Heart attack?  Gun shot wound?  Appendicitis?  You’ll probably hurry on down to your local emergency room.  But how about for gambling?

A recent study out of Canada looked at visits by problem gamblers (PG) to an emergency room near Quebec’s largest casino.  Interesting stats…

Who came to the ER?  3 times as many men came in as women for PG.

How many visits for gambling problems compared to other problems?  About 1 out of each 100 visits were for gambling problems, and this percentage is increasing.

Why did gamblers come in?  The 3 most common reasons were:

• depression
• suicidal thoughts
• attempted suicide

Besides their gambling problem, what other diagnoses were these gamblers given?

• depression
• drug or alcohol problems
• problems adjusting to a stress

If you’re getting in over your head, visit Gamblers Anonymous.

The original study appeared in the August 2007 issue of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.

Today’s treat is an interview with professional poker player Force O Will.  Who is Force O Will?  I’ll let you figure this one out.  Trust me, this player is the real deal.  His answers to my questions below are anything but uninformative, as he gives a lot of valuable poker information, and some of the best advice I’ve ever seen on how to become a professional poker player.  Enjoy!

Suber: Who is Force O Will?  Can you give us a little bio, including how and when you got into professional poker.

Force O Will: Well, I’ve always been competetive in different types of games like card games, board games, video/computer games, and often fantasy-based games. During college in the late 90s a friend of mine introduced me to Magic: The Gathering, a strategy card game closely related to Dungeons and Dragons.  I became involved with this game, eventually reaching higher levels of play and playing the international Pro-Tour circuit. It was during these Magic tournaments that I observed people playing Texas Hold’em for the first time - such as David Williams, Thomas Keller, Noah Boeken, Eric Froelich among others.

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PokerMoments has a new writer, someone who knows a lot about poker, and definitely a lot more about poker than I do.  In particular, this new writer knows a lot about the mathematics of poker.  So if you have any questions about poker, especially mathematically related questions, click on the link at the top of PokerMoments that says “Ask the Poker Guy!” and this new writer will give you a well reasoned answer. 

Why does this new writer know so much about mathematics?  Well, like Barry Greenstein he’s studied a lot of it in school, not to become a mathematician as Barry wanted to become, but rather to become an enviromental engineer, which he is now doing for a living.   But he’s not just saving the world with his mathematical knowledge.  He’s also using it for really productive things, such as playing poker and teaching poker (see here) and running a poker group (see here).

Who is this new writer for PokerMoments?  He’ll tell you who he is.  What follows is his brief bio in his own words. 

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