Another Great Year for Ante Up for Africa
July 2nd marked the 2nd annual Ante Up for Africa Tournament held in conjunction with the World Series of Poker. And, once again, it was an awesome event that underscored the generosity of the poker world. Ante Up for Africa is an organization founded by me, Don Cheadle, and Norman Epstein to raise money and awareness for the survivors of the Darfur crisis. AUFA gives the money it raises to two charities: Enough! and Not On Our Watch. NOOW gets money to non-governmental organizations on the ground who give aid to the refugees. Enough! is a project dedicated to raising awareness about Darfur and other crises around the world. We feel raising awareness is just as important as getting money on the ground to survivors because monetary aid is somewhat like trying to plug a hole in a dam with your little fi nger. Certainly it is a dam that needs plugging but without real political change and real pressure from governments the problem there will never fi nd resolution. In the end, resolution to the issue and putting a stop to the behaviors that are creating refugees in the fi rst place is what will really help them in the long run.
This year we had an amazing group of celebrities come out to support the cause, including Adam Sandler, Ben Affl eck, Matt Damon, Jason Alexander, Casey Affl eck, Ray Romano, Charles Barkley, Richard Roeper, Montel Williams, Jerry Cantrell, Joe Trohman, and Scott Ian. On the poker side we once again got tremendous support from some big name players including Erik Seidel, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Mike Matusow, Liv Boeree, Rafe Furst, Beth Shak, and John Hennigan. We also had last year’s winners, Dan Shak and Brendan Moran, come back and play. And, as always, Phil Hellmuth helmed the mic as the emcee, taking the whole night to fi gure out that Joe Trohman’s band is called Fall Out Boy not The Fall Out Boys. Phil remains inimitable.
Every year we have to cross our fi ngers that we will raise money since Nevada State Law prohibits the WSOP from withholding any monies from the prize pool for the charity. Instead, we respectfully ask all participants in the $5K buy-in WSOP event to donate 50% of their winnings back to the charity. This year, like last year, we got very lucky with an incredibly generous fi nal table where nearly all the winners donated 100% of their cash prizes back to the charity. John Hennigan was our champion and he donated 100% of his share back, receiving a beautiful inscribed watch from Corum as his winner’s trophy.
After the smoke cleared (and Ray Romano had tapped out Ben Affl eck’s masseuse and delivered what I am sure was a very sensuous massage to the unsuspecting Ben), AUFA raised nearly $400K. It was a great July 2nd made only better by a kick ass party at Pure that night.
Through partners like the WSOP and the San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino we have raised nearly $1 million this year already. And we have some great events planned for the rest of the year including a charity rebuy tournament down in Aruba during the Aruba Poker Classic.
Seeing the overwhelming support from the poker community for this cause is amazing. What is happening in Darfur is so atrocious and to know that we have some small part in getting people to stand up and pay attention to what is going on over there is so gratifying. Whatever change poker players as a community can help bring about, is something we should all be very proud of.
So how can you help if you can’t make it to one of our events? First and foremost, educate yourself because the more educated you are on the issues the more effective you will be in getting your government motivated to effect change. Please go to www.anteupforafrica.org to read up on the crisis and what this charity is doing to help. Second, you can help by donating money to AUFA. Every little bit will go a long way towards resolution in this situation. Your donation can even get you one of the cool T-shirts designed exclusively for Ante Up for Africa by Christian Audigier (designer for Ed Hardy). 100% of the proceeds from T-shirt sales go directly to Enough! and NOOW
Once again, thank you to the community as a whole for your overwhelming support. Don, Norman, and I appreciate the support so much.
