Jon Gardiner

The goal is to get a winning five-card hand using the two cards a player is dealt and the five that the "house" deals. When a new house card is revealed, players increase their bets or fold, depending on what the other players do. As in face-to-face poker, bluffing is a big part of the strategy.

While there are sites where players can wager "fake" money, most sites allow novices to wager as little as $10 to get in a game. Strasser keeps pots of real money in the various online sites he frequents. (He asks that the amount he maintains in Party Poker not be revealed; suffice it to say that it's somewhat below the poverty line for a family of four.) Today, he antes up $150 here, $70 there. Some games end after only one or two rounds of betting. "I can play sixty to seventy hands per hour, per table," says Strasser. In the midst of the action, he also checks his Duke e-mail and laments that he hasn't yet acquired course permission numbers for two biomedical engineering classes he needs to take in the fall.

Loud hallway conversations float by, a group of students from a neighboring dorm hammer nails into a deck project, and doors open and slam as the minutes tick by. Strasser's not easily distracted. "I actually prefer to play on my laptop in my friend's room while watching movies on his large-screen TV," he says. But, he notes, "poker and homework do not mix."

At one table he's been dealt a pair of sixes. Hoping for another six, he increases his bet by $100. The other players follow suit. The house reveals an 8, then a 7, then a 4 as the bidding continues to escalate. The house turns over an ace, then a jack--Strasser's out of luck. "Okay, here's where I lose money," he says nonchalantly. Within minutes, he's won $300 at another table.

Strasser claims not to care about the money and, watching him play, it's clear that's the case. Money ebbs and flows from his account, but he remains intent on the cards and other players' bets, not his own bottom line. "There is so much volatility in my win rate," he explains. "I win a lot, then I lose a lot. I don't get excited when I have a big win or a big loss because it usually evens out in the long run." When pressed, Strasser admits that the day he lost $30,000 was "pretty miserable." He says he heard of one player who lost $110,000 in four hours of play.

According to Empire Online, a provider of marketing services to the online gaming industry, online poker "has experienced rapid growth in excess of the growth of the overall online gaming market." As of this spring, the company estimates that more than two million people have played online poker, with more than 37,500 playing during peak times of the day on one or more of the approximately 200 online poker websites. (Strasser says he thinks that estimate sounds low and puts the figure closer to 100,000 people at peak times.) Empire Online estimates that North American players like Strasser represent around 75 percent of the total number of online poker players worldwide.

In a poker blog he wrote last year, Jon Schnaars '05 said that Duke, like most colleges and universities, has been bitten by the poker bug, and that spirited poker games in fraternity and off-campus houses are commonplace. Strasser says he estimates that Duke is among the top five universities in terms of the size and activity of its poker community. He, like many others, notes that a huge turning point in poker's visibility occurred when amateur player Chris Moneymaker (yes, that's really his name) won the 2003 World Series of Poker No Limit Hold 'Em, turning a $40 buy-in into winnings of $2,500,000.

For Strasser, who plans to combine his engineering degree and online risk-analysis expertise into a possible career in i-banking, consulting, or perhaps venture capital, the money is indeed a strong lure. But it's not the whole story.

"Earning income from poker means I don't have to rely on my parents as much for spending money," he says. "But it's also allowed me to travel and see places I've never been and meet a whole community of people. And, to be honest, I don't see how the popularity of online poker can last. I think there are a lot of beginners who will stop playing if they don't win."

Ross Katz, Strasser's roommate and also a junior, says he marvels at Strasser's lack of emotion or agitation despite fluctuations in winning. "Jason will win or lose thousands of dollars in a hand or over a night," says Katz. "When other people win and lose thousands of dollars in a hand or over a night, they flip out. They might break things or yell obscenities to the heavens. But Strass barely bats an eyelash.

"He has great judgment and incredible composure and has told me on several occasions not to worry about the things I can't control. He has clearly internalized that better than most twenty-one-year-olds."