MBA Poker Championships

More than 300 MBAs from about 25 schools will let the chips fall where they may at the second annual Susquehanna MBA Poker Championship at Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas from Jan. 14 to 16. Including the 10% prize pool, the event should raise more than $15,000 for the Alzheimer's Assn., says co-organizer Stephen Bradford Jones, a second-year student at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Jones, whose school was the big winner at the championships last year, had the idea for this event the summer before he arrived on Chicago's campus. "I, like a lot of people, had gotten into the whole poker craze because it's fun, intellectually stimulating, and involves a lot of psychology," he says.

The championship has grown significantly in size from one year to the next, thanks at least in part to word of mouth over the Internet. The discussion about holding a championship in Vegas got started on the BusinessWeek Online Forums and then headed to a Yahoo! group. From there, the plans started coming together for the first championship, which was held in January, 2004.

This year, Jones and co-organizer Andrew Favorov of Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business garnered corporate sponsorships and encouraged more students, faculty, and alumni to join in the fun. The weekend has turned into a social and networking event and has even attracted recruiters. Some students last year reported snagging interviews while sitting at the card table.