In September, the fundraising engine Poker Gives will hold the first ever National Poker Month. Card rooms across the United States will host tournaments in which half of the prize pool will be donated to charity, while the other half will be distributed to players. Poker Gives benefits the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Special Olympics of Nevada, Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, and the Step by Step Foundation.
Poker News Daily Guest Columnist and Poker Gives co-founder Mike Sexton commented in a press release distributed last week, “In addition to all the goodwill it will bring to poker when we are able to present such large checks to charity, the participating card rooms will be listed in Bluff Magazine and we will conduct a drawing from that list. Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, and I will visit the winning card room and host a meet-and-greet and a free poker seminar.”
A total of 25 card rooms are holding events as part of National Poker Month at the time of writing including Harrah’s Tunica, Poker Nation Social Club in Phoenix, Quinault Beach Resort and Casino in Washington State, Venetian Las Vegas, Win River Casino in California, Golden Nugget Las Vegas, Seminole Casino Immokalee in Florida, Oceans Eleven Casino in California, Prairie’s Edge Casino and Resort in Minnesota, River Rock Casino in California, The Bike in Los Angeles, Binion’s Las Vegas, and the Canterbury Park Racetrack and Card Club in Minnesota.
Other National Poker Month events can be found at Aria Las Vegas, Hollywood Park in California, Jacksonville Greyhound Racing and Poker in Florida, Eureka in Mesquite, El Dorado in Reno, Northern Quest Resort and Casino in Washington State, Peppermill Reno, Wildhorse in Oregon, Paradise Cove Social Club in Arizona, Casino Marysville in California, and Isle Casino at Pompano Park in Florida. Full Tilt and Poker Nations are also teaming up for an online event on September 19th at 1:00pm PT.
Winners of each card room tournament and the names of each card room manager will be thrown into a hat and entered into drawings for prizes on October 4th. The loot up for grabs includes two seats into the World Poker Tour (WPT) Invitational at the Commerce Casino in California, a WPT Boot Camp seat, a Card Player Cruises vacation, and hour poker lessons with Sexton and Johnson.
Price tags for the various casino events range from $20 to $225. The online event is $20, half of which will go to Poker Gives, a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity organization. Poker Gives was founded two years ago and announced National Poker Month in a press release back in April. Its mission is to use poker, a popular social game, as a vehicle to raise money for charity.
Back in March, Full Tilt Poker hosted a $5+$5 charity tournament benefiting Poker Gives. The organization is the charity of choice for the Women in Poker Hall of Fame, which will host an induction ceremony for its 2010 class of Kathy Liebert, Jennifer Harman, and Billie Brown on September 3rd. $75 pre-event tickets are on sale through the Women in Poker Hall of Fame website along with $25 ceremony only passes. Brown will be recognized posthumously.
Card rooms interested in participating in September’s National Poker Month should contact Poker Gives via e-mail or phone at sassy@pokergives.org or 702-860-7413. Visit the official website of Poker Gives for more information.