The Jennifer Harman Charity Event (photos)was successful and fun. For a $300 donation plus $30 the event raised $125,360 for the warm fury friends. The Las Vegas SPCA is a no-kill shelter which means if you lose your pup and it goes there you may just get him back. Shelters that euthanize will terminate your family pet after five days. It is expensive to house so many animals and it is up to the public to help these organizations keep up there great work. Seeing as how Jennifer Harman appeared in Card Player a few years ago with her puppy love, it comes as no surprise she would be hosting this benefit.
Texas funny man, Robert Williamson III, hosted the live auction encouraging his poker colleagues to spend, spend, and spend. In fact, someone purchased a pair of Robert’s socks for $500. Christie Shulman and Angela Brunson both bought a commissioned portrait of their pets. While Andy Black (another funny man) decided on a more contemporary piece of a rooster’s head. Robert Williamson declared the art work a portrait of his….a part of his body. Andy outbid himself until he donated a respectable amount for the portrait. Yes, that’s correct, he was the only bidder.
It was fun if you like playing in a tournament with a list of players like this:
Vince Neil, TJ Cloutier, Marcel Luske, Gabriel Thaler, David Grey, Shannon Elizabeth, Erik Seidel, Cyndy Violette, Annie Duke, Mary Jones, Todd & Pamela Brunson, Jamie Gold, Kristy Gazes (A Bluff Power Ranker who was wearing a very cool leather jacket), James Van Alstyne, Allyn Jaffrey-Shulman, Barry Shulman, Chad Brown, Andy Black, Steve Wong, Jeff Shulman, Scotty Nguyen, David Levi, Liz Lieu, Daniel Negreanu, David Williams, Evelyn Ng, Karina & Chip Jett, Phil Hellmuth, Carlos Mortensen, Mike Matusow, Ted Forrest, Johnny Chan, David Ulliott, Joe Hachem, Barry Greenstein, Doyle Brunson, Men Nguyen, Patrik Antonius (Dan\’s Favvvve), Joe Bartholdi, Burt Boutin, Nolan Dalla, Steve Dannenmann, Paul Darden, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Kathy Liebert, Young Phan, Mike Sexton, Men “The Master†Nguyen, Joe Awada, Wendeen Elois and many more.
There was a lot of laughter and slapping on the back going on in that room. Mike Matusow was polite and classy while an all-in David Levi encouraged a woman to \”just call me and you\’ll win\” she called and he immediately mucked his hand.
Kirk Morrison beat Daniel Negreanu (3rd place) to win the 10k seat into the WSOP Championship.
Here is the letter Doug Duke of the Nevada SPCA wrote to the hosts:
We can\’t thank you enough for what you achieved yesterday. It exceeded our highest expectations. We\’ve been getting glowing and enthusiastic feedback all day.
One of the things sticking with me for perspective is the comment from one of the writers who told us that the vast majority of charity poker tournaments have about 3 or 4 pro players and bring in $20,000. He said there has never before been a charity poker tournament with this many elite professional players. Further, he said you know it\’s a dream event when someone can auction off the socks on their feet for $500!
More money came in today — from yesterday\’s t-shirt sales and credit card charges — so the tournament so far has raised in excess of $126,000!!!!!!
That is almost $100,000 more than has ever been raised for the Nevada SPCA at an event before.
When the first three puppies arrived early this morning, sick and starving in our lobby, I swooped them up thinking about what all the good from yesterday will really accomplish for the animals previously without hope.
Doug
As Marcel Luske commented, and I paraphrase, “It just makes you think how much these poker events could do for so many people.†Yes, Marcel this is true and thank you to Jennifer Harman to set such a high standard. This would be a great example for HB -3186 in Texas to help legalize charity events.