Demonstrating the philanthropic side of the poker world, current World Series of Poker Championship Event chip leader Dennis Phillips has offered to wear sponsorships at the final table to raise money for charity.
Phillips, from St. Louis, MO, has battled through the 6,844 player field to hold an approximately two million chip lead over Russia’s Ivan Demidov. With such a sizeable stack of chips, it is figured that Phillips should have quite a bit of face time at the final table restarting on November 9th and, as such, would be able to garner significant airtime when the show is broadcast on ESPN on November 11th for whomever sponsors him.
While a prime sponsorship could earn Phillips a nice chunk of change, he has decided that the remaining money at the final table – ranging from the $900,670 for ninth place that he has already received to the top prize of over $9 million – is more than enough and the sponsorship should be given to charity. As such, Phillips is auctioning off a prime location for sponsorship on eBay and donating the money to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. From today until October 26th, corporations and individuals will be able to place their bids for that spot on Phillips’ PokerStars jersey.
Phillips’ devotion to the cause is one that he has carried for the past decade. His brother was diagnosed with the disease and Phillips figures this is a chance to draw more attention to the cause. “Being on the Final Table of the WSOP is an opportunity of a lifetime, but we hope that this opportunity will one day save someone’s life,” he said.
Phillips has also been active with other charitable causes since the World Series Championship Event was suspended in July. He has contributed to several causes over the past few months, including the Pujols Family Foundation (headed by St. Louis Cardinal slugger Albert Pujols and dedicated to assisting those individuals and families affected by Down Syndrome) and will also put 1% of his final table winnings to Phil Gordon’s cancer charity, ‘Put a Bad Beat on Cancer,’ which PokerStars will match.
Phillips isn’t the first one to try the eBay route for sponsorships. Many have attempted to earn buy-ins for larger tournaments through this route and Phillips isn’t the first member of the November Nine to take this track for sponsorship. Fellow final table player Ylon Schwartz, who currently sits in the middle of the final table pack in fifth place, is also running an auction on eBay for sponsorship (which ends Saturday and as of this writing has received no bids) and, in another charity related sponsorship, 2007 WSOP World Champion Jerry Yang has offered poker coaching on eBay from himself, WPT and WSOP champion J. C. Tran and top female professionals Linda Johnson and J. J. Liu.
With this gracious gesture, Dennis Phillips has demonstrated the philanthropic nature of the game of poker. While the pursuit of huge sums of money may be at the forefront, the generous nature of poker players is constantly demonstrated through Phillips’ actions and many others, such as the Ante Up For Africa tournaments created by poker professional Annie Duke and actor Don Cheadle, and other smaller affairs. With no top companies approaching any of the players at the 2008 WSOP Championship Final Table, Phillips’ move could drive a notable organization to get involved with the world of poker.