Author: Kelly Neukom
The man sitting on one end of the poker table might intimidate some. He has shoulder-length black hair and half of his face is hidden by large black sunglasses. He sits across from his opponent, a cheerful-looking blonde man, and studies the two cards given to him by the female dealer. He carefully places his chips on the table and waits for the other man to follow suit.
But the chips he puts down aren’t real chips. Neither are the cards, the dealer or either of the men, for that matter. This is a virtual poker game taking place online, and the black-haired man is actually Oxy student Corey Abbott (senior), who looks nothing like his online persona.
Abbott laughed. “I liked the shades,” he said.
With the recent release of 21, a movie based on the true story of six MIT students who trained to become blackjack experts and ended up taking millions of dollars from Las Vegas casinos, the American public has been introduced to a new demographic of gambler: the savvy college student. Although the clichéd image of a college-aged gambler is that of the drunk 20-something losing hundreds at casinos on spring break, many college students nowadays (including those at Oxy) have become master gamblers by reading books, practicing with friends and-a resource previous generations never had-playing on the internet.
One of the most popular types of gambling for Oxy students is poker. In fact, one of the most successful poker players on campus wasn’t even introduced to the game until his sophomore year.
“I got introduced to poker by my roommate who was avid poker player in my sophomore year,” Tony Jhang (senior), who goes by the nickname “Boogy Woody,” said. “He jotted me down all the rules that I had to know and I watched him play online poker and tried to pick up something out of it.”
Jhang was so intrigued by the game that he has been an avid player ever since.
“What I personally like about gambling is that it involves a lot of psychological and mathematical components, which [requires] a lot of patience and perseverance,” he said. “When I play poker with my friends, it excites me because it involves a lot of mental and psychological war during poker sessions.”Jhang has spent two years learning to master poker. He has read six to eight books on the subject and has used the internet as a source for helpful tips. Practice also improves his playing abilities.
“I drive to a lot of local Los Angeles card clubs if I have enough time to play poker,” he said. “I play two to three hours every day online and all the experience I’ve gained playing from online significantly improved my poker skills.”
Jhang thinks of poker as a “part-time job,” since he earns enough money to make it one. However, gambling so often also has its pitfalls.
“I lost a lot of money my first couple of months of playing [online], but I made it back as my skill improved significantly,” Jhang said. “I’ve won $200-300 regularly in casino and online poker, but that means I lose $200-300 sometimes in one day.”Gambling at Oxy is a much safer bet, even if the returns aren’t as large. “People at Oxy play for only $5-10, which won’t break anyone’s wallet.”
Abbott also considers playing poker his part-time job, as he “[makes] as much on average as someone working on campus does,” he said. He first became interested in poker in high school, when he realized its “competitive nature.”
“It seemed like a game that could be figured out,” Abbott said. “It was a challenge.”
He has certainly risen to the challenge, as he now earns about $500 per month through online poker. He plays five days a week for one to two hours a day, usually in the $10 matches.”The difference between playing with people at Oxy and people online is that people who go to college are smart,” he said.
“They can figure out how to play pretty quickly. People online are more predictable-they don’t adjust well or change how they play really. I can change my strategy based on how they’re playing.”
It also doesn’t hurt that the gambling site Abbott uses is linked to a sports betting site. “It means that the people playing there are just betters by nature, not necessarily good poker players,” he said. This is especially true in the $10 matches. “When it’s that small of an amount of money, I don’t even consider it money. When it’s more than that, I get more nervous and I don’t play the way I should. $10 is not as nerve-wracking.”
His most successful weekend was when he was entered into eight six-person tournaments and won seven of them. “I made about $300 in two days,” he said. “That was a good weekend.”
While Jhang and Abbott have both won more than they’ve lost through online playing, many college students don’t have the same luck. College students still have the youthful propensity to enjoy taking risks and go out of their way to do so.
According to the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling, “Teenagers have a problem gambling rate of 10 to 17 percent, a rate two to three times higher than the general population.”
Poker site ads often pop up in sidebars on Facebook and promise that students will “win their tuition.” Popular television shows like Celebrity Poker Showdown have celebrities like Matthew Perry and Dave Navarro gambling to win money for charities. Even ESPN, a sports channel, airs the World Series of Poker for one-and-a-half months in the summer.
In an interview on campusprogress.org, Director of the New Jersey Council on Compulsive Gambling Ed Looney said he is worried about the new craze. “I’ve been doing this for 35 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this Texas Hold ‘Em rage,” he said. “When crack cocaine came out, the phenomenon was similar.”
He is actually not that far off. According to an article published in the medical journal Neuron, researchers found that gambling affects the brain in a similar way to cocaine. The areas of the brain stimulated by the excitement and experience of gambling are the same as those stimulated by euphoria-inducing drugs.
Do college students really gamble more than the general population, though? According to a report made by The Journal of Gambling Studies, the answer is a resounding “yes.” The publication reported that 1.6 percent of people have engaged in pathological gambling. In addition to that, 3.8 percent have sub-clinical gambling problems. The rates for college students were much higher. In this age group, 5 percent were pathological gamblers and more than 9 percent reported gambling problems at sub-clinical levels.
The Christian Science Monitor recently reported that 40 percent of 18 to 22-year-olds gambled monthly in 2007. Problem gamblers between the ages of 18 and 25 lose an average of $30,000 each year and rack up $20,000 to $25,000 in credit card debt, according to the California Council on Problem Gambling.
Many of the gambling addiction sites point out that it is much harder to spot a gambling addiction than a drug or alcohol addiction. While the latter two are easy to recognize from the way a person acts, a gambling addict shows no outward signs of being in trouble. Taking drugs and drinking are also often done socially, whereas online gambling is considered a “solitary” addiction.
In 2005, Harvard researchers found that out of 119 colleges surveyed, only 22 percent had a gambling policy. Oxy is one of those few institutions. The policy can be found on the Campus Safety website. It reads: “A summary of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) regulations pertaining to gambling is given to all student athletes. NCAA rules prohibit sports gambling of any kind. In addition to student-athletes, this rule applies to coaches, support staff, equipment managers, student managers, athletic administrators, athletic trainers, student trainers and secretarial support.”
It is interesting to note that the gambling policy only prohibits athletes and those involved with athletics from gambling.
“There is no other policy prohibiting gambling on campus
,” Director of Campus Safety Holly Nieto said. “Proving there is no other policy violation (such as noise or alcohol), officers would not break up [a poker] game.”
However, it seems as if Oxy doesn’t need a stricter policy than the one already in place. Most of the students playing poker on campus do so in a recreational manner, like playing games with friends or participating in the poker tournament during The Getaway.
Sean, a sophomore who wishes to remain anonymous, played in the tournament and was good enough to reach the final table, but winning money is never his ultimate goal. “Playing poker at Oxy is really friendly-it doesn’t matter who wins,” he said. “The winner will take the rest of us out to movies or use the money to host a party. It’s just another means of entertainment, like playing board games.”
Sean said that playing card games is a lot more social than other forms of entertainment popular at Oxy. “Instead of playing video games and just staring at a screen, you’re talking to each other and simultaneously not trying to give anything away about your hand,” he said. “It’s fun to try and outwit your friends.”
Simon, a junior who also wished to remain anonymous, agreed with Sean that gambling is not taken very seriously on campus. “I was once playing poker in Wylie and the lighting was really bad, so I thought I saw a six that gave me a straight,” he said. “[the six] was actually a five, so I only had a pair of fives instead of a straight. When the people I was playing with found out, they offered to give me my money back because it wasn’t my fault. But I let them keep it-they had won fair and square.”
Winning money isn’t first and foremost on Simon’s mind either. He enjoys other aspects of the game much more. “The first time I played poker, I realized how deep it was,” he said. “You have to put a lot of thought into playing it. You have to have a certain amount of understanding of other players and be able to read them. You also have to have knowledge of yourself.”
Grayson DeJesus (senior) holds weekly poker nights and also loves the social emphasis of the game. “I haven’t really kept track of whether I’m richer or poorer since I hit the poker table,” he said. “Either way, it’s all worth it for the conversation and company I normally play with. I’ve played for crackers or donuts for a goofy time.”
But playing for money is still exciting. “Whether tossing around chump change or $20’s, you still know that you have the options of losing your money and feeling broke and silly, or leaving the table with more than you sat down with and knowing your pockets are a little heavier after some good conversation and good beers with friends,” he said.
Then there’s the old standby, strip poker, which will probably always be popular. “It’s silly and you laugh and everyone normally has a grand ole time,” DeJesus said.
As of right now, Oxy students seem to be staying level-headed about gambling and some are even making a profit from it.
Those making money on poker seem to be thriving by never risking too much. The rest of the student body has avoided being caught in the trap of addiction by placing more emphasis on fun and friends than on winning. As far as student gambling goes, Oxy seems to have been dealt a pretty sweet hand.
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