Most of them show up early Saturday morning with a backpack, or a duffel bag. Some of the men have a purse, but they would probably argue that it is a satchel – because Indiana Jones had a satchel.

"For events like this we usually get about 20-30 people," said Matt Vercant, the regional manager and partner of Game Universe on Lovers Lane in Franklin. "But it could be bigger than that."

At 9 a.m. last Saturday, the early birds of a small, friendly group of people from a small slice of the cultural make-up of Milwaukee’s fabric gathered.

Last weekend I found myself among 50 players of the Magic: The Gathering card game. We were all there competing in a tournament using pre-released cards from the game’s newest set, Kahns of Tarkir. By the end of the day, featuring three tournaments at the store, 114 players paid to participate in the dueling game event.

"I’ve played on and off since 7^th grade, so about 15 years," said Joel Weisheim of West Allis. "For me, sealed and draft are what I enjoy playing the most."

The Kahn release tournament was a sealed tournament. The cards opened that day were the only ones allowed to be used. Magic: The Gathering (MTG) works a lot like Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh, where customized cards can accomplish certain tasks, from summoning monsters to be in your great army, to casting spells to enhance these creatures on the battlefield.

The reason these games are so similar, is that MTG was around before the other two hit the market to attract younger age groups. Besides playing with cards that were just opened, older cards can be used in different formats. Players make custom decks with the different rare cards and mix in more common ones to use in a game. With individual costs for the older rare cards, the game can get expensive.

But there’s enough balance in the game play, that someone with the most in-expensive common cards can win as well.

Many of the players who still play into adulthood are drawn in by the strategy, and good memories of games played with friends and family members.

Dan Torma came to Milwaukee to visit his cousin, Kevin Torma, to play in the tournament.

"We learned how to play from our older brothers," said Kevin Torma, a Marquette University grad from Ohio who stayed in Milwaukee for employment. "I took about 3 to 4 years off to work on school, but picked it up again now I have more time."

The cousins remember getting together for holidays, and making time to get games in.

"Sometimes we will get a box, open it and start playing," Dan Torma of Colombus, Ohio, said. "We still enjoy it."

There are a great number of core players in Milwaukee that participate at different events and multiple gaming stores in the area … and harkens back to the days that Lake Geneva-based TSR, the maker of Dungeons and Dragons, held its Gen Con convention in Milwaukee annually from 1985 to 2003. Now the players get together to play when they can, and travel to Gen Con in Indianapolis or other conventions in the country.

As a medium, MTG is played online and with mobile apps, and advanced to the point that electronic currency was used to trade for cards. It was a former MTG site that Bitcoin was using when it attempted to go public with a launch.

Game Universe has three locations in the Milwaukee area, and each store schedules its own tournaments for Magic, and have a standing Friday night game play each week at tables in the store.

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Bolton will interview Founders Fund founder and Paypal founder Peter Thiel, founder and managing partner SoftTech Jeff Clavier, Pandora CFO Mike Herring and Chairman and CEO Shorenstein Properties Doug Shorenstein. The special will air at noon.