I was interviewed in the UWM Leader regarding online poker.

A lot of things may contribute to the fact that college students account for a large percentage of problem gamblers. According to ABC News, one in 20 college students has an online gambling problem. Forty-two percent of college students in a Harvard study said they had gambled in the past year.

Online gambling might become harder, not just for college students, but for everyone if a bill to ban credit card companies from paying offshore casinos passes in the U.S. Senate. The object of the bill is to reduce the online gambling problems and addictions.

Jake Gill, a freshman and linguistics and business major, said he used to play five to ten hours a week on pokerroom.com. The most he’s lost in one sitting is $800 and the most he’s won in one sitting is $3,000.

“That is hard to answer because it all depends on the limit that you’re playing at,” Gill said. He hasn’t played much since he turned 21 in June, but he used a company called Neteller to transfer money from his bank account to the online poker site.

Andrew Greenwood, a junior in the School or Architecture and Urban Planning, used his debit card to transfer money to a poker website. Greenwood said that of his friends who play poker, about four out of five them also play poker online.

“I tried it once, but lost what I put in pretty quickly and haven’t bothered to add more money to my account,” Greenwood said. “I prefer to lose the money to people I can see.”

Both Gill and Greenwood agree that online gambling is addictive and that college students can easily get addicted.

“College students have a lot of time on their hands,” Greenwood said. “The ones I know who spend the most time playing poker online are the ones whose parents pay for college and don’t do much homework.”

Psychotherapist Debra Wentz warns of the danger of an addiction to online gambling due to the fact that it is so accessible.

“It’s easy money. It’s not having to get a real job, you can do it from where you live,” Wentz said. “You can lose your house, lose your car, lose your family.”

When it comes to students, though, Wentz said it’s not a specific personality type that gets addicted, but that college students are very at risk.

“There is time on their hands and it’s kind of a cultish thing,” Wentz said. “You’ll see small pockets of students gambling.”

Gill knows firsthand about the way that poker sucks a person in.

“You completely lose track of time,” Gill said. “There’s no currency in front of you. There would be times where I would play all night because [I’m] doing good.”

Gill said that college students gambling is somewhat like a phase. The gambling problem might decrease once students get out of school and start working more he said.

“The easy access that the younger generation has to playing poker online does possibly bring out people with addictive behavior,” Gill said. “I do think that the younger you are, the more susceptible you might be to an addiction.”

Wentz believes that more needs to be done to help addictive behaviors, but that it involves addressing the individual, not society as a whole.

“People who typically involve themselves in compulsive gambling… they’re looking for distractions. Distractions from other things,” Wentz said. “That’s what addictive behavior is.”

Even though online gambling is addictive, the question remains as to whether or not it is an issue that needs to be regulated by the government.

“It seems like such a petty issue for our government to be worrying about,” Gill said. “In the end, it’s really not going to prevent people from playing poker. Most poker players are going to argue that this is a game of skill that involves money.”

Wentz does not think that the bill to ban online gambling will do anything to stop addictive gamblers. The problem with gambling does not have to do with having money available, it has to do with the eternal drive for behavior she said. Wentz said that we just need more treatment for people with addictive behaviors.

“Most people, if they have an addiction, know they have an addiction,” Gill said. “If they have a problem, they’re going to find a way around it.”

Straight to the River!

I just wanted to share a tourny result that I had last night in a 65 dollar live game. I was playing in my first local tourny (I just turned 21 and wanted to bone up before Vegas) We were in the fourth round of blinds (30min each) and they were at 100/200. I had a very tight image at the table showing only quad tens and flipping over (after the hand was dead) a nut straight and pocket kings and one 10,10 laydown when I was for sure that my opponent had kings(which he showed). I was stealing pots from position and had built up my chip stack to 6700 (second in chips at the table) I was in middle position and looked down at two red queens. At this point there was 500 in the pot (sb,bb one limper) in the pot but I didn't want callers (the table was pretty loose) so I made it 1000 to go. Only one player called (he was a loose player who liked to make risky calls, but they had been paying off all night) The flop came K,3,5 all clubs. I had no club in my hand so I checked and he checked behind, the turn came a 4 of spades (at this point my read on him was no club middle pair) so I pushed all in for the 5,700 hoping to buy the pot or double up if called. The player thought for a while (he had about 10,000 in chips and was chip leader at the table) after about 3min he made the call and fliped over 6,6 giving him an open ended straight draw with one card coming. The river came a 2 and my tourny was done. Now for the whole hand I was about a 80/20 fav. and I think I played the hand right but In hindsight perhaps I should have bet the pot on the flop for value and pushed on the turn allowing there was no club.

Gearing Up for Vegas

Well as the summer is on its way its time to start thinking about hitting the poker rooms in Vegas. I will be heading down for 5 days starting June 18th. I have to say that I can't wait for Vegas!!!!! I will be sitting in at the MGM Grand for there daily tourny and sitting at the 2-4 tables. I will only be bringing a 500 dollar bankroll because I am going with my Dad and im sure that he will be helping the gambling itch. I will be sure to keep you guys posted on my Vegas results!

A break from Internet Poker

Last week monday I went online to check my bankstatement only to find that it was -700.00! I was flabergasted and didn't know what could have happened. After a closer look it turns out that I fell victom to a online hacker who got a hold of my neteller info and tried to clean me out. The hacker over the course of three days tried to steal $2,450.00. Due to this event I'm taking a break from internet poker so that things can get settled. I have to say that I was very happy with the way neteller reacted to my phone call. They have a team which investigates things like this and they are working to try and bust the hacker who stole my money. I will be turning 21 soon so I will be able to play poker in the live casino that is just minutes from my house so things could be worse poker wise, but unless I have a good run in Vegas it looks like I will be unable to qualify online for the WSOP this year (which was my goal). I will be sure to write about my tales from the real felt but internet poker is getting a nice break.

The icy cold deck of cards

Yesterday in my local 5 dollar buy in no-limit tourney that I frequent I was put to a true test, it was no longer me vs. my opponents it was me and the deck and we were at war. I started the game playing tight, we like a longer game so we use 15 minute blinds with a starting stack of 5500 chips the blinds starting at 25/50. This may seem short however we generally play with as few as 3 and as many as 6 players. I played a few hands early on with no sucess on flop turn of river. I tried to steal a few hands and found my self down to 3700 in chips with the blinds going up. The only problem with our small blinds is that my friends over play in the early structure of the tourney, today however the game was tight. I find that I control the pace of the game which makes me feel pretty good because I can steal small pots in position and get a good feel of where I'm at in any given hand.

Yesterday would have been the same however I was just cold, in the first 45 minutes of play I had not made even a pair on the flop and that does included my mucked hands. I didn't get to concerned yet so I just was sitting low trying to improve my reads on the guys a play with two to three times a week. My thought was wait to wake up in a hand and double through after that I can switch gears and give theys guys a run for there money. Well with the blinds a 150-300 and my best hand of the night a pair of nines not holding up it was time to take a stand. I had 1100 in chips left and they were going fast, I was in the big blind for 300 and had two limpers to me. I looked down at Qs7d and made up my mind, I had the computer hand half the hands people hold are worse than mine half are better and I was about to find out which half both the boys fell in. I raised all in and was called by both within a heart beat. The flop comes with no help and the turn and river don't improve my hand, at the showdown the button flips two aces and the sb turns AJ off. OUCH!

After that I spent my time watching both the players in a heads up match that could put a monk to sleep, there was no play for about 25 minutes then they both went all in preflop with bad aces (a3 off vs a7 off) and the A7 took it down. In this time I didnt even see a show down once so was unable to improve my reads at all. We were able to get one more player however and got another game going and it was on like donkey kong. The cards started to flow and I was able to clean up in two rounds of blinds. The deck lost this battle and I still netted a 10 dollar win for the day!

The Seven Emotions and shutting them out on the felt

Well last night I found my self with a broke bankroll and I was furious, I will be the first to admit I was on tilt and crawling in my head (A dangerous place when I'm not trying to make the best move but come up with reasons why I'm not running well right now) can I never hit a hand... why do my nut flush draws never come through... WHAT THE HELL!!!! After a nights rest and some driving and thinking I realized that A) I was tilting and B) I knew I was tilting and did nothing about it...Inn a poker game not fixing your tilt can only mean one thing, your going for broke. Today is a new day and I'm not tilting (I'm also taking a week or two off from poker due to my win/loss record... I gotta get my head straight and the money needs to flow in not out) so how can I address my tilt issue in a way that will help me. I'm not looking for a bandage to patch this up; I'm looking for a surgery to cure my tilt because if I keep this up I will be a suicide king in the poker game.

With that little rant I should address my blog title once and for all. The suicide king for those of you who don't know is the king of hearts nicknamed the suicide king because in standard deck of cards he is holding a knife pointed at his head; so why chose this as my name, its simple. I chose this name for everything that the card represents. First and foremost it's a King, a power card that demands respect, its fracking royalty! It's not the best in the deck but everyone knows that AA and KK (the two best starting hands in poker) don't win every time anyway. Second its a heart, and I like to think that heart is something I posses, not the mushy kind (although I can win over the ladies if need be:) ) but the kind that does not give up and has the will to win. To say this is needed would be an understatement, it is essential. Third the fing knife, now you can look at this in a couple of ways; the first is that this king is nuts and he is trying to kill himself, the second is that this king has balls, he is willing to put it all on the line. For what, I'm not sure but come on that is something you gotta have in this game, balls. So for me the knife represents the latter.

The real subject I would like to talk about is the title of this post; the seven emotions and shutting them out on the felt. My idea behind this came from reading Shogun (if you have not read this book check it out) in which Lord Toranaga one of the samurai fighting for power in Japan tells a man how he is able to hold on to everything and deal with every situation. He talks about patience and how you achieve patience by suppressing the seven emotions which are as follows: Joy, Anger, Anxiety, Adoration, Grief, Fear and Hate. If you let emotions get the best of you then watch your chips walk away.

Emotion #1 Joy:"Intense and especially ecstatic or exultant happiness"
So how can this be a bad thing? How about overplaying a pair, or feeling like your king of the world and you can buy any hand, when you get over joyfull you forget about watching other opponents and getting reads, calculating odds and onlyplay positionn, all things which can lead to danger.

Emotion #2 Anger:"A strong feeling of displeasure or hostility"
hmmmm can you say tilt! Anger also is a quick way to put down your table image, it will cause people to leave the table or even change their play if they are adaptable players. I know that if I see a player at the table who is running there mouth im the first to set a trap and pounce on them. Anger is always a good thing to suppress in life and on the felt the same rule applies.

Emotion #3 Anxiety: "A state of uneasiness and apprehension, as about future uncertainties"
In poker this is something that you don't need in your head, it will make you more easy to read and you overplay and underplay hands, you need to take things as they come and deal in the moment, its just another way to through your game off.

Emotion #4 Adoration: "The act of worship"
Simply put don't get to full of yourself, as poker players we should always be learning adapting to situations and assessing the goings on. When you start thinking about the money or our own skill level we seem to tune things out and with no limit your chips are always at risk at all times. You know what they say the bigger they are the harder they fall.

Emotion #5 Grief: "A source of deep mental anguish"
We can't crawl into our heads, you gotta keep sharp and in focus, its hard not to get caught up on a hand when someone back door flushes ormiraclel card on the river gote gotta keep the chin up and the mind sharp. Its another tilt emotion that needs to go.

Emotion #6 Fear: "A feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger"
Don't play in fear. I find that fear comes when playing over my head in a game where every blind hurts my bankroll. Playing in fear will cause you to miss bets that should be made, you will play weak and let people catch hands, you may lay down a calling hand because you can't afford it. Fear is dangerous in poker... how can you bluff a pot if your in fear, it just doesn't work and in a B&M game it will show even more.

Emotion #7 Hate: "Intense animosity or dislike; hatred"
Yet anosuppresspress, playing with hate can make you rather stupid, you might play back at people giving them action when you have nadda, you may call with terrible hands playing out of position and hate can also lead to some serious tilt. Yes poker is a constant battle but you wanna keep your head clear and in focus, anger is an easy way to blow off chips and get out of the game.

Remember poker is a battle of wits and skill not luck. I will try to keep my seven emotions in check and I hope other will to.

Rally Back!

Well, this week has been a rough one online, but im on the up and up, after getting killed in my normal 4/4 game by lose callers and turn river chases I decided to switch it up a bit and build the bankroll oldschool style at the .25/.25 no limit game. I sat in a five handed game ( I like to play pots and get some action going in the middle)and play a tight aggressive stratigy, and it payed off. After about an hour of play I was sitting on 100 dollars and controlling the table putting people off hands and only showing about 5% of the pots I was involved in... okay so things are coming back so its time to rally right? Correct, after that I jumped up to a 1/1 limit table and found a QJo on the button, I make it 5 to keep the bad hands out and get two callers and flop two pair with a blank on the board, I keep the betting going and have both players in till the end of the hand and rake in 75 dollars!!!! LETS GO. After some more tight play I bring the bankroll for the night to 200 even as the game is getting soft and switch up to a 2/2 no limit game (again 5 handed) First hand on the button im dealt As10s and make it 6 to go. I get two callers and im in positon. The flop comes 10c8h5d so I've made top pair top kicker and with about 18 dollars in the middle, I make a pot sized bet and get a call from both. The turn comes 2h at this point I'm figuring no help so I put in 25 to go. The player to my left folds and the other player comes over the top for 50 more. I put him on 10J and call he flips over 10 9 and I take it down putting my stack to right around 330 after the first hand. After that I played tight and took down a few more pots and cashed out the day at 359.00. Im going to go back to the 1/1 no limit tables and play tight and bring the bankroll back up before I shoot for the higher limits but im getting my confidence back. If you play poker you will understand when I say that if you think your the loser at the table 95% of the time you will be.