Oracle Online

Ronald and Frisvold are not alone in their interest, and they, like many others, have found different ways of entertainment through poker.

For those seeking a more personal game, there are weekly Texas Hold’em tournaments in Schilling Hall. For those who would rather hole up in a dorm room, a few clicks on the Internet can bring thousands of Las Vegas tables to a computer screen. Online poker now occupies the time of many students.

First-year Crystal Carr plays Texas Hold’em and seven-card stud poker at the website Partypoker.com. At
Partypoker, there are options to play for free with fake money, as well as buy-ins to different poker tournaments.

“I play online because I don’t like playing for money,” she said, “and the majority of people on campus play for money.”

Carr said she doesn’t play for money because she doesn’t believe she is good enough to win and doesn’t have extra money to lose. She plays simply for fun.

“[Poker] is just like any other form of entertainment č it’s something I enjoy doing every once in awhile to relax,” she said. “It’s not as mind-numbing as watching TV, but it’s not nearly as taxing as writing a paper.
And it beats the socks off of solitaire.”

While Carr prefers to keep her money safe in her bank account, there are students who prefer the thrill of the game when money is involved.

For Frisvold, poker has become part of his daily routine. He started years ago playing his older brother and friends for fake money, but now he enjoys playing “for real.”

He played once on campus with other students, but for the most part he sticks to playing online because he said it’s more convenient than finding others to play with.

“It’s just fast and easy online,” he said.

Ronald said he doesn’t bother playing poker online; rather, he prefers playing with other people.

“I don’t think [playing online] is as fun without other real players,” he said, “and I honestly don’t trust playing people over the Internet.”

The important thing to both is that they play with real money.

“It’s a lot more fun to play with real money because people play more realistically,” he said, “whereas when they’re not playing for real money, they don’t take it seriously. It takes the fun out of it.”

“I play for money because poker without money is an entirely different game,” Ronald said. “If there are no stakes, people throw chips around like it doesn’t matter because they have nothing to lose. If you want to play a serious game of poker, you have to play for money.”

Frisvold, however, said he is aware of the effect poker has had on his bank account.

“It can be depressing. You can lose a lot of money if you are not smart about it,” he said. “There are times where I’ll say I’ll put some more money in to win my money back, and then next thing I know, I’ll be down a lot more than I wanted to be down.”

Though Frisvold knows that gambling too much could result in losing all his money, he said his situation will never come to that.

“Sometimes I have extra money and sometimes I don’t have extra money. And I’ve come to the realization that as a college student you can’t really afford to throw money away,” Frisvold said.

“It’s an incentive to get my stuff done faster,” he added. “I tend to only play when I don’t really have anything else to do.”

Ronald thinks he’s broken even at poker, but admits that he’s a few hundred dollars down playing other card games, such as blackjack. He doesn’t feel that poker has affected his social and academic life. Like Frisvold, he mainly plays for fun.

Sophomore Tom Schadegg also plays poker with friends, mainly Texas Hold’em and five-card draw. He occasionally plays for money.

“Sometimes I like to play for money because there’s always that chance that you can win the money,” Schadegg said.

But he, like the others, says he’s more aligned with the philosophy that it’s fun to hang with his friends in a social, friendly environment.

“It’s fun just to hang out with the guys having a good old time.”