02.20.07
A Hard Life Lesson: Students Struggle with Poker Debts
It’s the second time a search through the poker news archives has brought up specific accounts of college students and high school students struggling with debts turned in from gambling.
According to one recent online report, the director of the Prevention and Recovery Center at Mount Auburn Hospital has been fielding reports from college students who have massive debts from gambling and playing online poker. The report said that the debts claimed by students were as high as fifteen thousand dollars and cited as responsible were, of course, the latest trends and years of “poker-pumped television”.
Well, at the risk of being too harsh, it looks like it’s time for everyone – but young people in particular – to learn a little about money management. One U-Mass student spilled his guts and told the whole story of the onset of his gambling problem. What happened? Basically, he started playing for free and then started playing for fast cash. He let the winning go to his head. There was nothing business-like about his thinking and money management. Behaving like he won the lottery, the student in question started using his credit card to buy food and meet other living expenses. All so he could carry around several big bills and feel good about his winnings. Big mistake. He was gambling, putting money on the table that he really couldn’t afford to lose. Hmmm…definitely time to review money management strategies.
Instead of rallying for the end of poker, it seems far more constructive to implement programs like Poker 101 that’s offered at the University of Richmond, which is apparently offering a college course for students that want to pursue a career in poker. Well, not exactly. The course is offered as “no credit” and it meets once a week for three weeks using Monopoly money as a teaching aid.
For $69 students are introduced to the basics of poker: the math behind poker probability, the psychology of poker, and poker strategies. It’s the second year that the course has been offered and it is apparently very popular and, although there’s no formal test, class participants demonstrate what they have learned at the end of the course, working out the general lessons and strategies picked up as part of a demonstration.
The poker world doesn’t bring doom and gloom to every high school and college age enthusiast, not by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, one student has virtually been able to give up on studying law (which, let’s face it, is generally appealing because it leads to high paying jobs) simply by playing poker. Despite swings, the student apparently won enough money to build a house (from scratch) worth several hundreds and thousands of dollars playing on his laptop in the school library. He also managed to amass a six figure buffer in his bank account to protect against even those most violent, natural downward tilts.
What lessons should we learn from this, from the ups and the downs of youngsters playing poker? Basically, money management is key.
Golden Rule: Don’t Ever Bet More Than You Can Afford To Lose!
Tags: Bankroll, Bankroll Managment, Fund Managment, Gambling Tilt, Play Money, Poker and Psychology, Poker News, Real Money