You are sitting around with your buddies on a cold and bitter Sunday evening while another six feet of snow drops from the hellish sky. You are desperately seeking some indoor excitement and one of your friends suggests playing poker. You have two options: you and your friends could get the chips out and try to take each other’s money, or you could go online and participate in the Second Annual College Poker Championship for free, where the possibility of making money to cover school expenses is very real.
College Poker Championship (CPC) is an online Texas Hold’em tournament that runs every Sunday from September to May, and is designed specifically for college and university students from around the world. The tournaments are open to students only and are entirely free of charge to enter.
Each week a total of $500 is given out to the top 50 finishers in these so-called Super Satellite events. The tournament organizers intend the money to be used by the winners to help pay for tuition and living expenses.
This year a student from U of T was a weekly winner in one of the online tournaments. On October 24 Alex Pukurar pocketed a cool $125 for knocking out all of his competition.
The top ten per cent of players from each Super Satellite event qualify for an online Satellite tournament, where the pot for winners grows from $500 to $5,000. The top 20 per cent of finishers in the Satellite tournament qualify for the online final, where over $100,000 dollars will be handed out-the winner will take home $41, 000- and $10,000 will be donated to charities of the winner’s choosing.
The next Satellite event will take place on May 15, followed the next week by the online final on May 22.
This year Lou Krieger-renowned poker player, author, and teacher of the game-is serving as tournament host for the CPC. He says various duties and privileges go along with being host: “I get involved in any number of customer service issues on behalf of players, provide the site with my poker knowledge, and suggest ways to improve both the service and the software. I also play in a weekly tournament where players can win a cash award and a signed book if they eliminate me. In addition, I also do a number of interviews with the press and appear on a weekly radio show, where I discuss poker.
“The CPC offers me a chance to give something back, and to help cast poker in the best possible light,” he continued. “I was seven years old when my dad and his cronies started to play poker once a week around our kitchen table. I saw my father in an entirely different light at the poker table, and even learned a few choice expressions in Yiddish, Italian, and Irish that I was forbidden to repeat in anyone else’s presence. Needless to say, I loved every minute of it.”
Meanwhile, Matt Savage has been acting as tournament director this year. He also functions in the same capacity for the World Series of Poker, where there actually is a risk of losing tonnes of money.
Students are drawn to CPC because it is free and there is the possibility of monetary gain. The fact that charitable donations are also involved is an added bonus for all, and has persuaded some casual poker players to give this tournament a try, knowing they might have a positive impact on the lives of others.
Krieger hopes that all the money from competitions will be put to good use: “I hope every penny won in the CPC goes toward sustaining college students and supporting charities and campus-based non-profit organizations. Whether the money goes toward tuition or toward a student’s living expenses while at school is not an issue. What is important is that students and scholarship are both encouraged and supported in a variety of ways, and the CPC is one of them.”
For more information on the Second Annual College Poker Championship point your browser towards collegepokerchampionship.com.
