The days of the ‘poor’ student seem to be a thing of the past and if one studious online poker player is lucky enough they will further boost their finances with one’s year’s free tuition.

Life Of Sports Inc has announced the launch of its University Poker Championship (UPC) weekly online free-roll tournaments in the UK and throughout North America in partnership with CakePoker.com in Great Britain and PokerStars.com in the America.

In Britain, the UPC is open to university students resident in the country with a final prize of one year’s tuition and a seat at the 2008 World Series Of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas in July.

Similarly, the North American UPC is open to university students resident in Canada or the United States with a top prize of tuition along with a trip to Europe to play in a European Poker Tour event. This prize will include buy-in along with travel expenses.

'This is the only tournament of its kind in the country where it's absolutely free to take part in the qualifiers and each student has a chance to win their tuition and seat in next summer's World Series Of Poker in Las Vegas,' said Bob Classen, Marketing Director for Life Of Sports.

Participants on both sides of the Atlantic will compete through LifeOfSports.com each week in free-roll online tournaments with the weekly top three finishers moving on to finals in April.

'We're excited to be involved in this event because it offers students an opportunity to further their education with the free tuition.' said Carly Sawers, Spokesperson for PokerStars.com.

It’s certainly a novel initiative by Life of Sports Inc but one that some will see as being detrimental to students.

Obviously those playing may concentrate more on winning the event than working on their studies and also the by product of involvement in the Championship could see University students hooked on online poker.