Campus recreations hosted a Texas Hold’em tournament Jan. 31 to encourage student involvement on campus.

Originally, the tournament expected to have between 40 and 50 players in attendance, but as the cards were being passed out, only half of the tables were filled.

At the start of the tournament there were only 24 active players in the event; which fell short of expectations.

Although the attendance wasn’t as high as expected, there were still plenty of poker enthusiasts to help the tournament move along.

“I’ve played poker ever since I was little and I haven’t been able to play as much as I used to,” said Chris Tinsley, a sophomore journalism and political science major and poker tournament attendee.

Intramural supervisor, Parker Labeiteaux was in charge of coordinating the event for anyone involved in the tournament and helped things move along through the duration of the tournament.

The tournament lasted about three hours and winners received prizes. First place went to sophomore Sean Blahnik, who won a 500 piece poker set for his Texas Hold’em skills.

Eighteen of the 24 players who attended the tournament walked away with prizes ranging from Applebee’s gift cards to NKU sweatshirts.

“It’s pretty easy, as long as you do alright, you will win something,” Labeiteaux said.

Everyone had different reasons for attending the free tournament. Although some came for the pizza, most participated just for the poker.

“It’s amazing,” undeclared freshman Josh Herald said about the tournament. “We played at BW3’s before we came.”