Can Texas Hold 'Em poker tournaments - which can cost as little as $25 to "buy-in" - provide safe thrills for those with a taste for gambling?
Or even for those with a gambling addiction?
"A person addicted to gambling gets the same rush betting $10,000 in chips as if it was really $10,000," said Michael J. "Mick" Alexander, a local attorney and poker player.
"He gets the same gratification as betting the family's grocery money, but he's not," Alexander added. "He's only betting $25."
Some gambling addiction experts say that Alexander might be correct in some aspects of his theory - but not in all.
"I understand the logic there," said RIck Paul, vice president of clinical services for the Southwestern Indiana Mental Health Center. "It may be a little more controled, but I can understand how someone can get in trouble with it.
"Because there's always another game, a bigger game," Paul added.
Alexander plays at Hold 'Em House, a local establishment were nearly 100 people can participate in Texas Hold 'Em tournaments every night of the week. The operator of Hold 'Em House has failed to return several calls from The Star Press.
The "buy-in" for the tournaments is usually $25. On Saturdays, Alexander said, the buy-in is $100.
The buy-in - minus a percentage that goes to the game's operators and, depending on the facility, to the owners of the building - collected from dozens of players makes up the pot for that night.
Alexander said he had spoken to psychologists who agreed that a buy-in "limits your loss."
"You start with $1,500 in chips, that costs them $25," Alexander said. "It's not unusual in later stages for players to have $5,000 to $25,000 in chips in front of them.
"When they're playing, that becomes like real money to them," Alexander said.
Some poker tournaments allow "re-buys." If a player has lost all his chips in the first hour, he can buy-in again.
"A guy could 're-buy' three times and spend $100, but that ends in an hour," Alexander said.
"Everybody knows going in how much money they have at risk," he added.
Brent Stachler, gambling addiction coordinator at the Park Center in Fort Wayne, said he understood Alexander's theory about Texas Hold 'Em.
"It's probably safer (than other kinds of poker), but I also say it might be rationalization," Stachler said. "In Fort Wayne they pay in $50 and don't spend more.
"But it's not just money. Look at the time they're spending there. And even though it may be only $25 or $50, how many other tournaments are they involved in? Is that money they could be using for their bills or some other necessity?"
