Poker game offers fun, free prizes

Sophomore Robby Farmartino decided to play poker Tuesday night for fun, but he also attended… Sophomore Robby Farmartino decided to play poker Tuesday night for fun, but he also attended the Pitt Program Council’s third annual Texas Hold’em tournament to win the grand prize — a 15-inch LCD high-definition television. Like the other 60 competitors in attendance, he didn’t exactly know what to expect.

Unfortunately for Farmartino, he didn’t exactly make it to the end of the tournament.

“Hopefully I’ll last two hands next year,” he said.

Although Farmartino didn’t make it past the first hand of the tournament, he semi-sarcastically said that he still had “a lot of fun.”

“It’s about the fun, not the gambling,” Pitt Program Council Recreation Director Olu Majekobate said. “We’re trying to reach people in other venues besides sports.”

Majekobate likes Texas Hold’em as a PPC event because people enjoy playing poker, and this tournament provided a fun and legal way for students to do so.

The tournament — which was free to students — featured eight poker tables with professional dealers, a blackjack table for those eliminated early, and refreshments.

To guarantee a spot in the tournament, students gave the PPC a $5 deposit in advance and were refunded the night of the tournament. The PPC welcomed walk-ins in addition to those who pre-registered.

Although the vast majority of challengers were men, a few women were also in attendance.

Junior Melissa Maguire said that she wasn’t intimidated playing at a table full of men because she is “used to playing with guys.”

The first round of the tournament lasted a little over an hour. At the end of the opening period, the person with the highest stack of chips from each of the eight tables advanced to the final table.

Everyone started off with even stacks of chips at the final table, and the final six competitors won prizes, including iTunes and Best Buy gift cards and the grand prize television set.

Fifth place finisher Zach Duncan won a $25 gift card to Best Buy. The sophomore seemed happy to finish where he did, considering it was his second time ever playing Texas Hold’em.

Senior Dave Pattinato finished in fourth place, winning a $35 Best Buy gift certificate.

“My strategy was to play aggressive, but tight,” he said. “I didn’t get lucky, I just played tight and my hands held up.”

Unlike Duncan, Pattinato is an accomplished poker player.

“I play in a lot of tournaments, I heard about this one in The Pitt News, actually,” he said.

As for his winnings, Pattinato plans to “get someone a Christmas gift.”

Around 10:30 p.m., the tournament came to an end when sophomore Jeremy Hollm emerged victorious. His “sit around and let people knock each other out” strategy paid off, winning him the high-definition television.

But for Hollm, it wasn’t about the television, it was about revenge.

“My roommate got knocked out earlier tonight by the same guy I wound up beating to win it all,” Hollm said.

If that didn’t make his victory sweet enough, Hollm’s other roommate finished second in the poker tournament last year.

“I had to one-up him,” he joked.

Hollm plans to share the wealth with his two roommates who didn’t make it as far as he did.

“We needed a television for our apartment, and now we have one,” he said smiling.

Knowing that he had just won a television valued at $250 to $300, Hollm tipped the dealer $10 as he stood up from the table.

Mike Low was in charge of keeping everything running smoothly and said that Texas Hold’em is easy to run because “it takes on a life of it’s own.”

Low thinks that poker is a popular event for college students “because it’s on television.”

“You sit there and say, ‘I can do that.’ When you’re watching Hines Ward run down the field you know you don’t think that, but poker is something everyone can aspire to do,” he said.