Poker, Texas Hold ‘Em lures students with cards, chips
Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 10:27AM By Monica Kreber
kreberm@mytjnow.com
Players started off with $200 in chips in the tournament. White chips are valued at $1, blue are $5, red are $10 and green are $25. Photos by Aimee Harmon • harmona@mytjnow.comBryan Gosling is seated directly across from his opponent, senior chemistry major Son Dinh.
Between them is a mesh of multi-colored poker chips, and both hold a hand of cards.
In the beginning, Gosling goes “all in” with his chips, using a pair of twos. He forces his opponent to fold with a bluff.
In the next hand, Gosling loses three-fourths of his chips to Dinh.
They go back and forth for an hour until Dinh wins round one of the Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament. A scheduled meeting causes Gosling to forfeit.
Dinh and Gosling were among roughly a dozen students who participated in the Texas Hold ‘Em and Spades Tournament on Friday, Sept. 30 in the DiGiorgio Student Center.
The event was held through the intramural sports program.
Senior physical education major Will Plyler, an intern with recreational services, said he decided to play because the idea sounded interesting.
“I just wanted to play,” he said. “I used to play a lot back home with my friends.”
Intermural sports supervisor Deandre Robinson said a year; Friday was the first one.
“It’s a well-recognized sport, and lots of students are into it,” he said. “I would like to encourage more students to come out and play.”
Players started the tournament with $200 worth of chips, and each round lasted an hour. No actual money is involved in the card games.
“We don’t do gambling,” Robinson said. “It is against Winthrop values. College students do not need to be gambling.”
Eight students started the first round of Texas Hold ‘Em tournament, which reduced to four in the second round and two in the finals: Plyler against senior modern languages major Andrew Wilson. The round lasted an hour. In most cases, the players keep going until someone wins all of the chips, but Robinson explained that each round in the WU tournament was timed to one hour. By the end of that hour, whoever had the most money in chips was the winner.
Wilson was the winner in this semester’s Texas Hold ‘Em tournament. The winner received a Winthrop Intramural Sports t-shirt.
