In a recent announcement by Harrah’s, it was revealed that this year’s MBA Poker Championships will be hosted at the Caesar’s Palace. It will run through January 15 to 17 and will be divided into three separate events. This will be the 5^th annual MBA Poker Championships and it looks to be a big one.

What is the MBA Poker Championship?

The MBA Poker Championships is always a highly anticipated event in the world of poker as well as the world of business. Each year, hundreds – thousands, if you count the non-participants – of people gather for this one event. But winning isn’t quite as important here as socializing with the other participants and ultimately making contacts. MBA is all about mixing business with fun and adding a little dose of charity. Participants will be coming from various prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, Duke, Kellogg, the University of Chicago, as well as Penn’s Wharton Business School.

Brad Warga, vice president of Harrah’s, even mentioned that the MBA is an ‘important networking and recruiting event for the MBA candidates ‘. The qualities that they are looking for, after all, include (in Warga’s own words) the ability to ‘think quickly on one’s feet’ and to be ‘quantitatively apt’. These two, according to Warga, are attributes that are highly coveted by businesses.

As such, you can think of the MBA poker tournament as something that is as much about poker as it is about business. However, the MBA poker tournament is also about charity, and this is the reason why it’s such a noble event. The student who will win the MBA championship and those who will place deep enough to be ‘in the money’ will, of course, get some help for relieving their financial burdens. But what’s even better is that some of the proceeds from the event will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Association and also to the Cleveland Clinic. It’s truly for a wonderful cause and, in the four previous years that it has been running, the event has already gathered $33,000 for the said organization.

The Three Events

As mentioned before, the MBA Poker Championships will have three events in all. The first one is a $65 no limit hold’em tournament and the second one is a $225 no-limit tournament. The third and main event will be the $150 MBA Poker Championship. All MBA students and alumni who are over 21 years old can join. If, however, you just want to watch, then you can purchase the VIP package that’s worth $50. It will give you access to the spectator’s area and, more importantly (to those looking for contacts, anyway), the event’s various social activities.