After the Michigan football team lost its season-ending game against Ohio State, most students stayed in, deciding not to go out after another disappointing loss to their rivals. Jim Egerer was no different. But unlike most students who opted to stay in for the night, he made nearly $50,000 in the process.

That Saturday night, Egerer, a sophomore in the Ross School of Business, logged onto his computer to partake in his job - playing online poker.

Though he came up short in reaching the $77,464 first prize, his second-place finish in Full Tilt Poker's FTOPS Event #14 netted him a cool $48,836.

Not a bad day's work for a 19-year-old.

Egerer rarely plays in tournaments, instead opting for high-limit cash games. But that Saturday, his decision to play the pot-limit Omaha tournament turned out to be a great investment.

"I've had some days that rival that, but you're risking that money at the same time in a cash game. With the tournament, I lay down 500 bucks and come out with $50,000," Egerer said.

Whether for good or ill, Egerer isn't alone. After a scare less than two years ago, Internet poker, and poker in general, is experiencing its second boom in less than a decade, on campus and off.

A boom and a barrier

The first boom began four years ago with a man whose last name almost destined him to be a poker ambassador. In 2003, Chris Moneymaker, an amateur playing in his first live big buy-in tournament, won the World Series of Poker's Main Event.

The storybook ending for the accountant from Tennessee inspired millions. It didn't hurt that his run through 838 people for $2.5 million was captured by ESPN cameras and was replayed ad nauseum either.

Field sizes, the number of people in each World Series tournament, nearly doubled for three straight years. For some, poker went from a recreational game to a lifestyle. After Moneymaker's highly publicized victory, no longer was the game reserved for back rooms in the Old West.

Just like so many other would-be poker winners, Moneymaker started online. He won entry to the tournament on PokerStars.com, the site that subsequently sponsored his playing. PokerStars.com, like other similar sites, including PartyPoker.com, held satellite games for its users into the $10,000 buy-in Main Event. With more people flocking to online sites following Moneymaker's win, the tournament that had fewer than 400 entrants in 1999 had more than 8,000 people putting up $10,000 to play in it in 2005.

By 2006, online poker had become a $3 billion a year industry within the United States. With poker growing exponentially, many thought it would be unstoppable. But as 2006 neared its end, the seemingly invincible phenomenon found its kryptonite: the United States government.

That October, President Bush signed into law the Security and Accountability for Every Port Act. The bill, originally designed to enhance security at U.S. ports, ended up being a poker player's worst nightmare.

A special provision, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), was attached to the bill. It restricted online gambling sites from performing transactions with American financial institutions. Without means of getting money onto websites, many people turned away from online poker.

Along with sports betting sites, many poker sites, like the extremely popular PartyPoker.com and ParadisePoker.com, closed operations to United States customers when UIEGA was passed.

With those sites closing, many thought UIGEA made Internet poker illegal. The casual player seemingly disappeared from the online poker scene and even fewer people made a successful living strictly playing poker.

Egerer, who began playing professionally when he turned 18, found it much more difficult.

"Last year when UIGEA passed, the games definitely got tougher at the higher levels," said Egerer, who says he has played about 215,000 hands this year. "There were a lot less recreational players that would build up money and take their shots."

With less opportunity to make money, online poker enthusiasts knew they had tough times ahead. But maybe more damning was the negative stigma that came along with UIGEA's passing. Hoards of scared people turned away from the game.

"A lot of people thought (UIGEA) made online poker illegal," said Brandon Jacobs, who has played professionally since 2004. "In reality, it didn't, it was just a little more difficult to get money on sites. . Once word got out and people stopped panicking, things have started to go back to normal."

Oddly enough, the same force that slowed the poker boom is changing the momentum back in a positive direction.

Back on the upswing