May-June
2006
"Mathematics, Logic,
and Lady Luck"
Last spring, Jason Strasser '07 deftly navigated four
online poker games, placing hundred-dollar bets while
simultaneously explaining the collegiate poker craze
to Duke Magazine.
Strasser spent six weeks in the summer at the World
Series of Poker in Las Vegas. "We would get up, go
buy into the tournament for the afternoon," he says.
After the action was finished for the day, "we'd go
play the Bellagio for some cash games, play online
a little bit, go see a show, hang out."
By the time the preliminary rounds were over and the
tournament's "main event" arrived—offering a grand
prize of $12 million—he had racked up more than $130,000
in winnings. He played well and, after getting "insanely
unlucky on day four" of the main event, finished 169th.
Lady Luck apparently deserted Strasser for Doug Kim
'06, who finished seventh in the WSOP's main event,
winning $2.39 million.
In the early rounds, Kim says, he used strategies developed
playing online poker to maximize the value of good
hands against weak players. But "toward the end, you
have to be more aggressive," he says. "You have to
keep your opponents on edge.
It takes lots of observation, lots of processing."
Even with prize money and glowing praise from pay-per-view
announcers for his tough play, losing at the final
table wasn't easy, he says. "At the time, you're like,
‘Oh no, I just lost.
It's over.' Later it hits you that this is a significant,
life-changing amount of money."
Kim, who began a financial-consulting job in New York
in September, plans to invest his winnings. He is considering
playing in next year's WSOP; in the meantime, he may
play the occasional game for fun, if work permits.
Strasser, who describes his poker game as more "crazy
and reckless" than Kim's, will, on the other hand,
keep playing as much as he can. (In September, he won
a No Limit Hold 'Em event during the World Championship
of Online Poker, taking home $442,440, his largest
payoff to date for an individual tournament.)
"I'll look at banking, finance-type jobs," Strasser
says of his senior-year plans. "If one really jumps
out at me that I love, I'll take it. If not, I'll travel
and play cards for a year or two out of college and
go from there."
—Jacob Dagger
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