1 ván xì-phé online
của Đặng Di, biệt danh "urindanger"
Nhiều người không
dám dùng nguyên cả số tiền tiết kiệm trong mấy chục năm để đánh bài, nhưng đối
với hai anh em họ Đặng, đặt vài trăm ngàn hoặc một triệu đôla cho môn xì-phé
online chỉ là chuyện bình thường.
Nhiều người nghĩ rằng Đặng Di và Đặng Hạc từ năm 2004 đến nay kiếm được hơn 15 triệu đôla nhờ đánh xì-phé online.
Người anh Đặng Di, 28 tuổi, lớn hơn em 1 tuổi, nói rằng anh không xem đó là cờ bạc mà chỉ là công việc lao động bình thường:
“Chúng tôi giống như những nhà đầu tư bất động sản hoặc chứng khoán. Họ chơi độ 100 lần và trúng từ 55 đến 60 lần, về lâu về dài những lần thắng bù vào những lần thua. Chúng tôi thắng từ 55 đến 60% trong những lần chơi.”
Hai anh em bắt đầu chơi xì-phé online khi học kỹ sư ở Virginia. Lúc đầu chỉ đánh nhỏ thôi, nhưng càng đánh càng thấy cần phải đánh lớn.
Họ nói cũng may là vào lúc gặp thời. Khi họ bắt đầu, môn xì-phé online tương đối mới mẻ, kinh tế nước Mỹ vẫn còn khá, và có nhiều “fish”, thuật ngữ xì-phé để chỉ người không biết chơi môn này nhưng sẵn sàng liều mạng.
Nhiều người nghĩ rằng Đặng Di và Đặng Hạc từ năm 2004 đến nay kiếm được hơn 15 triệu đôla nhờ đánh xì-phé online.
Người anh Đặng Di, 28 tuổi, lớn hơn em 1 tuổi, nói rằng anh không xem đó là cờ bạc mà chỉ là công việc lao động bình thường:
“Chúng tôi giống như những nhà đầu tư bất động sản hoặc chứng khoán. Họ chơi độ 100 lần và trúng từ 55 đến 60 lần, về lâu về dài những lần thắng bù vào những lần thua. Chúng tôi thắng từ 55 đến 60% trong những lần chơi.”
Hai anh em bắt đầu chơi xì-phé online khi học kỹ sư ở Virginia. Lúc đầu chỉ đánh nhỏ thôi, nhưng càng đánh càng thấy cần phải đánh lớn.
Họ nói cũng may là vào lúc gặp thời. Khi họ bắt đầu, môn xì-phé online tương đối mới mẻ, kinh tế nước Mỹ vẫn còn khá, và có nhiều “fish”, thuật ngữ xì-phé để chỉ người không biết chơi môn này nhưng sẵn sàng liều mạng.
Đặng Di, trên
mạng lấy biệt danh là "urindanger," cho biết:
“Bấy giờ chúng
tôi cũng không rành lắm, nhưng chúng tôi giỏi toán, thích cạnh tranh, thích lập
chiến lược, và chỉ chơi trong giờ rảnh.”
Họ bắt đầu
bằng cách mở một tài khoản với 200 đôla, thua sạch. Quyết định bỏ thêm 200 nữa,
đặt tiền và bỏ đi. Chẳng mấy chốc, họ đạt con số 100.000 trong tủ. Một mùa nghỉ
học mùa Xuân, độ 10 ngày, họ thắng 40.000. Từ từ tủ tiền của họ lên nửa triệu.
Chính hai anh
em cũng cạnh tranh với nhau để xem ai hơn ai.
Nhờ tính cạnh tranh này, hai anh em từ từ ngoi lên và trở thành nổi tiếng trong làng xì-phé online. Có tiền nhiều giúp họ đánh những ván lớn.
Hai anh em nhìn nhận cờ bạc ảnh hưởng đến chuyện học hành. Đặng Di mất 5 năm mới xong kỹ sư, Đặng Hạc xém rớt một môn để có thể lãnh bằng đúng hạn.
Bố mẹ hai anh đến Mỹ năm 1975. Khi nghe hai ông con đánh bạc, người bố nói:
“Tao không gởi tụi mày vào đại học để đánh xì phé. Tao gởi tụi mày đến đó để kiếm mảnh bằng, kiếm việc làm và sống mạnh giỏi.”
Ông bố còn cấm chơi trong nhà, hai anh em phải ra quán cà phê Internet gần nhà để chơi.
Nhưng cuối cùng bố mẹ cũng chịu thua hai ông con, nhất là khi thấy hai ông cũng làm ăn khá.
Hai anh em mua cho bố mẹ một căn nhà ở Virginia, và một căn cho ông bà nội.
Năm 2006, Quốc hội Mỹ ra luật siết chặt nạn cờ bạc trên Internet. Tháng Tư 2011, nhà chức trách Mỹ đóng cửa 3 sòng bài xì phé online lớn nhất thế giới.
Chuyện này buộc hai anh em họ Đặng phải xin giấy thường trú ở Vancouver, Canada, nơi mà thỉnh thoảng Đặng Hạc phải chạy qua để chơi online.
Đặng Di cũng hay sang Macau thử thời vận, và cả hai là khách thường xuyên của Las Vegas.
Tình hình kinh tế khó khăn cũng ảnh hưởng đến thu nhập. Dạo này, các tay mơ dần dần rút lui, hết vốn, chỉ còn lại những tay chơi thứ dữ, khiến cho chuyện thắng lớn rất khó.
Đặng Di cho biết ngày thắng nhiều nhất của anh là 1,1 triệu, ngày thua nhiều nhất là 900.000. Đặng Hạc cũng từng thua trên 1 triệu nhiều lần.
Hai anh em đang tính một hướng mới: mở một nhà hàng ở Virginia. Di giải thích sự khác nhau giữa nhà hàng và xì-phé:
“Mở nhà hàng chỉ thâu bạc cắc, còn xì-phé chỉ cần nhấp chuột một cái là túi ta có thêm 700.000.”
Matthew Hilburn
Dang Brothers Win Online Poker in
Spades
Urindanger,
the screen name for Di Dang, is seen on the left during an online poker game.
Di and his brother Hac are professional poker players and have won millions.
The thought
of betting one’s lifetime savings on one hand of cards would be terrifying to
most, but for the Dang brothers, gambling hundreds of thousands, even millions,
of dollars playing online poker is just another day on the job.
Di (top) and Hac Dang have
won millions of dollars playing online poker
The “grind,”
as they call it, has been very good to Di and Hac, with some estimating their
total winnings at over $15 million since 2004.
“It isn’t really gambling. It was more of a grind,” said Di, who is 28 and the older of the two by a year. “It was very strategic and numbers based. We’re gamblers like people who invest in real estate or the stock market. They buy a ton and win 55 to 60 percent of the time. In the long run, the wins make up for the losses and more. We win 55 to 60 percent of our sessions.”
The two Vietnamese-Americans started playing online poker while engineering students at theUniversity
of Virginia
They say their timing could not have been better. When they started, online poker was fairly new, the economy was doing well, and there were a lot of “fish,” a poker term for someone who really doesn’t know how to play but is eager to risk money.
“We didn’t know what we were doing,” said Di, who goes by the handle “urindanger” online. “We have a strong math background, we’re very competitive, and we like strategy. We just chose to play poker in our free time.”
They initially started by opening an account with $200, which they soon lost. They decided to try another $200, and they “never looked back,” said Hac, whose handle is “trex313” in the online gambling world.
Their competitiveness against each other helped spur them on.
“We were making $10 an hour playing online poker. [Di] started making $15, so I decided I had to get better, and it just kind of snowballed from there,” said Hac.
And while competitive, the brothers, who are celebrities in the online poker world, pool all their winnings, which they say allows them to play for bigger stakes.
Working together, the two were making more than any of their classmates who were doing regular college jobs like waiting tables, and the winnings began to pile up. They found themselves with over $100,000 in the bank. During one spring break from school, they won $40,000, and their winnings soon hit $500,000.
The two freely admit the poker interfered with their studies. It took Di five years instead of four to graduate, and Hac nearly failed a course he needed to graduate on time.
Buying in
The brothers say Chinese New Year was a major contributor to their love of gambling.
“If Chinese New Year didn’t exist, I don’t think Asians would be that much into gambling,” said Hac. “When we were kids, we’d learn blackjack, betting quarters and dollars, and if I won a couple of bucks, I’d be ridiculously happy. Without it, it’s 50 percent less likely that we’d become professional poker players.”
Despite learning gambling in a family environment, the brothers’ parents, who immigrated to theUnited States
from Vietnam
“In most Asian families, you have that one uncle who lost all his money playing blackjack or lotto tickets,” said Hac. “When my parents heard we were at U.Va. playing poker with all our free time, my dad said, ‘I didn’t send you to U.Va. to play poker. I sent you to get a degree and get a job and do well. I don’t want you wasting my money to become a gambler. You can do that without a degree.’”
Their dad went so far as to forbid them from playing in the house, so they’d go to Korean PC cafes in the area to play.
The extended family was not thrilled either.
Shortly before graduating college, the brothers went to a family gathering where they were peppered with questions about what they were going to do after graduation. When they said they were going to pursue gambling, some thought they weren’t making a good choice.
But eventually their parents and family came around, probably helped by the fact that Hac and Di are pretty good at what they do. The brothers bought their parents a house in theVirginia suburbs of Washington , DC
The cashflow from poker also allowed their father to leave his government job years before he was due to retire.
“It was good to give them a break because they worked so hard to get us where we are,” said Di.
Folding?
While the two have had a great run with online poker, there are signs they may be looking to walk away.
A major factor is that gambling on the Internet is increasingly illegal in theU.S.
This forced the brothers to establish residency inVancouver , Canada Las Vegas
The sluggish economy has also made the really big pots increasingly rare, the brothers said. Furthermore, as the game has matured, a lot of the “fish” have been weeded out, leaving only very skilled gamblers at the table and making it more difficult to win big.
“Those million-dollar days aren’t around as much anymore,” said Di.
This is an actual online poker game played by Di Dang with a pot worth over $588,000.
Di added that over the long term, the grind is unhealthy.
“It’s too stressful,” he said. “The losing days hurt too much and the winning days are like a high. It’s a rollercoaster.”
Di says he made $1.1 million on his best day playing poker, but lost $900,000 on his worst day. Hac says he’s lost “seven figures” in a day.
“If you play big enough, you get a charge. As long as there are interesting games, I’ll still play, but I don’t know that I’ll be doing this for the next 50 years,” said Hac, adding that he’s scaled back to playing “about 80 hours” of online poker this year, partly because he's on a losing streak.
The two currently are testing the waters as restaurateurs inVirginia
“In restaurants, you need to count the pennies,” said Di. “With poker, you click one button, and you’re $700,000 richer. It’s two totally different games.”
“It isn’t really gambling. It was more of a grind,” said Di, who is 28 and the older of the two by a year. “It was very strategic and numbers based. We’re gamblers like people who invest in real estate or the stock market. They buy a ton and win 55 to 60 percent of the time. In the long run, the wins make up for the losses and more. We win 55 to 60 percent of our sessions.”
The two Vietnamese-Americans started playing online poker while engineering students at the
They say their timing could not have been better. When they started, online poker was fairly new, the economy was doing well, and there were a lot of “fish,” a poker term for someone who really doesn’t know how to play but is eager to risk money.
“We didn’t know what we were doing,” said Di, who goes by the handle “urindanger” online. “We have a strong math background, we’re very competitive, and we like strategy. We just chose to play poker in our free time.”
They initially started by opening an account with $200, which they soon lost. They decided to try another $200, and they “never looked back,” said Hac, whose handle is “trex313” in the online gambling world.
Their competitiveness against each other helped spur them on.
“We were making $10 an hour playing online poker. [Di] started making $15, so I decided I had to get better, and it just kind of snowballed from there,” said Hac.
And while competitive, the brothers, who are celebrities in the online poker world, pool all their winnings, which they say allows them to play for bigger stakes.
Working together, the two were making more than any of their classmates who were doing regular college jobs like waiting tables, and the winnings began to pile up. They found themselves with over $100,000 in the bank. During one spring break from school, they won $40,000, and their winnings soon hit $500,000.
The two freely admit the poker interfered with their studies. It took Di five years instead of four to graduate, and Hac nearly failed a course he needed to graduate on time.
Buying in
The brothers say Chinese New Year was a major contributor to their love of gambling.
“If Chinese New Year didn’t exist, I don’t think Asians would be that much into gambling,” said Hac. “When we were kids, we’d learn blackjack, betting quarters and dollars, and if I won a couple of bucks, I’d be ridiculously happy. Without it, it’s 50 percent less likely that we’d become professional poker players.”
Despite learning gambling in a family environment, the brothers’ parents, who immigrated to the
“In most Asian families, you have that one uncle who lost all his money playing blackjack or lotto tickets,” said Hac. “When my parents heard we were at U.Va. playing poker with all our free time, my dad said, ‘I didn’t send you to U.Va. to play poker. I sent you to get a degree and get a job and do well. I don’t want you wasting my money to become a gambler. You can do that without a degree.’”
Their dad went so far as to forbid them from playing in the house, so they’d go to Korean PC cafes in the area to play.
The extended family was not thrilled either.
Shortly before graduating college, the brothers went to a family gathering where they were peppered with questions about what they were going to do after graduation. When they said they were going to pursue gambling, some thought they weren’t making a good choice.
But eventually their parents and family came around, probably helped by the fact that Hac and Di are pretty good at what they do. The brothers bought their parents a house in the
The cashflow from poker also allowed their father to leave his government job years before he was due to retire.
“It was good to give them a break because they worked so hard to get us where we are,” said Di.
Folding?
While the two have had a great run with online poker, there are signs they may be looking to walk away.
A major factor is that gambling on the Internet is increasingly illegal in the
This forced the brothers to establish residency in
The sluggish economy has also made the really big pots increasingly rare, the brothers said. Furthermore, as the game has matured, a lot of the “fish” have been weeded out, leaving only very skilled gamblers at the table and making it more difficult to win big.
“Those million-dollar days aren’t around as much anymore,” said Di.
This is an actual online poker game played by Di Dang with a pot worth over $588,000.
Di added that over the long term, the grind is unhealthy.
“It’s too stressful,” he said. “The losing days hurt too much and the winning days are like a high. It’s a rollercoaster.”
Di says he made $1.1 million on his best day playing poker, but lost $900,000 on his worst day. Hac says he’s lost “seven figures” in a day.
“If you play big enough, you get a charge. As long as there are interesting games, I’ll still play, but I don’t know that I’ll be doing this for the next 50 years,” said Hac, adding that he’s scaled back to playing “about 80 hours” of online poker this year, partly because he's on a losing streak.
The two currently are testing the waters as restaurateurs in
“In restaurants, you need to count the pennies,” said Di. “With poker, you click one button, and you’re $700,000 richer. It’s two totally different games.”
Matthew
Hilburn
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