All In For Kids Event Raises Over $800,000

Last week, poker personalities Dan and Beth Shak hosted the All In for Kids charity poker tournament benefiting the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In attendance were three of the most recognizable names in poker: Five-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Ivey and Ultimate Bet pros Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth. The event raised $825,000 for the Center for Palliative Care and donations are still trickling in day by day.

Shak has been fundraising with the palliative care program for the last four years. She told Poker News Daily that the Center “takes care of kids and their families through their end of life care. They need private funding to help. It’s an amazing facility. They don’t let any family leave the hospital with a bill. I’ve given them my time and donated money. It was a really great event with really great people.”

At the end of the day, Pete Muller and Omar Saeed took down the event and will now have a wing of the hospital named after them. Other players who reached the final table included Dan Shak, Michael Allegre, Eric Brewstein, Jesse Jantzen, Mimi Kreuger, Andrew Pauxtis, Anthony Ramsay, and Randy Reiff. The star-studded lineup of attendees also included Chef Bobby Flay, who has appeared on numerous Food Network programs and is the executive chef of six restaurants.

Shak noted that corralling Ivey, Hellmuth, and Duke in the same room for an event without a $10,000 buy-in “was very lucky.” She explained why the tournament was able to raise over $800,000: “It’s a testament to the fact that when I do something, I do it to the best of my abilities. I didn’t play the Foxwoods WPT tournament the week before because I had to do final preparations for the event. You have to be positive.” Former Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Mike Quick was also in attendance.

Although the event was held in a hotel in New York City, it was a uniquely Philadelphia-oriented gala. After all, the beneficiaries of Shak’s fundraising efforts reside in the City of Brotherly Love. Shak recalls one hand she played with her mother and a partner of the Susquehanna group, which is a major financial institution in Philadelphia. Shak was all in with kings pre-flop. Her mom called with pocket sevens and the Susquehanna partner called with A-6 offsuit. She quipped, “I knew I was going to lose. Sometimes you can just tell it. The flop was inconsequential. I asked the Susquehanna partner to give me $25,000 if an ace came on the turn. The turn came a low card, but I knew I was going to lose. I asked him if he would go double or nothing on the river for $50,000. Sure enough, an ace came on the river.”

It took nearly a year for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to agree to a charity poker tournament. Shak claimed that if it weren’t for the poor state of the economy in the United States and around the world, she could have raised a lot more money. She finished as the runner up in a $3,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event during the 2007 WSOP for $328,000, falling to Shankar Pillai heads-up. Also at the final table of that tournament were Hellmuth, Jason Song, and Perry Friedman.

Hellmuth holds the record for the most number of WSOP bracelets won at 11. In 1989, he set the mark as the youngest Main Event winner ever at age 24, a record that was just broken by 22 year-old Peter Eastgate, who won the 2008 WSOP Main Event for $9.1 million.