It may not take the athletic ability or gain the notoriety that intramural basketball or softball does, but an intramural hearts championship T-shirt will do just fine for Adam Bonk.

Including Bonk, freshman in health and human performance, 56 people gathered Sunday in the Pine Room of the Memorial Union for the intramural hearts tournament to test skills and luck.

Bonk said his win was based mainly on luck. He said he has only played hearts on a computer and has never participated in any live tournaments.

During the final round, Bonk beat his opponents by a landslide and had scores of zero or below. In hearts, lower scores are better.

Bonk said winning was a shock.

“I played against a lot of good players and didn’t think I would win, but my confidence grew as I went along,” he said.

Hadley Henderson, senior in sociology, said there is more than just luck to playing hearts.

“You need to know how to count cards,” Henderson said. “There are 13 in each suit, and you need to know where those 13 [cards] are going.”

The “Black Lady” and “Passing” versions of hearts were played at the tournament. In “Black Lady,” the queen of spades is counted as a negative score. “Passing” simply means after the deal, players must pass any three cards from their hand to their neighbor on the left.

Bethany Ekle, intramural supervisor for the tournament and senior in linguistics, said players first played a practice round and then played five 30-minute rounds. Two players at each table with the lowest scores moved on.

Erika Ritland, intramural supervisor for the tournament and senior in health and human performance, said each time a participant advanced, he or she played with different people. The fifth round was played by the four best players from the tournament.

Henderson, who made it to the third round but stayed to watch the championship showdown, said the atmosphere of the tournament was laid back except for the championship.

“The final game was pretty intense,” he said.

Linda Marticke, intramurals coordinator, said the hearts tournament is based on a combination of skill and luck, although she said skill was the more important factor.

Regardless of whether participants thought the game was based on skill or luck, most agreed on the reason anyone competed.

“Most people are just in it for the shirt,” Henderson said.