If You Can’t Smoke Inside...

When Jimi Hendrix’s tunes envelop Harvard Yard on a Friday afternoon, chances are Steve J. Fiascone ’08 and Ross A. Lipstein ’08 of Holworthy 18 are responsible. Every week, the duo bring a loudspeaker, a folding table, and poker paraphernalia into the middle of the Yard to play their traditional game of Friday poker.

“We found out in the first week of school that we both really enjoy poker and smoking cigars,” Lipstein says. “You can’t smoke in the dorms, so we tried playing outside. It worked really well. We decided to make it a tradition.”

Friends doubted the roommates’ pledge of absolute consistency, but, so far, rain, sleet, and snow have not deterred them.

“Feel this deck,” Fiascone says proudly, holding out a pack of withered, crusty cards. “It’s our rain deck.”

Nor does the prospect of moving out of the Yard alter their plans. “If we’re in the Quad, we’d do it on the grass,” Lipstein mused before the pair received their housing assignment. “Or if we’re close, like Adams,” Fiascone added, “we could come back to the Yard.”

“Yes,” says Lipstein. “We’d have to invest in some foldable chairs. It could be nice.”

In the end, it’s Leverett House that can look forward to the spectacle of Friday afternoon poker games.

While they’re still in the Yard, the eccentric sight attracts attention—elderly people complain about the noise, students ask to join in, and, occasionally, tourists abandon John Harvard to photograph them.

“Once a man asked to take a picture of us with his wife and child,” Fiascone says. “Maybe we’re celebrities in Japan or something.”