All Dressed Up and Nowhere To Play

A sophomore chemistry concentrator won a spot in the vaunted World Series of Poker (WSOP) last weekend—but he won’t be able to compete in the prestigious event.

At age 19, Jeremy T. Warshauer ’08 is not old enough to legally gamble in Las Vegas, where the series will be held this summer. In fact, the young poker pro has never even been to a casino.

But Warshauer walked away with $10,000 in winnings last Saturday after he placed in the top three in an online tournament sponsored by Truepoker.com.

Not bad for four hours in front of a computer screen in his Kirkland House dorm room.

Warshauer’s rise began on the weekend of the Harvard-Yale football game in November, when students at the two schools squared off in a poker tournament in New Haven.

His victory in that competition won Warshauer a free spot in last Saturday’s Truepoker.com WSOP Super Satellite tournament. Others in Saturday’s 43-person tournament had to pay $1,050 to play.

Warshauer placed sec-ond in the last Saturday’s competition, but the contest had identical awards for the top three finishers.

Like the other two winners, Warshauer won a free trip to Las Vegas and entry into the World Series. But since he cannot legally compete in Nevada, TruePoker.com awarded Warshauer $10,000 instead.

“It would have been nice to fly over and try to win,” Warshauer said. But, he added, “I’m fine taking 10,000 cash.”

The $10,000 won’t all end up in Warshauer’s wallet though. Expecting to lose, he sold off shares of his potential earnings to his blockmates.

“If I won, then they all got a percentage of my winnings. I gave them really good odds—one roommates gave me $100, and I gave him $2,000,” he said.

In total, Warshauer said, he owes his blockmates half of his $10,000 prize.

With the half that he keeps for himself, Warshauer said he plans to save most of it, though he also will set aside “a few hundred to gamble with.”

Though Warshauer knew how to play poker before coming to Harvard, he said that he did not start playing frequently until college.

“You kind of get surrounded by it here at Harvard,” said Warshauer, who added that he plays with his blockmates anywhere from one to eight hours a week.

Warshauer wanted to start up a poker club at Harvard last year, but said that his request did not get approved because the City of Cambridge does not allow “games of chance.”

Warshauer said that he had “really low expectations” going into Saturday’s tournament, and that his blockmates came to watch and support him during the four-hour bout.

“Everyone who had invested in me crowded around and went crazy every time I won a hand,” he said.

One of his blockmates, Bradford J. Diephuis ’08, said that their blocking group has tentative plans to use part of their prize-money to purchase a projector for a dorm theater system that could potentially become a cinema for Kirkland residents.

Warshauer “was really the hero of our blocking group,” said Diephuis, adding that the group took Warshauer out to Uno’s Chicago Grill to celebrate.

Diephuis, who paid Warshauer $50 and won $1,000, said that Warshauer’s victory on Saturday was “surprising.”

“He rarely wins when we play amongst ourselves,” Diephuis said.

—Staff writer Brittney L. Moraski can be reached at bmoraski@fas.harvard.edu.