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Ante Up for Africa tournament winners give winnings to Darfur
By Poker Man
Oct 14, 2007
For the first time on the history of Poker two winners of the famous World Series of Poker tournaments decide to split their winnings with a deserving charity, namely the “Ante Up for Africa.”
On the 5th of July this year, at precisely 22:40 an astounding thing happened in Las Vegas, known to many as “Sin City.” The two winners of the World Series of Poker made an announcement that they would be splitting their winnings with one of the well known and deserving charities, namely the Ante up for Africa and charities they were affiliated with.
The World Series of Poker which is one of the most highly esteemed tournaments known to poker fans all over the globe has an annual giveaway of over 12 million dollars in tournament prize money. This year the last two players from the final leg of the Poker tournament, Dan Shak and Brandon Moran, agreed to give away all of their winnings to charity with specific reference to the Ante up for Africa. The players made this announcement in front of a live audience of thousands as well as a very large group of television and media people.
When the great poker tournament was almost at its end, Dan Shak, one of the last two of an overall 167 contestants of stood up from his seat at the table and announced that he would give away every bit of any possible prize money that he won to the " Ante Up for Africa " and the charities nominated under it which include the Enough Project and the International Rescue Committee.
Brandon Moran who was his worthy opponent also made a similar statement by standing up and making an oath the he too would make such a donation of all of his prize money if he won the tournament of the World Series of Poker. These two amazing announcements stopped the tournament rater abruptly and both Dan Shak and Brandon Moran, two very generous poker hearts, were declared the tournament winners. The two men who had decided to give away an entire hundred percent of the prize money shared the first place position in the World Series.
The prize money won by collectively mounted to an estimate of $500,000 and will go towards helping the people of the Darfur region of Western Sudan in Africa. The humanitarian crisis situation there is very dire and more than 2 million people have been driven from their homes and are suffering extreme difficulties.
The whole program, Ante Up for Africa" began as collaboration between Don Cheadle, an Oscar nominated actor and poker professional Annie Duke. This project was greatly encouraged by Jeffrey Pollack,, the Commissioner for the World Series of Poker and the special tournament was set to be presented by Milwaukee's Best Light. Tournament participants gave $5,000 each to play in the event.
All the money went into the Poker pool as the goal of the organizers, Don Cheadle and Annie Duke was to raise a strong public awareness that included charitable donations for the many people suffering in the Darfur region.
In addition to the poke professionals, a large number of celebrities from Hollywood and the sports scenarios did their part to up the ante for Africa by joining the No-Limit Hold Texas Hold ‘Em tournament. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were among the many that participated and flew to Las Vegas for the tournament after a Fathers Day vacation in Hawaii.
Everyone who participated in the Tournament paying the $5000 entrance fee, the two generous winners Dan Shak and Brandon Moran, and most importantly Don Cheadle, Annie Duke and Jeffrey Pollack who made the Ante Up for Africa a reality deserve our highest commendations.
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