party poker

You won't see him checking your ID at Kilroy's for extra cash. You won't see him working for wages at the checkout counter at Target. In fact, you might not see Roger Teska much at all.

That's because the junior biology major pays his tuition by putting in long hours in front of his computer screen. Teska and others like him have a very profitable knack for online gambling.

"Professional card players today can't afford not to play online because there's so much easy money," Teska said.

He estimates he has made about $50,000 since he began playing online poker two years ago.

Many students choose the reliability of a summer job or paid internship as their source of spending cash. Others, like Teska, relish the high-stakes, high-gain potential of online gambling. Teska said his online bankroll has been known to swing thousands of dollars up or down in a single day.

"I make my own hours," he said. "I don't have a boss. It's more rewarding (than a normal job) because generally you know that either you were better than the other player or you got lucky."

Teska is part of a rapidly developing poker culture. Spurred by televised broadcasts of the World Series of Poker, the popularity of online gambling has grown rapidly in the last few years. Partypoker, which began operating in 2001, is widely considered the industry leader in both users and profits.

Most sites allow players to gamble for free, or to gamble with their own money for real winnings or losses. Some allow users to gamble at up to eight tables at once.

While some players have struck it rich, the Web sites make the real cash. Sites like partypoker.com take a "rake," or a negligible portion of each game's winnings, to make their profit. With thousands of tables operating simultaneously, the results add up. Although companies are privately held, Web sites that track the industry estimate sites like partypoker make millions of dollars every day.

Teska has big plans for his career, as well. He said he puts in about eight hours per day, six days a week. He uses his earnings to pay for his diploma "as a back up." He hopes to one day play in the multi-million dollar face-to-face tournaments he watches on ESPN. In the meantime, online poker pays the bills.

"I don't look at it from a gambling aspect -- it's more of a job," he said. "There was a lot of thrill when I first started. Now, I sit down and I'm going to work."

The most successful "professional" gamblers can qualify for the World Series of Poker, a televised tournament where players compete for millions of dollars. Contestants play Texas Hold'em, a version of poker in which players are dealt two cards and must make the best possible hand by combining their hand with five community cards.

Junior Patrick Posten, who first logged on to partypoker.com in August, said Texas Hold'em is by far the most popular way to gamble on the Internet. Although he said he lacks the startup funding to truly make it big in the online gambling world, he hopes he can work his way up by gradually buying into bigger games.

"Right now, I'm just getting my spring break paid for," he said. "Who knows, though. Maybe one day you'll see me on that TV (playing in the World Series of Poker)."

Posten has made as much as $800 in a single day -- better than any summer job he has worked. But as with any high-risk monetary endeavor, the losses can be just as discouraging, not to mention time-consuming.

"Some nights, I start playing at 10:00," he said. "When I'm up $400 or $500 and I keep getting big hands, I'll stay up until 7 a.m."

To ensure profitability, he said poker players should bet in small increments and wait for a good hand before betting large amounts

Sophomore Sam Bogdon first began playing poker online in high school for fun, but he got serious when he came to IU. But now, after making about $4,000 last year, he said he has retired as a professional gambler.

Many sites boast sophisticated software to ensure game security and to prevent players from cheating, but Bogdon isn't convinced.

"Stuff happens that you would never see happen in real life," he said. "You see ridiculous hands where two people hit four-of-a-kind. I bought a card tracker last year. Because everything is computer generated, they can pick up the patterns. I think it's all rigged."

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