Big Boys Camp

A little over a year ago, I wrote what could well be my most "valuable" column. It was called "Mickey's Camp."

The founder of Mickey's Camp, Mickey Maurer, wanted to raise money for local charities around Indianapolis, Indiana. He decided to do so by sending businessmen to camp for three days to participate in activities of their choosing and to interact with fellow businessmen. As a result of that column, Paul Fruchbom from Orange County, California, called me and said he would like to do the same type of fund-raising event for underprivileged kids in Southern California. Thus, as a result of the "Mickey's Camp" column in Card Player, the "Big Boys Camp" (www.bigboyscamp.org) became a reality.

Big Boys Camp is a unique opportunity for businessmen, fathers, sons, friends, and business groups to experience something new – a first-rate camp experience with each activity run by a world-class expert in his field. Campers select the activities they wish to participate in, such as trapshooting, fly fishing, shooting pistols, playing pool, or kayaking, or selecting from a number of classes, such as CPR, the Internet, astronomy, cooking, gourmet barbecuing, photography, a ropes course, wine tasting, and, of course, poker lessons.

The goal of Big Boys Camp is twofold: raise money for needed charities and provide participants a fun, unforgettable weekend. Camp fees ($1,000 per camper) provide underprivileged youth programs of Orange County something they need – significant and invaluable financial assistance. The targeted charities of the inaugural Big Boys Camp were the Orange County youth mentoring programs run by the United Way's Keeping Kids on Track, Orangewood's Guardian Scholars, the Boy Scouts' Learning for Life, and YMCA Camp Whittle, the host site of the camp.

The inaugural Big Boys Camp took place recently in Big Bear, California. It was a resounding success, with 140 campers and 35 experts in their fields attending. Attendees were able to escape life's pressures, explore rare opportunities, meet new friends, bond with loved ones, revisit old passions, learn new skills from the experts, relish the camaraderie in an idyllic alpine setting, and feel good about contributing to such a worthwhile cause.

The camp director was Julie David, the master of ceremonies was Tom Johnson, and the keynote speaker was Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona. They were terrific. Sheriff Carona is a strong advocate of issues related to young people, and he hit a home run when explaining how much the money would help the underprivileged kids of Orange County. He said, "It's far better to put money up front into caring and prevention programs than spend it on the back end by adding more jails."

As was the case at Mickey's Camp, the poker tournament was a big highlight for many participants at Big Boys Camp. The top three finishers were new to tournament poker, and in fact were playing in their first tournament ever! The winner was Tom Gray from Irvine, California. Finishing second was Stacey Hurst from Costa Mesa, California. (Stacey is a professional pool player on the ladies pro circuit who was one of the billiards experts at Big Boys Camp. And, believe me, she plays a nice game of poker.) The third-place finisher was Mark Hardtke from Mission Viejo, California. Congratulations to the Big Boys Camp poker champions!

Hats off to the campers and the staff for donating their money and time to such a worthwhile cause. It's nice that poker was the springboard to making the Big Boys Camp a reality. Helping others is a great feeling.

And Paul Fruchbom, the guy who made it happen, and his inspiration, Mickey Maurer, are deserving of our applause. These guys are royal flushes in the game of life.

Take care.

Mike Sexton is the host for PartyPoker.com and a commentator on the World Poker Tour.