As April comes to a close, there are many huge events on the tournament poker calendar. While play begins at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship today, next week brings the year-end festivities of the fifth season on the PokerStars-sponsored European Poker Tour (EPT) with its Grand Final. As a part of that schedule of events in Monte Carlo, PokerStars has announced that for the first time ever there will be a charitable tournament before battle begins in the Grand Final.
PokerStars will team up with Ante Up for Africa, the charitable foundation started by actor Don Cheadle and Poker News Daily columnist Annie Duke, to present the first ever Celebrity Charity Poker Tournament. The event will take place on April 27th at 6:00pm local time, one day before action begins on the EPT Grand Final. The tournament, much like the previous events that have run during the World Series of Poker (WSOP) over the past two years, is aimed at raising money within the poker community for the current humanitarian efforts in the war-torn African nation of Darfur, which continues to suffer from ethnic cleansing, poverty, and starvation of its citizens.
Team PokerStars Pro members Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, and Vanessa Rousso will compete in the €4,000 buy in No Limit Texas Hold’em tournament with all of the proceeds that are raised going towards the efforts of Ante Up For Africa. As the Grand Final draws the cream of not only the European poker community, but also those from the United States, there should be a bevy of brand name pros and celebrities in this event. Instead of a cash prize for the winner, PokerStars will be awarding a special prize package to its flagship EPT event in the Bahamas, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, in January of 2010.
The two previous tournaments run during the schedule of the WSOP in Las Vegas have drawn the best in the poker world as well as some of the most popular celebrities in Hollywood. Luminaries of the entertainment world, including Ben Affleck, Adam Sandler, Montel Williams, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Jason Alexander, Charles Barkley, Ray Romano, and Shannon Elizabeth, have stepped up to play poker against top professional poker players such as Barry Greenstein, Howard Lederer, Phil Hellmuth, Erik Seidel, Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey, Greg Raymer, Phil Laak, and Andy Bloch. Top professional John “World” Hennigan captured the championship last year in Las Vegas, but more importantly, the previous WSOP events have raised close to $2 million for Ante Up For Africa.
The hope of Ante Up for Africa for the events this summer in Las Vegas during the WSOP and in Monaco during the EPT is to bring more attention to the crisis and create further support for peacekeepers and aid workers in the region. For more details on the organization and its efforts in Darfur, visit the Ante Up For Africa website to learn more and make a donation.
