Frat parties, beer, hitting the books, and exams are all part of the college experience for many. Organizers behind the new World College Poker (WCP) hope to add some poker to that mix as well and have now teamed up with PokerStars.
The new league announced a partnership with the site’s free-to-play online poker platform on Tuesday. The WCP Championship plays out on PokerStars.net this year for students 18 and over.
“World College Poker is thrilled to work with PokerStars as our exclusive platform to expand our reach globally with the upcoming Main Event Championship and more events to be announced,” co-founder Craig Tapscott told USPoker. “They have always been a first-class organization with an amazing team of superstar players and customer support.”
What is World College Poker?
The WCP is the brainchild of Tapscott and Chadwick Pelletier. Both have worked in the poker industry for over a decade, Tapscott as a freelance poker writer and Pelletier as a creative director.
Tapscott’s work writing features about college poker players inspired the idea for the tour. Some of that included interviewing Justin Bonomo and Patrik Antonius.
“There was no world championship for college players,” Tapscott says. “And there are 600 million college students worldwide. It was a no-brainer to collaborate and create a free-to-enter platform for college players to have fun, learn the game, and compete for some amazing prizes.”
Tapscott began playing penny-ante poker in high school and continued his poker life in college. He believes players like himself would embrace the new tour.
“During college I really began to take poker seriously,” he says. “The Moneymaker boom had taken the world by storm. It wasn’t long before I graduated to higher stakes at the casino and eventually a career in this industry.
“Events like the WCP championship didn’t exist back then, but I would have given anything to learn and compete with my peers during that time.”
Organizers hope to create an online community of student players who have a passion for the game. Online poker and live tournaments have already been popular fixtures on college campuses for years.
Card clubs, fraternities, and sororities host friendly games. Charity tournaments have also been popular on campuses. Some colleges, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, even offer poker theory courses.
Harvard also hosts the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society, a student-led organization with chapters at UCLA, Brown, Stanford, and Yale.
How can students participate?
The WCP College Championship Main Event is open to students 18 and over with a valid student ID. Competitors must be currently enrolled in a college, university, or vocational school.
The championship kicks off online at PokerStars.net beginning July 24. The field is divided into four stages with players in six global regions. Here’s a look at the series schedule:
- July 24 – Players around the globe compete in a round one regional tournament. Each of those plays down to 50 players who qualify for round two.
- July 31 – The 300 qualifiers play down to 45 players with chip stacks carried over to round three.
- Aug. 7 – The remaining players receive PokerStars swag bags and play down to the final six.
- Final table (date not yet finalized) – The top six finishers compete live or online to crown a champion. All finalists earn a custom gaming chair.
The winner earns an €8,000 European Poker Tour (EPT) package and an engraved PokerStars trophy. The runner-up earns a three-day trip to Las Vegas from the Solve For Why Academy training site. That includes an academy seat and round-trip airfare.
The PLO Quick Pro training site is awarding vacation packages for the top three finishers and hotel packages for all finalists.
Additional prizes include a private lesson with poker coaches Jonathan Little and Alex Fitzgerald. The winner also takes part in a heads-up battle with Antonius.
Organizers plan for three major events in 2022 including the summer Main Event as well as spring and fall series.
Registration is now open for the 2021 championship. All entrants receive a $100 hotel savings gift card from PLO Quick Pro just for signing up. To learn more, visit worldcollegepoker.com. To learn more about PokerStars.net, click here.
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