The fourth annual intramural 500 card tournament got underway with 28 two-person teams and ended with two winning teams.

“It is a well- attended and very popular [event],” said intramurals coordinator Linda Marticke.

“I think that it is a good turnout for a card tournament. I think that [the players] have a good time. It is a good way to meet other students in an informal setting,” she said.

Marticke compared the 500 tournament to other ISU intramurals.

“With team sports, you will get more teams and people,” she said. “This tournament is popular, but not as popular as euchre [or] Texas Hold ‘Em.”

The tournament had two brackets, each with a team winner: Sharon Eddie and Caleb Harrelson won one bracket and Dave Baitinger and Ryan Pfantz took the other.

The team of Eddie, freshman in animal science, and Harrelson, junior in computer science, had different levels of expertise in the game.

“I play 500 whenever there is a card game going on,” Harrelson said.

“This past summer I won the doubles cribbage tournament, similar to 500, with my grandmother at the [Iowa] State Fair.”

Harrelson’s teammate — and girlfriend — didn’t have the same experience.

“I learned the game of 500 two days before this tournament started,” Eddie said. “My boyfriend needed a partner, so I decided to learn.”

Harrelson said there was a lot of good competition and a lot of close games.

The team of Baitinger, senior in agricultural engineering, and Pfantz, junior in agricultural business, had some tough games during the six-hour-plus tournament.

“We won some lucky games,” Baitinger said. “It was a glorious victory, since last year we lost in the first round. All the games were long and tiresome, but it was worth it for the shirt.”

Pfantz was less modest about his team’s victory.

“I am a rounder, I grind it out on the card scene every day,” Pfantz said.