Greg Veltri is a baseball player at heart, but on Jan. 23, the physics senior was a poker elite for a day.
Veltri qualified for the Second Annual Online Texas Hold’em No Limit Poker Tournament Series by placing third in the weekly series. The third place finish earned Veltri $52.50. By placing in the top 10 percent in the weekly series, Veltri will move on to compete with the top college players in the world in an Online Final that will be held in May. In the Online Final, Veltri will vie for a share of the $135,000 total prize payout.
The starting outfielder for the ‘Pack first heard of the College Poker Championship from one of his teammates. Veltri began playing the weekly tournament about a month ago and quickly found success. After only his second try, Veltri broke the top 100 and finished in 69th place. The next week he slipped from the top 100 but the following week came in third place and earned his position in the final.
Before the series, Veltri said he was never much into online gaming. He said poker was something he would sometimes play with his buddies.
“I don’t really like putting money on the line,” Veltri said. “[Poker] was something that interested me, but I just didn’t end up doing it. When my buddy told me about this free scholarship tournament, I just started playing.”
Veltri’s strategy is simple: don’t mess up.
“Just don’t do anything stupid with your cards and with what you have,” Veltri said. “I ended up having my roommates and couple of teammates all sitting behind me, when I made it to the final table; they were criticizing all the moves I made. It was a lot of fun.”
According to Veltri, the cards you are dealt are everything.
“No matter how good you are in poker, sometimes the cards don’t fall your way,” he said. “That time they did.”
Veltri said many players are aggressive in the beginning, but he takes his time and doesn’t rush to stack up the chips.
“Since it’s free a lot of people are doing stupid things in the beginning to try and double their stack right away,” he said. “I just try and not do anything stupid and just hang around.”
The wait paid off.
“I got lucky,” Veltri said.
The Loxahatchee, Fla., native said he first learned poker at an early age.
“I knew the basics since I was little,” he said. “Me and my buddies back home would have a poker night every now and then, and we would play all forms of poker.”
Veltri attributes ESPN’s coverage of poker for the game’s recent surge in popularity.
“When they started airing on ESPN, everybody got into it,” he said.
As for Veltri’s expectations in the final, he plans on taking it one hand at a time.
“When I get there, I just have to hope I catch some cards along the way,” Veltri said. “Some of it’s skill, but most of it’s luck.”
The final will be held on May 22 at 3 p.m. Players who place 11th to 80th will share in $15,500 of scholarship awards, while players who place first to 10th will share $94,500 in scholarship awards. The winner will be taking home an outstanding $41,000.
As an added feature in the final, charitable donations amounting to $10,000 will be made to any charity or organization, designated by players placing first to 10th.
Michael Nissman can be reached at [email protected].
