It was 11:30 p.m. and the players came into the room, focused on the task at hand. They distributed chips and dealt the cards-it was time to play poker. However, this game took place neither in a casino nor at a tournament poker table. These players, sitting casually on the floor, were gathered in a Shapiro dorm room at Brandeis.

This is just one of numerous groups of on campus swept up in the poker craze. Many students said they were unsure if University rules officially outlaw playing poker with monetary wagers. Either way, plenty of Brandesians have found a way to indulge their poker fetish.

"We're not allowed to gamble. I think it's is illegal," Paul Rabinovich '07 said, "but nobody really cares."

Still, he noted that students who play in the first floor lounge in Reitman are cautious.

"There's no money [out in the open] at all during the game," Rabinovich said. "The money is always in people's pockets." That means that should administrators come in, no one will see people gambling with real money.

Students at Brandeis have different levels of poker expertise and bet with various stakes.

"The most I ever spend in a game is five dollars," Adam Turek-Herman '06 said.

Apparently though, Turek-Herman does not always stick to his own rule.

"[Adam] played two hands with a 10 dollar buy-in," chimed in Andrew Katz '06, a fellow poker player. "The first hand, he lost one dollar, and in the second, he had lost the rest of it!"

Turek-Herman and Katz, together with other members of their Ridgewood Suite 8, have no set schedule for their poker games, but they said they play about three or four times a month.

Some students play for complete novelty stakes. No real money was put into the 11:30 game in Shapiro, but the winner would return to his or her dorm room with a fold-out Sports Illustrated poster of Anna Kournikova in a bathing suit. In Ridgewood 8, Turek-Herman and his friends have at times played with a twist in which the loser of each bet was forced to do pushups and drink lemon juice concentrate.

"Instead of wagering money, we would wager pushups," Turek-Herman said. "[After] we wagered more than 30 pushups, it became 30 pushups plus one shot of lemon juice concentrate."

For some of players, the game revolves around money, but others say the important part is having a good time with friends.

"I'm not a serious player," Turek-Herman said. "I play for fun."

The gambling, according to Katz, only serves to increase the entertainment.

"We play for money. I don't think you can play for fun if you don't play for money," he said. However, Katz made it clear that the key component is the enjoyment. "Fun is what matters."

Katz said that he disagrees with those who say that gambling is a waste of money.

"Some people spend ten dollars on a movie or a beer," noted Katz. "We spend it on poker. That's our entertainment."

In the Shapiro room, the co-ed group of players cracked constant jokes about the coveted poster. With the first hand won, the victor cheered with a smirk, "Kournikova is coming to me!" The last round, a close competition between boyfriend and girlfriend, was humorously heated. The cheerful game is a symbol of the lighthearted side of poker here.

There is, however, a more competition-orientated side to poker.

"There's got to be an incentive to play," Alex Thompson '04 said. "When you reach a certain point in skill, you decide if it's worth your time, which means the stakes and the competition have to be higher."

Thompson plays poker in the Foster Mods about three times a week, with varying levels of competition.

"[Our games range from] people just sitting around and playing, all the way up to nine to 13 guys, or even more," Thompson said.

"The stakes are typically 10 dollar buy in, tournament style," he said, though "sometimes more or less, depending on how big the game gets."

Thompson said that he does play for enjoyment's sake, generally with the same group of people. "A lot of it is for recreation, so we'd rather play amongst ourselves, though we do let others in, depending on the game."

For players like Thompson, the emphasis of the game is on who triumphs at the end.

"I never go into a game not planning on winning," says Thompson, who added, "Winning is more important to me than the money."

Among existing poker variations, the most popular on campus is Texas Hold 'Em, in which each player receives two cards face down while five cards sit face up in the middle of the table to be used by all players to make winning combinations.

"Texas Hold 'Em gives us more opportunities to bet in a round," according to a first-year who wished to remain anonymous, "instead of other poker games, where you only bet once or twice."

Thompson's crowd chooses its poker flavor based on the competitive atmosphere on a given night. When the mood is less serious, the group does not play Hold 'Em, but instead versions "that are more conducive to a social setting," Thompson said. "Texas Hold 'Em is more competitive and cutthroat," he said.

Those who like an alternative to table poker can play via the Internet at sites such as pokerstars.com, empirepoker.com or partypoker.com. These online venues have options for both monetary and non-monentary games, and for players at all levels.

"[Online poker] is good for when you can't find a game [elsewhere]," Nathan Kaplan '07 said.

Turek-Herman, however, said he dislikes online poker. "I don't do it. I don't like being in a situation where I can't see the other person's face."

His suitemates said they disagree with him, and play online regularly. Sometimes, Katz said, he and his suitemates compete in the same online tournament and "shout back and forth between [their] rooms."

Online bets take multiple forms, either with money-free points given on the Web site, money paid through credit card or a direct link to one's bank account. Thompson urged caution, saying that linking one's personal bank account to a poker site "could be dangerous."

Legality issues limiting regular gambling have yet to be extended to online poker, though a series of bills recently addressed the issue. According to the CATO Institute, a non-profit public policy research foundation, such legislation is unlikely to pass since many online gambling operateions are located outside the United States.

Underground poker at Brandeis, though lauded by the players interviewed, is somewhat controversial and even confusing. Though the Rights and Responsibilities handbook has nothing written on gambling, Massachusetts law does declare the activity illegal. Several students declined to comment on their game play, worried that the administration would stop them from having their fun.

Lori Tenser and Sean McGuirk, assistant dean of Student Life and director of the Department of Student Development and Judicial Education, respectively, were originally set to comment on Brandeis policy regarding gambling, but were unable to comment in time for this article.

"Last year, we asked the Administration if we could have a poker tournament in Ziv Commons," says Thompson. He said that the permission was not granted.

However, the Vietnamese Student Association held a poker tournament in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium this semester. Surrounded by Vietnamese food and good company, Brandeis students played poker freely with permission.

"There were 70-plus people at the tournament this semester," according to tournament winner and Senator for Rosenthal Quad Ezra Stark '06. "We played from 7 p.m. until two in the morning."

Stark won a $40 gift certificate to Best Buy after seven grueling hours of competition.

"It started out with people divided into groups of ten at different tables," he said. "As time progressed and people dropped out, tables consolidated, until there was only one left."

A self-proclaimed avid poker player, Stark plans to start up a Brandeis poker club with Senator-at-Large Donnie Philips '06 in the near future. "There is a high interest in poker playing here at Brandeis, so we feel we should accommodate this demand by creating a poker club," Stark said.

He noted that the club could not play for money due to legality issues. "The only reason the VSA tournament was legal," Stark said, "was because it was not a cash prize, and because most of the money [to enter the tournament] went to a charity benefitting Vietnamese children."

No matter what the rules may be, it is clear that poker has seeped throughout the campus.

"Me and my friends could be talking about a hand from last night," commented one anonymous senior, "and someone next to us will say 'You guys play poker?' and that's how we end up getting more people to play with."

But gambling on campus certainly can't be all that bad. After all, someone got to go home with a poster of Anna Kournikova.