Students across the country are signing online to compete for money and vacations in this year's The 2nd College Poker Championship.

"Colleges everywhere have a fine poker-playing tradition," said Lou Kreiger, event host and co-author of Poker for Dummies and Internet Poker: How to Play and Beat Online Poker Games. "It seems natural to hold a poker tournament where students from all colleges can come together and test their skills."

Students are invited to compete in the online poker competition at www.collegepokerchampionship.com from now until Feb. 20. The players will compete in 25 qualifying rounds known as Super Satellites, which begin at 4 p.m. on Sundays.

Phil Smith (sophomore-geography) placed 16th in his fourth Super Satellite competition last Sunday, which was the fifth round of competition.

"It's great because it's free and since you're playing against other college kids across the country, you get a chance to gauge yourself against your peers," Smith said. "Plus you win money. Last week I won $4."

Smith said the weekly Super Satellites take about four hours to complete.

The Satellite Event, consisting of the top 10 percent in each of the 25 Super Satellites, will begin on Feb. 20, offering $5,000 in scholarship awards.

About 160 people qualify for the Satellite Event every week, Smith said.

The top 20 percent of players from the Satellite Event will play in the Online Final where first-through 10th-place winners will receive a spot at The 2nd Annual College Poker Championship Land Based Grand Final in Cancun, Mexico. The eighth- through 11th-place finishers will share $5,500 in scholarship awards.

The top-10 finishers receive the free trip to Cancun as well as a VIP pass to a spring break party that will be hosted by www.collegepokerchampionship.com. They will also compete for the chance to win $40,000 and a $10,000 donation to any charity they decide that they want to donate to, accordint to the information on the Web site.

"The competition in Mexico is played in real life," Smith said. "The top 50 players usually win a cash prize."

Students can go to the Web site and download the free software required to play the Texas Hold 'em style of poker in the online tournament.

"The competition doesn't cost anything, so you're not losing anything no matter how you finish," Smith said. "It's definitely a learning experience."

In last year's event, Penn State student Cory Meadows said that he won fourth place in the online poker competition. Mike Klos (sophomore-recreation park tourism management) said he heard about the competition through a friend who competed last year.

"I'm definitely going to play in one of the Satellites," Klos said. "It's great because you can always meet people on poker Web sites but this one is specifically for college kids."

However, Matt Rombach (sophomore-business) said he thought awarding scholarships for winning a card game was not reasonable.

"I know kids who work their butts off to be able to pay for school and now someone can just get lucky at a card game and win a full ride," Rombach said. "Next thing you know kids will be getting scholarships for being good at Candyland."

Students must be going to Penn State full-time to enter the contest. They can register to compete in for the scholarship award money online at collegepokerchampionship.com.