Zeta Phi Beta Sorority and Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity hosted a spades tournament that dealt a generous cash prize into surprised hands on March 2, in the Student Union Ballroom. The two organizations teamed up and allowed players to preregister, also welcoming spectators for support.

 “We picked spades because it’s a classic African American game, brings everybody together…it’s kind of intense,” said Zeta Phi Beta member Monique Dykes.

“We were focusing on promoting our fraternity,” Derek Garrett of Phi Beta Sigma said,  “We’re making sure we do things to entertain our college community…create an atmosphere for students to come and play a nice friendly game of spades.”

Although the games didn’t begin until 7:30 p.m., music was available in order to ramp up contenders. Before players approached their tables, Garrett explained some of the rules, including no flipping cards, first hand open, no bags, clockwise deal and simple cut.

There were four tables in use during the competition, with each table consisting of four players, two per team.

The winners from table one advancing to the second round were Kenric Duncan and Kevin Lee. Christopher Johnson and Trejon Brignac won at table two. Phillipé Moore and Brandon Daniels took table three and Ida Holmes and Brandon Parker took table four.

While players were busy dealing hands on the table, spectators were served finger sandwiches, chips and beverages.

Moore and Daniels won a quick game and advanced to the final round waiting in suspense for their next competitors. After a war of attrition and up and down scores, Holmes and Parker sought to win it all.  

The night grew to a closing as Moore and Daniels took their seats in the final round to face a confident Holmes and Parker. Due to some controversy about rules and booking, the third to last round within the final was repeated, agreed upon by the entire party. Soon the score came to a weighted number of 320-250, with Holmes and Parker in the lead. As Holmes celebrated a victory, she unfortunately fell to the error in spades known as the renege penalty. Moore and Daniels staggered in excitement as they received 100 dollars, being deemed the winners of the final round.

“We’re very excited because we were not even supposed to win but the game changes sometimes,” said Daniels of his team’s win.

To some, the game of spades is about knowing your teammate and if you and your teammate know how one another think, then there is usually more success, but Daniels sees it differently.

“Spades is about how the cards fall,” Daniels said.

After being asked how he was going to handle his prize, Daniels said, “Aw man, I might post it on the wall.”

According to Dykes, their sister-brother organizations will plan to host a spades tournament every spring or fall.

“This is our first event we’ve done together this semester because we just got new members, but we’ll be planning more in the future,” said Dykes.