Poker club offers game lectures

For members of the Hoosier Poker Club, the game is not about gambling. It’s about experience.

“It’s not a gambling atmosphere, it’s a learning environment for whoever puts forth the most effort,” said Travis Vaughn, president of the Hoosier Poker Club.

The Hoosier Poker Club is looking for new members and is having a meeting at 7:30 p.m. today in the Sassafras Room in the IMU.

In starting the club early this semester, Vaughn wanted to facilitate a place where both experienced and amateur players could play poker in an educational and social setting.

The club meets Tuesday nights in the Indiana Memorial Union, alternating each week between lectures on game play  and full-blown tournaments. Members who attend discussions and perform well at tournaments receive points that can be exchanged for prizes. This fosters an environment other than one of gambling, but one that still encourages competition.

This has served veteran players well, but it’s also allowed newer people to learn the game.

“From the new members that weren’t experienced with poker, they’ve found it to be a really welcoming environment,” Vaughn said. “And this is a better way than how I started learning, basically playing for money and losing all the time. This is just for fun.”

Vaughn’s teaching methods seem to be paying off as the Hoosier Poker Club is consistently drawing new members and receiving good feedback.

Hoosier Poker Club Vice President David Conway said Vaughn came to him with the intention to play the game with a different group of people.

“The club is really relaxed, and it allows you to learn about other people’s interests,” Conway said.

But one thing the club has stressed is that poker is about more than a game.

“In all other card games, it seemed to me that you were playing the cards more than anything else, but with poker, you’re playing the person,” Vaughn said. “You find out a lot about people just from playing poker, like how anxious they are, patient they are and just how they act. I think it’s so insightful, but it transcends poker because you do things like that in life too.”

In demonstrating the psychological impact of poker, Vaughn has made teaching the wider aspects of the game the goal of the club.

“The main goal of the club is educational, helping members apply skills to the real world,” said Wei Liu, the Hoosier Poker Club treasurer.

Liu said the game has risks and odds that all relate to the concepts he deals with in his legal studies major, just as it does for Vaughn’s business major.

“What makes this club unique are that there are different experiences, ideas and ways to play,” Conway said. “It doesn’t matter how good you are. You can come and play seriously and meet new people in the process.”