Few Northwestern students will be lucky to ever make the kind of money they’re making. And they’re unemployed.

For two recent NU alums and one Weinberg senior, money is not an issue. They don’t have to worry about paying for rent, Chipotle burritos or tuition. They’re loaded, and they made it all themselves playing high-stakes online poker.

Joey Michael, Communication ’07, and Chip Ferguson, Weinberg ’07, live in Austin, Texas, in a million dollar home they own jointly. Amidst its large pool, hot tub, six bedrooms, seven televisions and 5,300 square feet, they sit at their computers gambling thousands of dollars. They play poker 40-plus hours a week.

“It’s like my full-time job, but it doesn’t really feel like work,” Ferguson said. “I watch TV most of the time while I’m playing and I can stop and start whenever I want. So it doesn’t really feel like work, which is the main reason why I chose not to get a ‘real job.'”

Ferguson and Michael began playing online poker freshman year, when they each put $50 into a Party Poker account. They first viewed it as a way to earn some spending money, but by junior year, they had realized it could be extremely profitable and started playing seriously. They read books on strategy and began playing more often, to the point where it distracted them from their schooling.

“I had a hard time motivating myself,” Ferguson said. “It’s like, every hour I study for a test is a couple hundred dollars I could make playing poker.”

Michael said poker interfered with school, and his girlfriend at the time “hated it.”

“School just wasn’t important to me,” Michael said. “And I didn’t really have the motivation to keep my GPA really high, I mean I was making more money than most kids my age.”

Ferguson originally thought about going to law school but realized it was not worth the investment. When he began making more than six figures in his junior year, he realized playing poker for a living was not such a bad idea.

“I was making almost as much money as my dad, and he’s a partner in a law firm,” he said.

That year, Ferguson bought his dream car, a Nissan 350Z. But since then, though he has made “hundreds of thousands” of dollars, he said he hasn’t spent too lavishly.

The same is true for Michael, who said he has made more than $1 million, but his only extravagant purchases include a $55,000 BMW M3 and a $10,000 Tempur-Pedic bed.

Both Ferguson and Michael said they invested a significant portion of their earnings, and as seniors started a business of their own. They run sngicons.com, an online poker training site.

“There’s a lot of money right now in (poker) training sites because people lose a lot of money,” Ferguson said. “We basically take videos of us playing, and people pay to see them.”

Ferguson and Michael also bought a 3,200-square-foot home in Austin to rent out as an investment, and Michael said he also plans to invest in a Texas oil and gas company.

They said they enjoy life as poker professionals but that, five years from now, poker will be a supplement to their incomes only.

A current Weinberg senior, who asked to remain anonymous because he “likes to keep a low profile,” is in a similar position. With his poker earnings, he purchased a new computer, $3,000 television and invested the rest.

“It gives me the freedom to explore what I want to do,” the economics major said. “If I want to learn options trading, I already have money to start. It gives me a head start on life.”

He began playing in high school and also started with just $50. While he has turned it into a half million dollars, he said it doesn’t feel like work.

“It’s basically a really fun hobby,” he said. “It’s a great game and it’s definitely a dynamic game. Your opponents are always changing, the game situations are always changing and the same play you make here may not be the same play you make in a different instance. It really is a huge battle of wits, battle of minds.”

He said his parents know he has made money but might not realize how much. His parents, just like Ferguson’s and Michael’s, have paid for his NU tuition.

The Weinberg senior said he plays almost every day, but it has never interfered with school.

“If I’ve had midterms, I wouldn’t play,” he said. “I play poker for the challenge and the fun. I’ve never been motivated by the money. But obviously you can’t complain, it’s a very nice by by-product.”

But he said he’d rather pursue a career as an entrepreneur or teacher.

“Poker wouldn’t be a great way to spend the rest of your life,” he said. “It’s a very lucrative hobby, but it’s a hobby nonetheless.”

Reach Tommy Giglio at [email protected].