GTimes
Jordan Berkowitz powers up his Toshiba laptop in the family room of his Marple Township home. He’s going to play a little poker.
He hasn’t slept in 24 hours, having played online all night. But he’s an accommodating kid.
He logs on, and jumps into a $100/$200 game with a $4,000 bankroll.
"That’s the average buy-in (for this size game)," he explains.
He’s played in bigger ones. The $300/$600 games, Jordan says, are "ridiculous."
"You can swing $100,000 in a day," he says. "You can lose $20,000 in 10 minutes."
Jordan just turned 18 years old. He’s been playing online poker for two years and is already considered to be one of the top online Texas hold ’em players in the country.
"Two years ago I had $20,000 in the bank," said Jordan, money he’d won playing a card game called Magic the Gathering. Then poker caught his fancy.
"I lost (the $20,000) playing $20/$40 games. But I was hooked."
He played on his mother’s credit card with her permission. It took some time, and some additional parental investment, but soon he was winning a lot more than he was losing.
Wait a minute, you say. Isn’t it illegal for minors to gamble thousands of dollars online? Not necessarily. Because most of these virtual gaming tables are based offshore, most state and federal age restrictions don’t apply. And given that his mother, Pagona, has given her financial blessing (however reluctantly) to Jordan’s poker education, who’s to complain?
Last summer, Jordan came in seventh in the World Championship of Online Poker. It cost him $2,500 to enter and his share of the payout was $72,000. By December, he was up nearly $250,000 for the year. But then a winter cold-streak nearly "bankrupted" him. He says he’s "back on his feet" now. The $40,000 he won last Friday certainly helped.
But for every Jordan Berkowitz there are a thousand kids and adults who have lost more than they can afford gambling online. People who go tens - even hundreds -- of thousands of dollars into debt and never dig their way out.
This being National Problem Gambling Awareness Week, I ask Jordan if he has any advice for kids who are thinking of following his lead.
"DON’T DO IT," is his advice.
"This lifestyle is really hard, mentally and emotionally," he says seriously. "The swings (are incredible). It’s a big roller coaster of crazy emotions. Sometimes it’s too hard even to deal with."
File this under "do as I say, not as I do."
A few minutes later, Jordan is clicking back and forth between a 10-player tournament and a $100/$200 game. It’s not unusual for him to play up to four different games at a time. Zipping back and forth to quickly analyze, then to check, raise or fold. Mostly fold.
"The trick is to be very patient," he says.
Sitting in his family room, talking about cards and chatting about his life, he seems your fairly typical upper middle-class teenager -- though more mature and serious than most. He is polite, thoughtful and self possessed.
However, when he starts playing poker a noticeable change occurs. As he explains his play, his contempt for his competition oozes out like oil.
"This guy’s the worst," Jordan says after taking a hand off a competitor. "He’s an idiot because he sat down at a $100/200 table with only $2,000."
When another player catches a jack for an inside straight to beat his aces over, Jordan sulks.
"A gut-shot jack for the straight," he says. "He knows what he did. He knows." Like he ought to be embarrassed. "I had him drawing almost dead. 11.5 to 1."
Down to three players in the tournament, the player to Jordan’s left raises. Jordan raises him right back.
"That was a steal play," Jordan says. The guy folds and Jordan takes down the pot.
"It’s just mastery," he says of his own game. "I’m playing much better than this guy. But it doesn’t mean I’m going to win."
He doesn’t. He comes in second. He wins $600 for his $200.
"These guys are all terrible," Jordan announces. "They don’t even know how terrible they are."
He wins another $1,000 pot in the $100/200 game and it brings forth another burst of bravado.
"You’re learning from a pro, my friend. When I’m 21, just wait. I’m going to break out. I’m awesome at multi-table tournaments. I’m friends with pros and training with the best people."
(He counts among those friends David Williams, another phenom who came in second at last year’s World Series of Poker.)
In just two years, Jordan figures he’s played "maybe a million hands of poker." He also figures he’s getting better with every hand he plays.
His own goal is to be the youngest player ever to get to the final table at the WSOP.
I wouldn’t bet against him.
Would you?
