Dennis Phillips to Donate WSOP Winnings to Cancer Prevention
In a move announced by PokerStars, the largest online poker room on the planet, World Series of Poker Main Event chip leader Dennis Phillips will donate 1% of his tournament winnings to the Prevent Cancer Foundation’s “Bad Beat on Cancer.” PokerStars will then match Phillips’s contribution, whatever it may be. The winner of the 2008 WSOP Main Event pockets $9.1 million, meaning that the Foundation could receive up to $182,000 as a result of Phillips’ generosity. The Main Event final table begins on November 9th after a 117 day layoff from its July end date.
Phillips stated in a press release distributed by the online poker site, “I am thrilled to contribute a portion of my WSOP earnings to the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Charity involvement has always been an important part of my life, and hopefully more poker players and final table participants with follow suit in upcoming poker circuits like the European Poker Tour and the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.” Phillips is regularly involved with other charities, including several related to multiple sclerosis, which his brother suffers from.
2003 WSOP Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker, a PokerStars pro and the man who started the poker phenomenon, commented, “Dennis Phillips is a stand-up guy who brings a positive feeling to the WSOP final table. Most guys get to the final table and just see a big pile of money and a new life. Dennis is just happy to be playing poker and sees an opportunity to help others. His efforts are inspiring to the poker community and I’m excited to see how it all turns out in November.” Moneymaker was in Louisville, Kentucky over the weekend doing a little charity work of his own: he donated $51,000 to the Kentucky Hemophilia Foundation and gave a patient with the disease a 2009 WSOP Main Event entry.
Phillips is a 53 year-old account manager for a commercial trucking company. He hails from just outside of St. Louis, Missouri and won a WSOP satellite at Harrah’s St. Louis in order to gain a WSOP seat. He had a pair of cashes in WSOP Circuit Events at the Grand Casino Tunica (now Harrah’s Tunica) in 2007 for a total of $4,500 and is now the chip leader heading into the Main Event final table. Here’s a look at the other players he’ll be facing along with their chip stacks:
Dennis Phillips – 26,295,000
Ivan Demidov – 24,400,000
Scott Montgomery – 19,690,000
Peter Eastgate – 18,375,000
Ylon Schwartz – 12,525,000
Darus Suharto – 12,520,000
David “Chino” Rheem – 10,230,000
Craig Marquis – 10,210,000
Kelly Kim – 2,620,000
When play resumes, blinds will be 120,000/240,000 with a 30,000 chip ante. There are 21 minutes and 50 seconds left in the blind level and play will pick up on November 9th. The Main Event will begin airing on ESPN in just a few short weeks, premiering at 8:00pm ET on Tuesday, September 2nd. On November 4th, ESPN will present a Main Event Final Table Preview Show in lieu of airing a new episode on Election Day in the United States. The payouts are as follows:
1st Place: $9,119,517
2nd Place: $5,790,024
3rd Place: $4,503,352
4th: Place: $3,763,515
5th Place: $3,088,012
6th Place: $2,412,510
7th Place: $1,769,174
8th Place: $1,286,672
9th Place: $900,670
Harrah’s has already paid each finalist ninth place money.