Starting on October 4th, satellites will be available for the Absolute Poker College Challenge, which makes its return to the popular Tokwiro-owned online poker site. $30,000 in prizes can be won, including a $10,000 grand prize tuition for the Player of the Year.
Cash qualifiers for the Absolute Poker College Challenge range from $0.25 to $5 in buy-in and a variety of freerolls are also available. The top nine players from each daily event (regardless of the buy-in amount) will qualify for a freeroll that will take place the next day. In it, the top 15 will earn entry into the Weekly Main Event Qualifier that takes place on Sundays at 9:00pm ET. The first Weekly Main Event Qualifier kicks off on October 11th and the final one will take place on November 29th. Each tournament carries a $200 prize pool.
The top nine players in each Weekly Main Event Qualifier will make their way to the Absolute Poker College Challenge Main Event, which is scheduled for Monday, November 30th at 8:30pm ET. The action isn’t done there, however, as the top six players in the Main Event will head to sunny Los Angeles for a live final table that will air on the official website of Bluff Magazine. The Player of the Year will take home $10,000 for tuition.
Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin, an Absolute Poker pro and consultant for the site’s College Challenge, commented in a press release distributed by the USA-friendly online poker site, “This tournament is a fun and easy way for college students to compete for an alternative way to pay for tuition and we believe that this program is one of the best ways to create real added value for college students.” In addition to the $10,000 grand prize, the promotion’s Player of the Year will earn a custom-crafted championship ring and a story in Bluff Magazine, one of the industry’s premier poker publications.
The other five players at the live final table won’t walk away empty-handed. Second place will earn $5,000, third place will snag $3,500, fourth place will pocket $3,000, fifth place will see their bankroll grow by $2,250, and the first person sent packing from the six-handed live finale will earn $2,000. Each person also receives $750 to use for travel to Los Angeles.
Those not heading to the West Coast city will also receive prizes. The seventh and eighth place finishers will earn $750, while the ninth place finisher will pocket $550. In total, the top 18 places will pay out at least $200. Daily freerolls take place at 8:15pm ET, while $0.25 cash game qualifiers are available at 8:30pm ET. $5 qualifiers kick off at 8:45pm ET nightly.
Absolute Poker makes its home on the CEREUS Network along with its sister site, Ultimate Bet. According to PokerScout.com, which keeps tabs on online poker room traffic, the CEREUS Network is the sixth largest worldwide with a seven-day running average of 2,400 real money ring game players. During its peak hours, which occur in the evening across North America, over 3,500 cash game players can be found on its felts. At the time of writing, which is 1:30pm ET on a Sunday, a total of 2,449 real money ring game players have hit the felts of Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker. CEREUS is the third largest network to accept players from the United States behind PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, which rank first and second, respectively.
Representatives from Ultimate Bet, meanwhile, are busy preparing for the Aruba Poker Classic, whose $5,500 buy-in Main Event kicks off on Monday with the first of two starting days. The marquee poker tournament crowns a champion on October 11th.
