Approximately 400 Tufts students made their way to the Gantcher Family Sports and Convocation Center yesterday to participate in the first annual Tufts Poker Championship.
The goal of the event, according to event organizer sophomore Jake Resnicow, was to "[let] kids appreciate poker for what it is - a sport."
Enclosed in the center of the indoor track, the student participants competed in two rounds that went late into the night for the official Tufts Poker League Trophy.
The event was organized by the Tufts University Poker Society (TUPS), which was recently formed and was officially recognized by the University in early February.
The tournament was divided into two rounds in order to accommodate the number of students interested in playing in the tournament. The first round began at 2 p.m. and ended at 8 p.m. The second round began at 7 p.m. and lasted until just after midnight. Only 10 students from each round made it to their round's respective final table.
The finalists from the first round of play were sophomores Marchaun Morrison and Eric Newville, and freshman William Louden. The finalists from the second round were seniors James Kubisch, Seth Homer and Michael Contrastano.
The finalists will advance to a "poker mega-event" to be held in Barnum 008 on April 7. The event will include live music from Tufts' student band The Juice, T-shirts for the first 50 students and free pizza.
The six finalists will play at a table with professional poker player Dutch Boyd, who will give also give a talk on the future of poker. The last student standing will be crowned the champion and receive the official trophy as well as an undisclosed prize.
The championship was completely free for all participants: each participant received $100 value in chips for use in the games.
Reniscow said he found it encouraging that "all these kids are coming here to play for free." He said the fact that so many students showed up and were willing to play for no money was a display for the appreciation students have for poker as sport.
"Because it's a free event, we were worried that people would just go all in. But what blew us away was how serious people took the tournament," said Resnicow.
Resnicow described the final 20 players from each round as "solid, aggressive players who were difficult to read."
With the rising popularity of televised poker being aired on channels like ESPN, students are beginning to see poker on the same level as other competitive sports.
According to Resnicow, one of TUPS' future goals is to compete against other New England-area universities.
"We want to capitalize on the competitive level we saw tonight and really make this into a fun event [for other schools]," said Renicow.
"[The tournament] is a lot of fun, I'm really glad were having an organized poker event like this," freshmen Evan Dreifuss said. He said that he liked the idea that the tournament was "no money, just fun, and pride."
TUPS tournament coordinator junior Slava Mirilashvili was very impressed with how the event turned out. "The level of playing has been surprising," he said, "people are really showing some skill."
Reniscow said the large turn-out was encouragement for TUPS to continue to grow and hold a second tournament next year, in order to give everyone an opportunity to play poker for "the thrill and bragging rights."
Domino's Pizza donated food for the event, and Alpha Phi sorority sold refreshments at the tournament for the benefit of the American Heart Association.
