Hey there Brett. I actually created an account just to tell you that I wrote an essay on poker for my college applications last year, and I am currently a freshman in Princeton. This essay also helped me get into Caltech, Columbia, Yale, and UCBerkley.

Now I must warn you that what most of these people are saying is probably quite true. In fact you have to make a concerted effort to convince the adcoms that you enjoy poker NOT because of the money, but because of some other aspect. Since I had a lot of ECs and an interest in math and science, I used a odds and outs spin...

The general gist of the essay was that even in a game which seemed to rely so heavily on math and statistics, people still needed that unexplainable intution or feel for the game etc. It went on to say how even though I depend on math and science to explain the world, there are so many things it can't explain, i.e. a simple card game seemingly based straight on statistics and how I am driven to explore and understand the gaps left unexplained by math and science etc... sorta

So you can have poker in your essay, but make sure that you use it to tell the college something interesting about you or your personality.