
online. Whenever he gets a decent payroll, he says he likes to
toss a good bit of it at an online game.
"I like video games, and I guess it's
just like a video game for money,"
Joffe said.
Tables on www.partypoker.com seat 10 people.
Buy-ins for regular games start at $0.50 and $1 and go up to $30
and $60. Other Web sites, such as www.gamingclubpoker.com, offer
blinds as high as $100 and $200. The websites collect a small
percentage of each pot, and they also charge fees for tournament
entries.
The buy-in for most tournament games at www.partypoker.com
is $50, and first, second and third place win $250, $150 and $100,
respectively. To speed up the game, blinds increase on a 10-hand
basis, topping out at 300 and 600 chips a hand. Since a huge volume
of people are logged in at any given time, new tournaments pop
up every five minutes. Monday at around 8 p.m., more than 55,000
players were seated at 7,317 tables.
Some tournaments offer huge payrolls for tiny
buy-ins. Back in July, sophomore business major Zachary Maltzman
won $17,000 on a $50 buy-in. Sponsored by www.gamingclubpoker.com,
the tournament boasted about 700 entrants.
"I actually jumped out of my chair before
the last cards had been dealt, because I was drawing dead,"
Maltzman said. "I just ran around my house. It was euphoria.
It's harder to believe, because it's online. Even though you realize
how incredible it all is, it's a little screen that pops up and
says 'Congratulations!'"
So far, Maltzman has won about $30,000, mostly
from tournaments. He hasn't gambled hardcore in a few weeks because
of the time commitments tournaments require.
"It's really stressful, and tournaments
take a lot of time, and if I'm not gonna concentrate on them then
it's not worth my time," he said.
With most poker sites, the money is instantly
transferred to (or deducted
from) your credit card or bank account when you cash out. The
big payoff or the bank-breaker is just a few clicks away.
"It's almost way too easy," said
Silverman, who lives in a house with four other online gamblers.
While his roommates mostly play for fun, Silverman counts on poker
revenues to keep him from merely scraping by on a menial college
job.
"I look at it more like a job than anything
else," he said. "It's not a steady job, but while I'm
in college, I look at it as a steady income. I personally think
that I will win nine out of 10 times."
Winning takes time, Silverman says, but it's
easy to forget about time when you're gambling. Silverman won
about $4,000 on a four-day stretch, during which he rarely put
his laptop down. Win, lose, it doesn't matter. Buy in with $50
and kiss the next few hours goodbye.
"It sucks you in, and you can play all
day," Joffe said. "Every hand's a new hope."
(C) 2003 The Diamondback via U-WIRE
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