I am rarely prouder to be a member of the poker community than those times that we are able to band together and rally for a good cause. With the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, it is time to take action once again. Enter Rational Group, owner of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.
Both sites, PokerStars immediately and Full Tilt soon, are giving players the ability to donate directly to relief efforts using funds in their poker accounts. On PokerStars, this can be done in one of two ways. The first is by entering a “dummy tournament.” These special tournaments are not really tournaments at all, but rather shells used to collect buy-ins. No cards will be dealt, no prizes awarded. Players simply choose a dummy tournament and pay the entry fee to make their donation. The other method is via direct transfer to the “Typhoon Fund.” All money will go directly to the charities supporting the relief effort.
There are 13 different dummy tournament buy-ins: $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, $1,000, €1, €10, and €100. They can be found by searching for “Typhoon Haiyan Relief” in the PokerStars tournament lobby.
Those who would prefer to hold on to their poker funds but still donate can go to PokerStars’ relief page at CARE International: http://www.careinternational.org.uk/pokerstars-helping-hands-philippines-typhoon-appeal. Donations can be made via credit card. PokerStars’ partnership with CARE is new, created earlier this year, and this is the first time it has been put into play.
As of Wednesday morning, the official death count from Typhoon Haiyan was 2,275. 80,000 homes have been destroyed and 582,000 people are homeless, according to CNN.com.
PokerStars, as do other poker rooms and poker-related sites, has a history of giving in the aftermath of global tragedy. For example, in 2004, players raised $187,768 to aid relief efforts after the Indian Ocean tsunami; PokerStars rounded that figure up to $400,000. And in 2005, PokerStars, with the help of its players, raised more than $100,000 for the American Red Cross to aid in relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina. In the following years, PokerStars has raised money for AIDS research, Darfur relief, cancer research, and 2008 Chinese earthquake relief.
Other notable charitable efforts in the poker world include Bad Beat on Cancer, founded by Phil Gordon, which encourages poker players to donate one percent of their tournament winnings to the Prevent Cancer Foundation. 2007 World Series of Poker Champion Jerry Yang pledged to donate 10 percent of his winnings to Make-a-Wish Foundation, Feed The Children, and the Ronald McDonald House. Perhaps the most high profile charitable effort was the Big One for One Drop tournament held at the 2012 WSOP. Players bought into the event for $1 million, with $111,111 of that figure going to the One Drop charity which works to bring clean, drinkable water to areas where it is needed around the world. Notable in that event was Greenlight Capital founder and President, David Einhorn, who placed third and donated his entire $4,352,000 to charity (City Year, not One Drop). He also finished 18th in the 2006 WSOP Main Event and gave his $650,000 prize to the Michael J. Fox Foundation
