When Tim Engler couldn't find a weekly poker game on campus, he went to the only place he knew he could find a game at any time -- online.

This Sunday, Engler (senior-advertising) will be offering Penn State students and alumni the chance to do the same in a tournament exclusively for Nittany Lions.

"At Penn State... it was hard to find a place week in and week out to play," Engler said. "I've been playing online poker for awhile, so I thought, 'Why [not] just play online so kids can play at their own computers?' I wanted to start a big tournament for awhile because I remember playing in small poker games in East as a freshman."

After developing the idea for the student-centered online poker tournament, Engler said he got his roommate and friend Ed Siegfried involved.

"We both play poker," Engler said. "Anything I'm thinking, he's thinking, too."

Siegfried (senior-finance) and Engler said that the first thing they did was contact online casinos to help assist with the online poker tournament.

"Off The Rail was nice enough to set up a private tournament with a password and stuff that we could enter," Siegfried said. "We set up a Web page for the tournament with Tim's brother."

Since the beginning of December, Siegfried and Engler have been getting students involved with the tournament.

"We have been going through Facebook and searching for people interested in poker and sending them e-mails, but we haven't had much success because people just delete the e-mails," Siegfried said. "We also handed out fliers one day at Willard, Forum and the HUB."

About 20 people are currently registered for Sunday's tournament, Siegfried said.

"We would like to get at least 50 people involved," Engler said. "The more the merrier, though. If there were 40, we would still keep [the tournament] going."

To sign up for the 4 p.m. tournament, students can go to playpsupoker.com and set up an account, Siegfried said.

Both Siegfried and Engler said they will be participating in the tournament.

"If this first tournament is successful, then hopefully we'll set up biweekly tournaments," Siegfried said. "Later on, if it is a success, we want to make it a $10 buy in."

Vince Breezy, U.S. director of marketing for All-In Productions, said that his company is looking to create an online poker environment that would cater to Penn State students, fans and alumni through their regional directors, Engler and Siegfried.

"They came up with a brilliant idea to have a Penn State poker league for students and alumni," Breezy said. "Hopefully, it's going to be very successful and we're looking forward to future things."

Off the Rail is also sponsoring a Big Ten online poker tournament 6 p.m. Feb. 11.

"We have connections at all the schools, but we don't know for sure which ones are going to participate," Breezy said. "It's open to students, fans and alumni at all of the schools. It's just another way we can take the spirit of the Big Ten and apply it to all students; that's the underlying thing we're trying to capture here."