The Prevent Cancer Foundation presented its 2nd Annual “Cancer Champion” award this weekend in Washington DC to two Full Tilt poker pros — Rafe Furst and Phil Gordon.

You be the judge … good poker face on Spencer Bachus (R-AL) as he and his wife congratulate Rafe and Phil for their good great work fighting cancer?

Perhaps one of poker’s staunchest political opponents is softening … Either that or it’s hard to oppose money for cancer, especially at an event sponsored by Pfizer.

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Nicole Rowe, fighting cancer and rallying poker players for a good cause with rebuys.

Pokerati loves charity poker and, of course, healthy breasts … which is why it’s our pleasure to contribute to the grab-bag of prizes for the upcoming Bad Beat on Cancer Poker Challenge, to be held Nov. 12 on PokerStars.

It’s a simple concept — a $10 tourney with rebuys where all the money minus shipping and handling goes to Bad Beat on Cancer … all on behalf of Nicole Rowe and her own fight against the disease. The donated prizes range from a lifetime subscription to DeucesCracked (the 2 Months 2 Million guys’ poker school) to all sorts of other coaching, boot camp, and lifestyle experiences (like drinking with Gavin Smith and Joe Sebok) to signed books to Skullcandy headphones to … for those oh-so-lucky 44th-49th place finishers … Pokerati T-shirts. The top 50 all get something, and that’s what should make this low-stakes fundraiser pretty fun.

Rowe, if you don’t remember, is the player who finished 2nd in a Borgata Ladies event in September, losing to Abraham Korotki, not a lady, who also turned down a chop offer when the two were heads-up and virtually even in chips. “You bastard!” screamed the poker masses, though Rowe herself insists she holds no animosity for her worthy, breastless opponent.

Rowe says she plays poker to escape from her daily battle with cancer, but is also using her winnings to help pay for uncovered expenses related to multiple surgeries and treatments.

Mark your calendars, and click here for a complete list of prizes and other tournament details.

Cool event went down this week in Washington DC — a fundraiser for Put a Bad Beat on Cancer, where a bunch of politicos got together with Team Full Tilt Howard Lederer, Phil Gordon, and Rafe Furst to experience the joys of getting beginner poker lessons and playing in a terrible an exciting, luck-friendly blind-structure tournament (with rebuys!) … all for a good cause.

Check out the video coverage from Politico.com:

My observations:

• Had Rep. James McGovern (D-MA) read Joe Navarro, he’d know that we know he’s probably not being truthful when he says he’s happy to be there … unless, of course, that’s just his baseline response.
• Multiple politicians admit to experimenting with poker “when I was in college.”
• Barney Frank (D-MA) says he doesn’t play poker because he doesn’t enjoy it … but that doesn’t stop him from wanting to “repeal the foolish law that makes it illegal for people who want to gamble to gamble over the internet.” (So we can say “illegal” now?)
• Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) gets credited with having the best poker face … and I hope state legislators back home take note that even some gray-haired, vote-conscious conservatives are totally cool with poker.
• Nice closing line by Lederer about politics being just another form of poker.

My hometown favorite is getting lots of publicity in St. Louis. Though he is originally from a small Illinois town across the river from the Lou, Dennis Phillips reps the STL with pride. With Midwest USA newspapers and magazines suddenly interested in poker, Dennis has gotten a lot of media attention, and while he seems to be getting more comfortable with the journalists and TV cameras, humble remains the word of the day.

One of the articles is from the Telegraph and gives a good insight into the WSOP final table chip leader, and the following video from the local NBC sports program shows that Dennis is a good representative for the game of poker. Note that in the video, he discusses the Bad Beat on Cancer patch that he wears on his shirt. Evidently, he is the only one of the nine finalists in the main event who signed up early on to donate 1% of his winnings to the Phil-Gordon-promoted charity. Who says he wouldn’t make for a great 2008 champion?

Click below to see the video interview (sorry, we can’t stop the autoplay).

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