When you look back at poker games 2009 was a big year for many people. Some major prizes were won by people from all over the world in many different tournaments. We saw many of the biggest games screened across the world on more television stations than ever before. The top poker players are now becoming household names and there’s little reason to wonder why. When you think about how much money is being won it stands to reason.
Now, there are people winning prizes on a daily, weekly and monthly basis that could probably cure the problems faced by the people of the world’s disaster areas. To think for one second though that poker winnings are squandered frivolously by the professionals is a big mistake. Some of the biggest names in poker donate regularly like Phil Gordon, Annie Duke and Barry Greenstein although there aren’t many top professionals that don’t donate.
When talking in the context of poker games 2009 was a huge year for charities for a few reasons. To start with the Ante Up For Africa tournament really should be mentioned. This charity event welcomed more than one hundred and thirty players some of which were celebrities. The winner of the $177,730 first prize was Alex Bolotin but immediately he pledged half of his winnings to the charity.
Nearly every player who picked up a cash prize at the tournament did exactly the same thing in donating half or some of their winnings. The event itself had great publicity all over the world due to the excellent coverage by ESPN who covered it as part of their World Series of Poker package. The money didn’t stop there though with Annie Duke as host of the Tournament along with veteran actor and charity advocate Don Cheadle hosting the five thousand dollar buy in event.
Such is the prestige of the event that is warrants its own red carpet and on the night it was tread on by such names as Mike Tyson, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Affleck has already established a name for himself on the poker circuit after receiving personal coaching from Annie Duke before he went on to win the California State Poker Championship.
That’s not the biggest thing that happened where charity and poker is concerned though. The year was to set the precedence. For poker games 2009 was the first time all the big names came out and said that they would donate all their winnings from the World Series of Poker (albeit from 2010 onward). There had always been some major donations from people who had won cash amounts in the big tournaments but this was different.
It was started by Michael Karnjanaprakorn when in a World Series of Poker tournament in Las Vegas he came up with the idea of donating all of his winnings to two charities. His initial idea was to go down one of two roads which were self funding the $10,000 entrance fee and giving half the winnings to Ante Up for Africa and half to Bad Beat on Cancer. Or by selling one hundred $100 shares in the entrance fee and then donating 1% of the winnings to whichever charity each share was bought for.
He was the first of a large number of players that began to pledge their entire winnings in the WSOP to charity. Of course let’s not forget that it had been done many times before by the likes of Phil Gordon. It was Phil who actually founded Bad Beat on Cancer when his aunt that had taught him how to play poker died through cancer.
Phil has fundraised over $2 million through his own donations and other people he has forged connections with in the poker world. In April 2009 the fifth Annual Bad Beat on Cancer Texas Hold’em Tournament was held at the Union Station was just one such event where the prize was a seat and $10,000 entry to the WSOP. If Michael Karnjanaprakorn had come up with his idea in April instead of May then he could have made the trip from New York to Washington instead of raising the entry fee through other means.
What is obvious is that however many winners there are in the poker world, the people that are in need in the world can also benefit. There are lots and lots of top poker players that have signed up to donate 1% of their earnings to Bad Beat on Cancer thanks to Phil Gordon, Annie Duke and many, many more. At least the perception of a poor gambling addict with debts up to their eyeballs has been somewhat dismissed.
When put in context; poker games 2009 events hugely benefitted countless people that have nothing to do with poker. So for all the wrangling over poker’s virtues or lack thereof, you would be fair in saying that appears more good than bad has come from it. So many times you will hear that people say that gambling is morally wrong and they have good arguments to back it up. The fact of the matter is that many things can be bad if done incorrectly.
