Harman Raises $100,000-Plus for Nevada SPCAKirk Morrison Wins Seat to WSOP Main Event |
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Whether it was Jennifer Harman's influence, the Bellagio Five Star World Poker Classic, the animals, or free alcohol, the biggest names in the poker community showed up to support a charity poker tournament to benefit the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas Friday.
A field of 215 players came to support the event hosted by Harman. Some of the players included Allen Cunningham, Mike Matusow, Ted Forrest, Johnny Chan, Joe Hachem, Men Nguyen, Annie Duke, Chris Ferguson, David Williams, Phil Hellmuth, Carlos Mortensen, Liz Lieu, Antonio Esfandiari, Mike Sexton, Phil Laak, Shannon Elizabeth, and Chad Brown. Most of these players planned on playing the World Poker Tour Championship at the Bellagio the next day.
"I've always been an animal lover and looking somewhere for my passion. They approached me at the SPCA about a year ago, and ever since then, I just want to help them as much as I can," Harman said.
The donation for a seat into the tournament was $300 plus $30 to pay for the dealers. There were a total of 182 players who preregistered or paid the day of the tournament, making a combined donation of $60,060.
Re-donations for $200 were available throughout the first hour as well as a final add-a-donation. As players lost their chips, hands flew up in the air and constant cries for rebuys echoed throughout the room.
One of those players was Eli Elezra, who felt like gambling for a good cause when he went all in 11 consecutive times. He won the majority of them despite running into pocket aces three times.
Matt Savage donated his time to serve as tournament director, and helped encourage the rebuys. A total of 134 rebuys were collected and another 75 add-ons were made. This contributed $41,800 to the total donation.
One after another, the players were knocked out and a final table emerged. It included Card Player magazine's associate publisher, Justin Marchand, as well as Daniel Negreanu, Ronnie Salvatore, Erez Ozer, Marry Ann, John Spadavecchia, Kirk Morrison, Merri Perry, and Chris Clarke.
Everyone who made the final table received Full Tilt Poker sponsored gift bags and first through third were each awarded a Sasaki vase from Bloomingdales.
Negreanu was knocked out in third place, receiving a chip set autographed and donated by Scotty Nguyen. After his defeat, he stood on his chair, held up his vase and joked about at least being able to put his dog into it.
It came down to Marchand and Morrison heads up. On the final hand, Morrison flopped trip aces. Marchand turned a pair of queens, improving his hand to aces up. All of the money went in on the river, and Morrison took the first-place prize of a $10,000 seat into the World Series of Poker main event donated by Poker School Online.
Morrison pledged to donate 5 percent of his main event winnings back to the NSPCA. He has nearly $567,000 in tournament winnings and a WSOP bracelet in the 1998 seven-card stud event.
Marchand received a "Music Mania" package that was donated by Robert Williamson III for his second-place finish.
Many members of the Card Player family also attended the event. Barry Shulman and his wife, Allyn Jaffrey-Shulman, along with his son Jeff Shulman and wife Christy played in the tournament. Also, Card Player donated $1,320 and autographed archived magazines.
A live and silent auction also took place, and raised a combined total of $23,500. The live auction was led by Williamson and Negreanu. Williamson auctioned the pair of "lucky socks" he wore at the Trent Tucker's Hoopology Charity Poker Event, which he won during the NBA All-star weekend. He got $500 for them. He also autographed a poster from the NSPCA of a rooster and said, "Some people call it a rooster, I call it something else. Now you can have one on your wall." It sold for $300. Doyle Brunson donated a hat that sold for $1,600.
This poker tournament raised nearly $100,000 more than any other charity event for the NSPCA in history. After additional t-shirt sales were calculated into the entire donation given to the NSPCA, the total came to more than $128,000.
Doug Duke of the NSPCA no-kill animal shelter was grateful for the poker players and the support of Harman. He said this about the event:
"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."
To donate to the NSPCA, or to learn more about the organization, visit its page at nevadaspca.org.
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