All across campus, students are anteing up. Poker has experienced a revival across the nation in the past few years and Wesleyan students have become part of the craze. Whether they play for money or fun, casually or in tournaments, it has become a popular pastime for many students.
“Poker is the biggest thing at Wesleyan that nobody knows about,” said Sivan Cotel ’05.
Students say poker’s appeal is not only in the money that can be won by playing, but in the fun of the game and the skill it requires.
“I enjoy poker because it is the ultimate mind game,” said Jonathan Leland ’05. “Over the long run, everybody gets the same cards so it’s all how you play them. It’s almost entirely skill.”
Cotel agrees. He said he gets enjoyment out of the challenge of reading people. The trick, he said, is creating a balance between mentally calculating odds based on your cards and interpreting the actions and behaviors of the other players.
“I’m a psychology major and there’s a lot of real-world psychology in poker,” Cotel said.
“The most common misconception is that [poker] is about luck,” said Blake Maybeck ’05, who also sees the importance of psychology and skill in the game. “There is a great psychological aspect. A good player can read a bluff by simply looking at his opponent’s eyes.”
Leland also noted the excitement of the ups and downs in each game.
“[Poker can] offer moments of incredible triumph. Of course, the flip side to that is, it can be incredibly infuriating. In the game where I won $100, for instance, I started out with $20 in chips, after 10 minutes I was distraught and down to $3, and 45 minutes later I had all the chips on the table,” he said.
Many players have noticed an increase in poker’s popularity this academic year.
“I think there’s definitely a dominant poker culture. This year it’s been getting big,” said Tobias Wasser ’06, who has played poker at Clark and Lorise and plays regularly at Psi U. “There’s a lot of kids who consider themselves poker experts.”
Some, like Matt Gottlieb ’05, attribute this rise in popularity to ESPN’s broadcast of the World Series of Poker during the summer of 2003. A version of the game called Texas Hold ’em, the game played on the World Series, became more popular after it aired, according to Gottlieb.
“I played before Wesleyan and then at Psi U, and we played all different kinds of games,” Gottlieb said. “Beginning with the fall, everyone wants to play Texas Hold ’em.”
Maybeck describes no-limit Texas Hold ’em as the “Cadillac of poker.” A typical game includes about ten players and is played tournament style, until there is only one person left standing. Prizes are usually awarded to the top three or four players. Players put in somewhere around ten dollars to play. The “no-limit” part means that players can bet all of their chips at any time, increasing the stakes of the game.
Getting started playing poker isn’t difficult, said Cotel, who started playing over the summer two years ago with friends from home.
“With poker, everyone’s included, so it’s easy to get the experience you need,” he said.
Poker culture at Wesleyan is mostly a guy thing, some players say. Dan Feinstein ’05 says he has never had a woman play at any of his games, though some players say a few participate, but not often.
“Poker is extremely male-dominated,” Cotel said. “I played a game the other night with one girl out of the six players, and even that was rare.”
Natalie Finegood ’06 plays poker regularly at Psi U, and said she is often the only female who shows up, or one of two.
“In all the groups I’ve seen, it seems like a male bonding thing,” Finegood said.
Players have a hard time figuring out why more males than females seem to have taken to the growing trend.
“I assume girls are asked less,” Leland said. “Also, most girls I know are disapproving of the practice.”
“I think it’s just because of the culture, but obviously there’s nothing that makes a man better at poker,” Gottlieb said. “It’s ridiculous that more girls don’t play.”
Cotel says he would like to see more women participating in poker games.
“I think it would be better as more of a mixed sport,” he said. “It’s great to be able to play with a bunch of different people to be able to better develop your reading skills.”
Cheating has not been an issue for most players, though they say there can be dangers when playing with people you don’t know.
“Most people play pretty fair,” Cotel said. “In a community like Wesleyan I think the honor code applies to poker. But I have had experiences where I couldn’t prove it but I knew a person was cheating. You also have to worry about the possibility of team play. If you sit down at a table where two or three people are in cahoots, you could be in trouble. ”
Some students have even begun playing poker at casinos or online, which gives them opportunities to make money on the game.
“I recently began playing poker online, which reaps profits of about $9 an hour,” Maybeck said. “Playing online is a little less nerve-wracking, so I play much more conservatively and think of it almost as a job.”
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