"College Poker Offers a Chance For Real Winnings - Scholarship Winnings"

When 25,000 United States college students participate in a poker championship, the College Poker Championships competition in particular, then we can say that there is growing evidence that interest in such activities is growing. Especially when the number playing exceeds the previous year’s competition by 10,000.

The competition’s winner is to receive a $41,000 scholarship and in addition to that, there will be a $52,000 pool which will be divided between the next nine competition finalists. There is no entry fee required to play the competition game, which is Texas Hold'em. Each student who enters is given an imaginary sum of money with which he/she is to play with in each round. The semifinal and final results will be posted of the sponsoring company’s Web site, www.collegepokerchampionship.com.

Event organizers have already reached the planning stages for next year’s competition. A slight change is to be introduced into next year’s final competition, since organizers are intending to have the finalists play each other in the flesh. This face-to-face competition will most likely be televised.

Not everyone is happy at the ease with which it is possible for college students to play at online gambling sites. Just in the poker championships alone it is estimated that 4,500 are participating, and there are those who are afraid that such competitions are encouraging gambling and that they might be breeding future gambling addictions. College Poker Championships spokeswoman Kerry Johnson has countered this fear by insisting that this competition cannot encourage gambling. She argues that the competition is demonstrating how poker can be used as a strategic learning tool, and points to the many examples where it is already used in classrooms for this purpose. In addition those who are sponsoring the competition indicate that real money is not involved and that players are playing for scholarships and not for cash payouts.