Ken Bell, a former dot-com entrepreneur, lost his business two years ago and fell deep into debt.
The 45-year-old's search for a way to repay his overwhelming bills led him to online poker tables.
And that gamble has paid off.
Over the past year and a half, Bell, playing eight hours a day, has won enough to dig himself out from his failed business.
Internet poker "has basically allowed me to have a working income," Bell said. "If it didn't come through, they would have put me and my company into bankruptcy. Things would have gotten really bleak."
But the future is uncertain for Bell's new career and the online gambling industry.
This month, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill that would make Internet gambling a federal crime.
Supporters of the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act say it's long overdue.
"This legislation provides real protection to American families from destructive and unlawful Internet gambling," said Tom McCluskey, the Family Research Council's vice president, who supports the bill, in a written statement.
If the Senate joins the House in passing a bill to ban Internet gambling and President Bush signs it, Colorado's professional online gamblers will be particularly at-risk. While many other states have land-based casinos with high-limit poker games, Colorado's $5 bet limit makes it nearly impossible to make a living at the state's casinos.
So, the Internet is the only option for professional gamblers who want to stay in Colorado and make a living at poker.
The act, as passed by the House, would modify the 1961 Wire Act, which courts have ruled covers only sports betting, to cover all types of gambling and communication facilities.
It would also prohibit the use of ************, checks from U.S. banks and money-transfer services that Americans use to send and receive money from offshore gambling sites.
The bill's supporters argue that gambling sites are accessible to children and that it's too easy to lose massive amounts of money on the Web.
But for more than a decade, similar bills have died.
"It never seems to be a real priority, and given the list of priorities Congress has, it never seems to rise to the top," said Gregory Gemignani, a lawyer with Lionel Sawyer & Collins in Las Vegas who specializes in online gaming law. "There's certainly no assurance the Senate will act on this."
If the U.S. government were to legalize and regulate the Internet poker industry, a study commissioned by the Poker Players Alliance estimated, it could bring in $3.3 billion a year in taxes. But that also seems unlikely.
A ban, however, would force Colorado's professional poker players to find another line of work or move out of the state.
Boulder resident Jonmichael Hands bought a car and is putting himself through the Colorado School of Mines using his online poker winnings.
The 21- year-old engineering senior's first major win brought in $33,000.
"I had never even seen that much money in my life," he said. "I wish I would have been a little bit smarter with it."
He continues to play to keep money rolling in instead of picking up a minimum-wage job.
Hands' college poker career started with quarters in the dorms at the Colorado School of Mines. A year later, he hit an online jackpot and his life changed.
Hands exemplifies a younger demographic becoming part of the game. He plays long sessions for a consistent income. His record was 30 hours straight. Like Bell, Hands said he has read about 30 books on poker.
"I didn't accidentally win a big tournament," he said. "You have to get lucky and be playing well - you have to know what to do with your luck."
As evidence, on a bad night he lost $10,000 in a single hand.
"I was, like, distraught," he said. "I couldn't even sleep for a week."
Cal Spears, president of the online poker community PocketFives.com, said poker is not a viable career for most people.
"I wouldn't recommend it to anyone - it's only for a certain kind of person," he said.
Hands doesn't want to see online gambling outlawed, and Bell, a former musician who tried to cash in on the dot-com boom, says poker really isn't gambling.
"You don't see any professional roulette players," he said, pointing out that poker is a game of skill with an element of luck while other casino games are mostly luck.
Sitting at twin LCD monitors in his home office, Bell watches the faceless poker mannequins surrounding a table - avatars of real players around the world. His 2-year-old German shepherd watches from his perch on a cushion as sometimes thousands of dollars are won and lost with the click of a mouse.
Bell has enjoyed his new career, but he concedes it has limited his choices.
"If I wanted to go back into the job market now, I'd be in for a rude awakening. I'm a dinosaur," said Bell, who is heading in August to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. "I don't think I'm going to be doing this for a living 20 years from now."
Lawmakers need to see more of these kind of reports. What happens to the people who are earning a living from pokers & sports. Obviously there are plenty of people who are already unemployed. There's no need to make it a crime for those who are already making a living doing this and send them to the unemployment line.
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Politics deal online poker a shaky hand
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