These events are designed to tell a story about the company, Feldman said, and the Caesars tournament told one, too.
"The gesture of having a buy-in kind of says, 'We're about real money," she said.
John Unwin, CEO of the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas, which competes with Caesars, said his hiring managers also like to observe candidates interacting with one other, but they create those situations without a mound of chips.
He said poker fit more directly in Caesars' wheelhouse.
"They love poker. They own the World Series of Poker," he said.
The game also seems to have taken hold in MBA programs, with schools such as Wharton and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business setting up their own regular card games.
Plant said Caesars has always used the tournament to attract students' attention, even before adding the interview component. She added that poker may one day eclipse golf as the preferred pastime of the business elite.
"It's becoming more of a way for people to interact with each other and discuss business in a casual setting," she said.
The MBA tournament candidates who end up landing casino jobs may not play again for a while, though. Caesars executives are banned from playing cards on company property.
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Hannah Dreier can be reached at http://twitter.com/hannahdreier
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