In conjunction with the recent frenzy over poker and other related games, UB decided to host its own Casino Night, sponsored by UBSGA. The poker phenomenon began sometime last year or perhaps at the beginning of this one, with the continuous airing of the WPT (World Poker Tour), WSOP (World Series of Poker) and the US Poker Championships, among others. Due to television publicity and online gaming sites such as partypoker.com, poker and casino life has recently been a recreation of choice for more and more youth’s today.UB’s Casino Night was held on Sat, Apr 17th, from 9 pm to 1 am in the Social room of the Student Center. UBSGA (student government) members were the designated dealers for the event. The equipment was rented from _?_?_?_, and was designed to simulate a casino like atmosphere in terms of fun and excitement, without all the seriousness of contending with real money. The prizes were to be raffled off. Five dollars ($3 entry fee and $2 chip buy in) got you fifteen bills, which could be traded in for raffle tickets at the end of the night, ten bills for one ticket. Included in the prizes, totaling $900, was a TV, multiple DVD and CD players, DVD movies, and more. Also, a Microsoft X-box and DVD player were awarded to first and second place winners of the poker tournament, which was an added event due to popular demand. The game tables included Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Ban, Red Dog, Caribbean Stud, Lucky Seven, and the Big Wheel. A Texas hold-um tournament (the most popular form of tournament poker) was held at the same time, but separate from the other games because the top winners were guaranteed a prize. This avoided the likely situation of one or two people owning a combined two-thirds or three-fourths of all tickets, only to end up winning the small items, such as a jumbo size jar of cheese puffs or candy bars. It also avoided the other, just as likely but opposite, situation of having one or two people taking home ALL the big prizes. Either situation would have left some people justifiably unhappy, so the correct decision of making separate prize pots was made.
Half the tables at Casino Night featured Black Jack, all of them were very active. People stayed at any given table for half an hour on average. Even with all first time dealers, you were just as likely to double up on your chip count as you were to loose most of it, as everyone found out. One girl was down to a single bill, and was content to loose it all or start winning big. As her luck would have it, she continued winning for a long time and losing on alternate hands, leaving her always at that single bill, and was unable to either win big or lose it all .
As always, dice rolling games (Craps, Lucky Seven) attracted much more of a crowd of onlookers than players, as friends and strangers cheered on the high rollers. The Roulette table also attracted excited fans and exciting rollers, often outdoing the intensity of the other rolling tables.
For poker, there were four tables of 1st round action where the top two chip leaders from each table moved on to the championship round, eight in all, as each 1st round table also hosted eight players. It was exciting because many groups of players who usually play weekly in separate venues got to meet up and test their stuff against one other, and they were able to get a feel of their skill-level, overall, in a bigger pool. It was a valuable lesson for many to find out what it’s like and how they would do in a short length tournament with people you’ve never played against.
When asked to describe the event in one word, the common answer given was “fun”. Blackjack dealer Kimikami Miyake was asked if he thought it made a difference that people weren’t playing for real money. “No, it looked like everyone was into it. It was fun winning and losing fake money”, he said.
There was a band on stage playing original and cover songs. Also, a variety of drinks and refreshments were on hand. It was a wonderful event put together by UBSGA and all its members, including Student Body Vice President Tamami Kawamura, who was mainly responsible for organizing and putting together the event.