Students
across the country are signing online to compete
for money and vacations in this year's The 2nd
College Poker Championship.
"Colleges
everywhere have a fine poker-playing tradition,"
said Lou Kreiger, event host and co-author of
Poker for Dummies and Internet Poker: How
to Play and Beat Online Poker Games. "It seems
natural to hold a poker tournament where students
from all colleges can come together and test their
skills."
Students are invited to compete in the online
poker competition at
www.collegepokerchampionship.com from now until
Feb. 20. The players will compete in 25 qualifying
rounds known as Super Satellites, which begin at 4
p.m. on Sundays.
Phil
Smith (sophomore-geography) placed 16th in his
fourth Super Satellite competition last Sunday,
which was the fifth round of competition.
"It's great because it's free and since you're
playing against other college kids across the
country, you get a chance to gauge yourself
against your peers," Smith said. "Plus you win
money. Last week I won $4."
Smith said the weekly Super Satellites take about
four hours to complete.
The
Satellite Event, consisting of the top 10 percent
in each of the 25 Super Satellites, will begin on
Feb. 20, offering $5,000 in scholarship awards.
About 160 people qualify for the Satellite Event
every week, Smith said.
The
top 20 percent of players from the Satellite Event
will play in the Online Final where first-through
10th-place winners will receive a spot at The 2nd
Annual College Poker Championship Land Based Grand
Final in Cancun, Mexico. The eighth- through
11th-place finishers will share $5,500 in
scholarship awards.
The top-10 finishers receive the free trip to
Cancun as well as a VIP pass to a spring break
party that will be hosted by
www.collegepokerchampionship.com. They will also
compete for the chance to win $40,000 and a
$10,000 donation to any charity they decide that
they want to donate to, accordint to the
information on the Web site.
"The
competition in Mexico is played in real life,"
Smith said. "The top 50 players usually win a cash
prize."
Students can go to the Web site and download the
free software required to play the Texas Holdem
style of poker in the online tournament.
"The
competition doesn't cost anything, so you're not
losing anything no matter how you finish," Smith
said. "It's definitely a learning experience."
In
last year's event, Penn State student Cory Meadows
said that he won fourth place in the online poker
competition. Mike Klos (sophomore-recreation park
tourism management) said he heard about the
competition through a friend who competed last
year.
"I'm
definitely going to play in one of the
Satellites," Klos said. "It's great because you
can always meet people on poker Web sites but this
one is specifically for college kids."
However, Matt Rombach (sophomore-business) said he
thought awarding scholarships for winning a card
game was not reasonable.
"I
know kids who work their butts off to be able to
pay for school and now someone can just get lucky
at a card game and win a full ride," Rombach said.
"Next thing you know kids will be getting
scholarships for being good at Candyland."
Students must be going to Penn State full-time to
enter the contest. They can register to compete in
for the scholarship award money online at
collegepokerchampionship.com.
