By Jonathan Sager, Staff Writer
As the 2025-2026 school year begins at River Hill, many clubs and organizations are starting the challenging recruitment process. Card Colosseum, River Hill’s newest card club, is one of many student organizations looking to bring in new members.
The club serves as a community for RHHS students to come together and play their favorite card games such as slapjack, poker and blackjack without any real money or gambling. Club meetings are usually informal, casual, and relaxed; taking place from 2:35-3:30 on Wednesdays in Mrs. Tai’s room, the Chinese room (Room 136).
At River Hill, there are many students who share an interest in playing card games; sophomore Nathan Hong is one of them. Hong says he has always had an interest in playing card games like poker and blackjack ever since he was very young, stating, “I love playing cards, what else is there to say.” Hong went on to describe how, even though he doesn’t win every time, he enjoys the Card Colosseum because it gives him a fun and casual opportunity to play his favorite card games with his peers and to “do whatever we want to do.”
The club is open to all new members regardless of experience, something Card Colosseum Officers hope will draw in new members. Junior Nathan Wang, Co-President of the club, claims that the membership has “increased by 50% since last school year” and will continue to grow, especially as the school year begins and more students think about joining clubs for the very first time as a high schooler. Wang asks possible new members who are still deliberating, “Why not? Might as well introduce new people and new things. It’s always worth a shot.”
Wang also describes how he became interested in playing cards through playing games with his “friends and family” ever since he was young. Over the years he has learned how to do many tricks with cards and has learned how to manipulate decks. Over the course of the school year, new members could also become more experienced in card games and learn tricks. There are also different variations of popular card games that exist. For example, Chinese poker is played with a different ruleset than regular Texas hold ’em but uses the same hand rankings. Wang hopes that new members also grow an appreciation for card games and can improve their skills, just as he did when he was little.
One example of a member who joined just this year is junior Benjamin Gavin. Similarly to Wang, Ben also has a lot of experience in cards, playing them with his family frequently. He also plays poker with his friends and their parents during the weekends so he has experience outside of school. Even in school, Ben plays card games during free periods with his friends. Ben enjoys playing card games because “they are fun and they give me a unique challenge and experience I really can’t find anywhere else.” Card Colosseum appealed to him because it was another chance to play card games with his peers and friends and to learn new card games, tricks and strategies that he can use when he plays outside of school with friends and family.
In greater efforts to recruit members, Wang aims to add more card games to the list of games available to play. Wang also hopes to hold meetings on “multiple days of the week,” instead of just meeting on Wednesdays, if possible.
All in all, Wang’s goal for the club this year is to make it “accessible to more people, making [student] card games possible.” Allowing for Card Colosseum to grow and for more people to get a chance to become acquainted with card games.