Charles Commons Connections and the Resident Advisory Board (RAB) organized a student-faculty poker tournament last Saturday. “Celebrity Poker! Hopkins Hold ‘Em” took place on Saturday November 6, from 9 to midnight at Nolan’s On 33rd.
RAB holds two poker tournaments a semester, but this is their first poker collaboration with Charles Commons Connections.
Craig Rosenblum, a graduate material engineer, works for Charles Commons Connections. He said that the organization “tries to develop faculty and student activities.” Specifically, Rosenblum mentioned monthly faculty dinners where “faculty and students make and eat a meal together” in the Charles Commons kitchen.
Similarly, Charles Commons Connections has also hosted a faculty student movie day. In general, Rosenblum said that the goal is to integrate faculty in events that take place in Charles Commons.
RAB generally hosts two student poker tournaments a semester. Rosenblum said that he thought that Charles Commons Connections saw this as an opportunity to combine the two events, referring to poker and faculty nights in Charles Commons.
The collaboration was a first for the two organizations. By combining successful poker nights with well attended student-faculty events, Rosenblum hoped that “Celebrity Poker!” would serve as a “time for a lot of interaction.”
In terms of faculty attendance, the event was very successful. Of the 14 faculty members that attended the event, 12 were professors. Rosenblum said that Charles Commons Connections “invited faculty members from different departments.”
Among the professors in attendance were Steven David, political science professor; Arts and Science Vice Dean for Undergraduate Education Steven David; chemical and biomedical engineering professor and Whiting School of Engineering Associate Dean for Research Marc Donohue; and Matthew Roller, classics professor and department chair. The two non-professor faculty members were Shaun Grahe and Corey Michalos, both Assistant Directors of Student Life.
Senior Karen Hong attended the event with a group of friends, and was impressed with the general sophistication of the event. She said that “a lot of people were dressed up,” and that some men “were dressed in suits.”
In addition to the dress of some of the attendees, Hong said that she “didn’t think there were going to be as many people there as there were.” Rosenblum confirmed that the event was very well attended. He said that there were over a hundred students at the tournament.
With such a large turnout, all of the players started at smaller tables. The buy in was free so everyone received an equal number of chips. Hong said that a person would “play at a table, and as a lot of people at your table clear out, then you’d move on to another table.”
At increments over the course of the night, the tournament officials would raise the small blind so as to clear out more players.
Faculty were interspersed throughout the tables. Though there were no professors at Hong’s smaller table, she said that “at the bigger tables there were one or two professors.” Since professors were spread out at different tables students were able to interact with them. Faculty also played pool with the students after they were knocked out of the tournament. He also said that the tournament “allowed students to see that faculty had lives outside of the classroom.”
One-on-one student-faculty interaction was an oft-cited benefit of the event. Rosenblum said that both students and faculty got enjoyment from playing poker and socializing with each other.
Most faculty stayed for a majority of the time. Rosenblum said that faculty started to “clear out at around 11.”
The tournament provided prizes for the top three players at the tournament. First place received a gift card worth 150 dollars for the establishment of his choosing. Second and third places received 100 and 50 dollar gift cards respectively. Though the top three players were all students, Rosenblum said that faculty and staff were also eligible for prizes.
Even though Hong left after two hours, before the prizes were given out, she said that she “had a really good time.” Rosenblum agreed with Hong’s sentiment. He said that the event was “a success.”
Rosenblum said that Charles Commons Connections “won’t necessarily duplicate this particular program,” but still hopes to work with RAB in the future on events similar to ‘Celebrity Poker!’”
