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This Issue 02/26/2009

• Think Outside the Box
• Los Angeles, We Have a Problem
• The Round Up: 2.26.09
• French Lesson
• A Whole New Kind of Evil

Around 4 p.m. on Friday, February 13, over a dozen Penn and Princeton students face off in the Golkin Room on the second floor of Houston Hall. They are dispersed among five tables placed in a row. The green felt draped over the tables pays homage to Las Vegas or Atlantic City, but without electronic jangles blasting from slot machines, the room has a silence unknown to those gaming hubs. Some of the competing players chat, but most remain mute, barely raising their heads high enough to look their opponent in the face. They play with chips, but it is pride, not money, at stake.

This is the First Annual Intercollegiate Poker Invitational.

The Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society sponsors the tournament, and at odds are Penn and Princeton’s respective chapters of the society. The close-knit poker community Heaslip and Smith speak of has become more visible due to this club, known as Penn Poker, even though the group is only in its second year.

The club’s lightning rod effect within the poker community astounds even its founder and current president, Wharton junior Daniel Axelsen. For Penn Poker’s first meeting in fall 2007, he booked a 20-person Huntsman Hall room that overflowed, the enthusiasm surpassing the high attendance. “People were interested in meeting other people for cash games, playing tournaments without any cash, they were interested in strategy sessions — not only attending sessions and learning about strategy but actually giving them as well," said Axelsen. “I was really stunned at the type of passion there was.”

The spectrum of programs that attendees desired reflects the myriad ways poker manifests itself on campus. Beyond the Ricks and Joes — who were both at the Invitational — are students like Chrissy Lundquist, a College junior and the executive vice president of Penn Poker. She generally plays twice a week, prefers casual games among friends and does not play poker online. Though what she considers a big win — $50 — seems small change to many Penn Poker members, Lundquist and Axelsen both attest that the club offers a welcoming environment to players of all levels. “People understand. They got started at some point, too. They were losing money at some point. It’s an educational process,” explains Axelsen.

In addition, Lundquist notes that women should not be intimidated from playing or learning to play. She admits that “it’s definitely a boys club” but insists that this can be made an advantage: men lose by underestimating female opponents.

Uniquely, Penn women have a model of sorts in the poker world: Annie Duke, one of the most successful female poker players, was a graduate student at Penn in the early '90s before she made it big in Vegas. Penn also has claims to poker stars like Roy Winston and Arthur Sklansky, W’70, who wrote the seminal Theory of Poker in 1987. And Joseph Udine, C’06, and Steve Jacobs, C’05, stand out among recent alumni who are succeeding in the poker scene. Awareness of this poker legacy enhances the playing experience at Penn, says Axelsen.

But Penn Poker’s main focus remains the strategy, the intricate subtleties, of the game. And this is not without its own strategic purpose. “We’re hoping that Penn Poker’s existence will help prevent an unhealthy habit … of gambling,” explains Lundquist. “If you’re playing it and you’re paying attention to the more intellectual component and the strategy behind it, then you’re going into it with a completely different perspective than … [playing] because you need to make money.“