Carnegie Mellon Student Wins Absolute Poker Tournament

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica – Jeremy Olisar, a 21 year-old Carnegie Mellon University student has won Absolute Poker's free "Win Your Tuition" tournament. To compete in the online tournament, which ended mid October, students only needed proof of enrollment for fall 2005 semester, be in good standing with their school, and have access to a computer.

Competing for the first time in a college specific online poker tournament, Jeremy Olisar, from Naperville, IL just west of Chicago, topped all college poker participants from around the World and from more than 300 colleges who were vying for the grand prize of tuition paid for one semester. Second place winner Adam Grapperhaus, a student at Kaskaskia Community College from Patoka, IL., won a laptop and third through ninth place winners listed below took home Apple iPod NANO's.

Jeremy Olisar, an honors student with a 4.0 GPA, is an avid card player who only began concentrating on Texas Hold'em recently. "I've been playing all sorts of card games for as long as I remember, but I only started playing Texas Hold'em about two years ago. This is my first ever tournament win. I am in shock and disbelief. I never imagined that my first tournament win would be as big as this!" Olisar, who has been assisted by his parents with tuition, also helps support the high cost of post secondary education by teaching each Saturday in the Carnegie Mellon School of Music's Music Preparatory School.

Asked about the secret to winning at poker, Olisar said, "I typically play conservatively from the start. Even in a tournament like this you can expect a lot of good players to be eliminated in the first ten minutes. As my chip count increased, I played more aggressively, forcing the short stacks to have a decent hand if they wanted to play for the pot and preventing them from river hunting." As for the "challenge" of his online opponents, "As in all tournaments I've played, the competition became increasingly more challenging as play progressed. The final table was especially challenging because everyone was on their best game being that close to the tuition prize".

According to Michael Edwards, business development manager for Absolute Poker, "This tournament was an engaging and free way for college students to have fun and compete for an alternative way to pay for tuition. Poker is a game of skill and Jeremy clearly proved he was the best this fall. We applaud him for taking the title and are pleased to have the opportunity to play an important part in his educational pursuits."

Edwards added that the company expects to significantly grow the number of entries for the upcoming spring tournament. "We've had such a tremendous response to this tournament and we're already starting to register students for the next one in May. We are also introducing many special early bird tournaments, special free rolls and expanding the overall community aspect to the program. We believe that this program is one of the best ways to create real added value for college students and is an excellent, fun way for students to win tuition by playing poker for free".

Press Release - 2005-11-02 03:28:16