Assignment 1: I made a billion in PartyPoker!!

Hello all,

My name is Saurin Sanghvi and I just added this class a few days ago, so I am in a major catch up mode. Anyways, I am a senior in the College of Human Ecology and I thought this would be a very interesting class to take. Until now, the latter statement has definitely proved to be right.

I have always been fascinated about the Texas Hold’em phenomenon that suddenly took over the youth of this country for the past few years. Ever since ESPN started televising the World Championship of Poker Tournament that takes place in Las Vegas, everyone has been captivated by this exciting game. Even I was a huge fan and went on the online poker playing portals such as Pokerstars and Partypoker to try my luck out in the gambling world. What makes is more appealing to many young players is that you can gamble with fake money and can invite your friends around the country to join in on the fun. I remember in high school when I invited couple of my friends to play with me and we all chatted on AIM instant messenger and hustled the others playing with us online. I guess that’s another phenomenon that people need to worry about: cheating through AIM. The most interesting thing about this space is that it became popular really fast and has just become a part of a growing teen’s development.

The popularity of the internet portal has also greatly affected how it is perceived in the everyday world. Now, instead of looking upon poker as a bad game that makes you gamble, it is kind of looked upon as just a game that is played for fun. The emergence of poker has also been recognized here at Cornell University where there is a poker tournament held at Barton Hall.

Another reason for the popularity of this type of space is because it is a MUD and also an internet chat where people can interact with each other and make up characters so they come off like they know how to play poker. Therefore, the players in this space can play around with their anonymity by controlling how much they reveal about themselves. Furthermore, the live online chat can increase the synchronicity of this space.

All in all, I have been very interested in how the internet has affected communication and with new inventions such as chats, gaming servers and videoconferencing, more change is about to take place.