At first, the game of poker has probably hardly even been associated with the idea of giving away. However, over the past few years, this trend has been shattered to pieces due to the fact that more and more poker players have been joining various charities to help the ones in need.
Of course, big casino, betting and gaming operators and various organisations such as for example the World Series of Poker (WSOP) are also involved in charities, but more and more poker stars get engaged with altruistic causes and donate large sums they have won at certain tournaments and events.
Phil Hellmuth
Apart from being one of the stars of the poker industry, Phil Hellmuth is undoubtedly one of the poker players who are deeply involved in various charities. The American professional poker player, whose live earnings amount to approximately $21 million, donates large amounts to a number of causes on a regular basis. Hellmuth has already helped such organisations raise more than $20.4 million for different causes.
The poker player has been greatly engaged with several charity organisations, including the Marine Corps Scholarship foundation, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Susan G. Komen Foundation and the Peace Thru Sports Foundation of Shimon Peres. Heifer International, which is aimed at providing developing villages around the world with food is another organisation that is being regularly helped by Hellmuth.
Barry Greenstein
Barry Greenstein is another professional poker player known for actively helping the ones in need. Thanks to his altruistic activities, the 62-year-old American has received the nickname “the Robin Hood of poker”, which simply speaks for itself how deeply involved Greenstein is with charity.
The owner of three WSOP bracelets, whose live earnings total $8,155,371, donates a lot of his tournament winnings to various charities, and primarily to Children Incorporated – a non-profit international child sponsorship organisation.
Jennifer Harman
Women have always been associated with compassion and giving. In this sense, the world of poker is full of wonderful ladies who are quite engaged with helping the ones in need. One of them is Jennifer Harman – a US professional poker player who has managed to earn a total of more than $2.5 million from live poker tournaments to date.
Harman has been known as one of the professional poker players greatly involved in giving away to charitable organisations. Jennifer Harman is known as a host of many charity poker tournaments. She has been engaged with the causes of the National Kidney Foundation, the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, as well as with a number of other organisations.
Linda Johnson
There goes another fine lady who is not only a professional poker player and a member of the Poker Hall of Fame, but also a generous individual engaged in helping the ones in need. In a sense, Linda Johnson is even more popular for her activities away from the poker table, which apart from helping charity organisations, also include being a journalist and a consultant.
“The First Lady of Poker” has been involved in a number of poker organisations and even the World Poker Tour. Probably her best achievement was the establishment of Poker Gives – a non-profit organisation, which was created in 2009 to help poker players make donations to various charitable causes more easily. Some of the charities that have been helped by Poker Gives were Step by Step Foundation, Wish Upon a hero Foundation, Paralyzed Veterans and Special Olympics Nevada.
Matt Stout
The American poker player Matt Stout, who has live tournament winnings of $3,475,646, has decided to do something in order to make average players easier when it comes to making donations.
He is known for creating the Charity Series of Poker (CSOP), which offers poker players ways to give away whatever sums they could and want to donate to various organisations. This was a great thing to do, as sometimes average poker players find it really hard to meet the expectations of some organisations for the donations to be made.
- Author
Harry Evans
