by Steve Keslar
S-Keslar@onu.edu
Frank Trey Perkins, P2, looks like the average college student. In between classes and studying, he enjoys throwing football, playing video games, and just hanging out with friends. If you were to look at him, you wouldn’t be able to tell he was any different than the next guy. But if you were to follow him back to his room, you would find that usually at least once a day he sits down at his computer to become drtre1987.
Trey plays poker. He tries to play at least every day, but occasionally takes a day or two off. He likes to play for one to two hours in a session. This is what he sat down to do on May 1, in his brown leather chair in front of his computer. Living in Stambaugh Hall has not provided Trey with necessarily the ideal comfort situation, but maneuvering his mouse in between his textbooks and notebooks he makes it work. A florescent light illuminates his work area. He logs onto the website Full Tilt Poker, which is an online poker casino where you can play a variety of card games ranging from Texas Hold ‘em to Seven Card Stud to Razz. Trey’s game of choice is No-limit Hold ‘em. His favorite hand is pocket Aces. When asked why, he replied with a laugh, “Because it has the highest chance of winning.”
After logging on, he sits down at a heads-up table where he plays against only one other player. Trey has $50 sitting at the table with him, and his opponent sits down with over $100. In an instant, his eyes widen and he lights up. “Yes! I’ve played him before! He’s terrible.” Trey clicks on the player’s name and a list of notes fills the screen meticulously describing the opponent’s playing style. This is a list Trey made for this player the last time he met him, when Trey quite severely outplayed him. Trey’s opponent apparently recognizes Trey as well, because he leaves almost immediately after forfeiting his first small blind.
Trey first started playing poker with his friends at home several years ago, mostly using nickels and dimes to play on poker night about once per week. The big change in his poker career came when he arrived at college as a freshman; it was the first time he could freely play poker online. He began by depositing $50 onto Party Poker, which he doubled. New legislation, however, made it less likely for credit card companies to permit deposits to online poker sites that are based in the U.S. This forced Trey to cash out the money in his account and switch over to Canada based Full Tilt Poker. He once again deposited $50, but this time he lost it all. Knowing he could be successful, Trey deposited another $100, and that has been the last time he needed to deposit money.
After his first opponent fled from the table, Trey decided to play on a .25/.50 cent blind, six-handed table. Once again he places $50 at the table with him, but doesn’t play a single hand for four minutes. The first hand he even sees is an Ace 6, where he is the big blind. Everyone folds, and he increases his stack by $1.25. Seven hands later he sees his first good hand -pocket queens. He was only able to convince players to put $7.00 into the pot before Trey takes it.
Thirty-eight hands later, Trey has $51.80 in front of him. One way to describe his play would be to say he is patient. Some would say that is an understatement. He has no problem laying down good cards; he does it quite often when he knows the odds are still against him. He understands the odds, and he only risks his money when the percentages are in his favor. This is how Trey excels in the poker world. He has read over 15 poker books, where the mathematics behind the game is explained. On his 39th hand at the table, Trey finally hits a hand and boosts his stack to $71.50.
Trey will usually play three or four tables at a time. This maximizes profits, he says, because you get to play more hands in an hour. Clearly his strategy has worked, as over the past year he has accrued as much as $3550 in his online bank account. This high for him was only two weeks ago, but since then he has been on a downswing, and his account now sits at $2150. He is taking the recent losses pretty well, though. “I lost like $700 in a day; it was pretty disappointing. It happens, though. I’ve had swings like that before. You can’t play poker and not expect to have a downswing,” Trey said.
Back at his computer screen, he is juggling four tables at once on his screen, using a computer program to keep tabs on all his opponents, even if he is not watching them himself. “It gives me the opportunity to surf the web while I play. I’ll check Facebook or YouTube while I play,” he said. He admits at times it can get boring, and that is another incentive to play several tables at once. After one hour in this session, he is down $30 from when he started. He’s not upset, though. Instead he takes a sip of his Tiger Gatorade and keeps playing. Half an hour later, he closes the poker Website down. He finished a positive $120 on the day. Not bad for an hour and a half of “work.”
Trey takes playing poker seriously, and it has clearly paid off for him after less than two years of playing online. If he continues this progress, by the time he graduates with his PharmD, poker may be his career, and he may never need to see the inside of a pharmacy at all.