EFF Benefit Poker Tournament at DEF CON 33

In the brand new Planet Hollywood Poker Room, 48 digital rights supporters played No-Limit Texas Hold’Em in the 4th Annual EFF Benefit Poker Tournament at DEF CON, raising $18,395 for EFF.

The tournament was hosted by EFF board member Tarah Wheeler and emceed by lintile, lending his Hacker Jeopardy hosting skills to help EFF for the day.

Every table had two celebrity players with special bounties for the player that knocked them out of the tournament. This year featured Wendy Nather, Chris “WeldPond” Wysopal, Jake “MalwareJake” Williams, Bryson Bort, Kym “KymPossible” Price, Adam Shostack, and Dr. Allan Friedman.

Excellent poker player and teacher Jason Healey, Professor of International Affairs at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs noted that “the EFF poker tournament is where you find all the hacker royalty in one room.”

The day started at with a poker clinic run by Tarah’s father, professional poker player Mike Wheeler. The hour-long clinic helped folks get brushed up on their casino literacy before playing the big game.

Mike told the story of first teaching Tarah to play poker with jellybeans when she was only four. He then taught poker noobs how to play and when to check, when to fold, and when to go all-in.

After the clinic, lintile roused the crowd to play for real, starting the tournament off by announcing “Shuffle up and deal!”

The first hour saw few players get knocked out, but after the blinds began to rise, the field began to thin, with a number of celebrity knock outs.
At every knockout, lintile took to the mic to encourage the player to donate to EFF, which allowed them to buy back into the tournament and try their luck another round.

Jay Salzberg knocked out Kym Price to win a l33t crate.

Kim Holt knocked out Mike Wheeler, collecting the bounty on his head posted by Tarah, and winning a $250 donation to EFF in his name. This is the second time Holt has sent Mike home.

Tarah knocked out Adam Shostack, winning a number of fun prizes, including a signed copy of his latest book, Threats: What Every Engineer Should Learn From Star Wars.

Bryson Bort was knocked out by privacy attorney Marcia Hofmann.

Play continued for three hours until only the final table of players remained: Allaen Friedman, Luke Hanley, Jason Healey, Kim Holt, Igor Ignatov, Sid, Puneet Thapliyal, Charles Thomas and Tarah Wheeler herself.

As blinds continues to rise, players went all-in more and more. The most exciting moment was won by Sid, tripling up with TT over QT and A8s, and then only a few hands later knocking out Tarah, who finished 8th.

For the first time, the Jellybean Trophy sat on the final table awaiting the winner. This year, it was a Seattle Space Needle filled with green and blue jellybeans celebrating the lovely Pacific Northwest where Tarah and Mike are from.

The final three players were Allen Friedman, Kim Holt and Syd. Sid doubled up with KJ over Holt’s A6, and then knocked Holt out with his Q4 beating Holt’s 22.

Friedman and Sid traded blinds until Allan went all in with A6 and Syd called with JT. A jack landed on the flop and Syd won the day!

Sid becomes the first player to win the tournament more than once, taking home the jellybean trophy two years in a row.

It was an exciting afternoon of competition raising over $18,000 to support civil liberties and human rights online. We hope you join us next year as we continue to grow the tournament. Follow Tarah and EFF to make sure we have chips and a chair for you at DEF CON 34.

Be ready for this next year’s special benefit poker event: The Digital Rights Attack Lawyers Edition! Our special celebrity guests will all be our favorite digital rights attorneys including Cindy Cohn, Marcia Hofmann, Kurt Opsahl, and more!

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