{"id":13810,"date":"2020-06-23T09:49:51","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T13:49:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=13810"},"modified":"2020-06-23T09:49:51","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T13:49:51","slug":"a-new-card-shark-emerges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2020\/06\/a-new-card-shark-emerges\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Card Shark Emerges"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Amber\n

Second-year student Amber Hamelin had a plan for the poker tournament hosted in January by Avi Rubin<\/a>, a computer science professor and technical director of the JHU Information Security Institute<\/a>, at his home in Baltimore County. An avid poker player, Rubin has competed with professionals on TV’s Poker Night in America<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If she had a chance to play against Rubin and win the highly sought-after \u201cProfessor Bounty\u201d chip, a circular golden token given to the player who could take Rubin out of the tournament, she would stay in the game, regardless of her hand. \u201cIf I knew it was just going to be the two of us, I\u2019d take any odds to win because I feel like it\u2019d be worth it to knock him out,\u201d says Hamelin, an applied mathematics and statistics<\/a> major.<\/p>\n

On the night of the tournament, Hamelin, who was one of nearly 250 students who took Rubin\u2019s Intersession course, Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Poker<\/a>, entered Rubin\u2019s basement with its oval-shaped poker tables and felt like she was walking into a casino. Although most of the students won their spots at this live tournament by performing well in online poker tournaments, Hamelin earned her place by answering a poker riddle that Rubin had written on the board during the first week of class. She would be one of 52 students competing.<\/p>\n

After a slow start, Hamelin, whose previous poker experience included games with friends in high school, began playing more aggressively to build up her chips. The strategy worked: As the night wore on, she was one of 17 people left in the game with a seat at Rubin\u2019s table.<\/p>\n

In one round, Rubin went all-in with pocket queens. The other players at the table folded. But Hamelin, who had an eight and a nine, one of which was a club, stayed in the game. \u201cEven though I had pretty bad cards, I decided to go for it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

After Hamelin called, three cards were turned over for the flop, two of which were clubs. Rubin was still winning. The next card was turned over: another club. Still, Hamelin only had a 1-in-12 chance of winning. Then the dealer flipped another club for the last card, the river. Hamelin had a flush, which was enough to knock Rubin and his \u201cbad beat\u201d hand\u2014a hand he should have won if not for bad luck\u2014out of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Hamelin plans to use her prize\u2014the golden Professor Bounty chip with four fanned-out aces on the front and \u201cJohns Hopkins Poker Class Tournament 2020\u201d on the back\u2014as a card protector in future poker games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis class made me realize how poorly I was playing poker before,\u201d says Hamelin, who learned strategies for betting and how to calculate odds. \u201cI\u2019m excited to go back home and play with my old friends now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Web Extra<\/h2>\n