playing a live mtt underage
 

hey all,
i'm 20 and i'm going to be home for 9 days for thanksgiving and another 4 weeks for christmas. i live in la and there are several lucrative mtts i'd like to play while there (up to $500 buyins). the problem is that i'm obviously underage. have any of you had experiences winning an mtt when underage. do they card you if you cash? get your ssn? i have my brother's valid license to use if i do play one of these mtts, but how risky is that? do you guys have any advice? thanks.

Re: playing a live mtt underage
 

my advice is stay out of the casinos you cant get into. Go to the indian casinos outside of la and play there.

Re: playing a live mtt underage
 

I'm not even from the U.S. but it was my understanding that all jackpot/progressive/pool prizes that are won in the States are documented. Meaning they take down your info and report to the IRS. Reporting to the IRS is also some sort of right off for them so they do it, and in turn IRS would check to see if the corresponding winner has congruent numbers. All info above is heresy though.

I do know that if a Canadian wins anything like that they will ID, take down SIN, and personally take the taxes pre-payout. It's quite a hassle to try to get them back from my step-Uncle Sam.

Re: playing a live mtt underage
 

I have played in two live tournaments when I was under 21. First was the LA Poker Classic $1K WPT event in which I was assured they would pay me in chips and not give me any tax forms. I lost a coinflip on the bubble anyway.

The second was more interesting. It was a $100 buy-in at one of the Colorado casinos. They were giving out tax forms if I finished in top 5. I was mostly playing tight and just messing around during it. At the time, I felt like $100 was just garbage and it was worth it to improve my live MTT skill. I start getting close to the final table and realize I have a VERY large stack. I didn't want to deal with my fake ID and make a fake social if necesary or go through all the BS so I decided to take a dive. Here is where the fun started.

Just before we left for the casino, I had taken Exctasy for the first (and only) time. I brought pot with me and smoked up while I was there. When I found out how close I was to winning this thing, I added drinking heavily into the mix. I got an image going where they believed I was just piss drunk and going all-in preflop every hand for fun. In fact, I was going all-in preflop every hand, but it was to get out. First time I get called by something like AK short stacked where I have J4. Now they really think I am nuts and when I send the AK to the rail, they go nuts (You know how stupid people are). Anyway, next all-in got called in two spots by one large and one average stack so I was finally happy. I turn over my blind 96s and they both have AK. Flop is A96 and with no help, I take both of them out and suddenly have almost 1/3 of the chips left in play! After two more knockout blows I have 1/2 of the chips left in play with 8 left and 4 to go before I needed to exit.

I got a 10 minute penalty for swearing when I won the last pot which could have been really bad. Everyone left was so short on chips and I didn't want to come back to a final 4 or 5. BTW, I swore because I won the pot and didn't want it, but it was like my 8th KO in a row.

During my 10 minute hiatus, I decide to think over a new plan. My friends told me to just go for the win, but I was all paranoid and on drugs so I wanted to just get out of the situation. I decided a better plan of action would be to just bet and call off almost all my chips and then fold to whatever they have left when it is a small amount or go all-in once I'm sure I am going to lose. This worked well and with the help of some extra bad luck, worked really fast. I was the next to go and finished 7th place. Scary night.

EDIT: I shouldn't say only two, now that I think about it, more like 5-6, but others were smaller and for learning purposes.

Re: playing a live mtt underage
 

Hahaha good story Larry. You could have tried selling your chips to someone else for a little cash. It would have been great if you won, yelled "oh [censored]!" and then ran out of the casino. But really what would they do if you won underage? just keep your money and kick you out?

Re: playing a live mtt underage
 

[ QUOTE ]
Hahaha good story Larry. You could have tried selling your chips to someone else for a little cash. It would have been great if you won, yelled "oh [censored]!" and then ran out of the casino. But really what would they do if you won underage? just keep your money and kick you out?

[/ QUOTE ]

In hindsight, I shoulda just continued on and probably won the tourney, but I was freaked out man. Good memories. Maybe I can make a show for curb around it. Hmmmm.... Larry loses to 17 year old.

Re: playing a live mtt underage
 

-EV

Re: playing a live mtt underage
 

Don't do it. They DO take your SSN if you cash and they do check id's closely. You could even be charged with a misdemeanor if you're caught as it's very illegal to try to use fake id.

Don't do it, it's a bad idea and definitely not worth the hassle it could possibly cause. Wait the few months until you're 21, until then, play native american games.

JMB

Re: playing a live mtt underage
 

[ QUOTE ]
Don't do it. They DO take your SSN if you cash and they do check id's closely. You could even be charged with a misdemeanor if you're caught as it's very illegal to try to use fake id.

Don't do it, it's a bad idea and definitely not worth the hassle it could possibly cause. Wait the few months until you're 21, until then, play native american games.

JMB

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed. Spend some time over the holidays with your family. You've got the rest of your life to take over the poker world. The tournaments will still be there when you turn 21.