Stern Tears Up Las Vegas at Poker Championship

There I was, sitting at the final table at Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas, with the portraits of Johnny Chan, Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, and other poker greats staring right at me. The stage was set, but this was not the World Series of Poker that you see on ESPN. It was the MBA Poker Championship held annually in Las Vegas, held January 14-16, and I was skilled and lucky enough to make it to the final table in the tournament's first event, the Pot Limit Texas Hold Em Tournament. In this event, each player had to buy in for $125 (which was spilt between the prize pool, the house, and the remainder went to charity). Given that there was a total of 97 players who entered, I was quite honored to be at the final table, or the final 10 people (and, it had taken 4 hours of grueling poker to get to this point!). Interestingly enough, I wasn't the only Stern person at that final table. Sitting to my left was MBA2, Adam Schrager, and to my right, MBA2 and SCorp colleague of mine Eric Bertrand. Surrounding the table were a mob of spectators, including poker legend and Professor Harry Chernoff and his wife (and poker shark) Elena. Now I am a poker veteran, playing in casinos since I was 18 (I used my brother's ID, in case you were wondering). However, never did I feel this much pressure to play correctly, because I was playing not only for myself, but for the reputation of Stern. To cut to the chase, neither Adam, nor Eric, nor I won the event, which paid first place over $3,000. We played well and all earned money, and I walked away with a fourth place finish and a profit of $572, which paid for the trip. Interestingly, all three of us lost on what are known as 'bad beats' in which we pushed all of our chips in with the best hand but the future cards were unkind to us. Nonetheless, it was the first event, and students from UCLA to Chicago to Wharton saw that in the final 7 players, Stern had 3. There were many other Stern students who attended, including captain and organizer Mike Chen, Dan Vilarelle, Yanai Oron, Nick Kravitz, Kevin Marotta, Adam Becker (who has worked tirelessly on our own Stern Charity Poker Event in February), and of course Professor Chernoff and his wife Elena (hey Elena, TEAM STERN! Thanks for taking all my chips in Saturday's tournament). Professor Chernoff, Elena, and Dan all would later place in future tournaments, so all in all it was a big weekend for Stern (our average winnings per person was over $71, placing us in the top 8 out of all business schools). Our big winner was Adam Schrager, who not only placed in the pot limit, but also in the main event, a no limit tournament. Great job Adam! The best part of the weekend was the team unity I felt towards my colleagues, especially the part time students who I didn't know such as Dan Vilarelle and Yanai Oron who made it to Las Vegas. It felt good to root for my fellow students and faculty in such an individualistic game such as poker. I also enjoyed meeting poker fans from other schools, and I remain in touch with a few UCLA guys who were quite a fun bunch. Finally, we didn't play poker all weekend, as Friday night the Stern team dined at an old Las Vegas Steakhouse called the House of Lords (at which Kevin and I consumed 33 oz prime ribs) and Saturday night the team went to an all you can eat sushi buffet followed by a club called Ice and ended up taking a limousine down The Strip to cap off the evening. The only thing I can say is that I'll be back next year, and hopefully if I have a job by then I can stay at the Bellagio with Professor Chernoff instead at the seedy downtown smoky hotels. Then again, if I win the tournament, maybe I won't need a job, as I will become a professional poker player. That's right Johnny Chan, fear me ...