Poker millions for good causes

One of the leaders of the world All-Time Money List, Jason Koon, marked the end of July with a charity initiative. The record holder for Triton Series titles reached out to the poker community asking for donations to help his hometowns of Weston and Buckhannon in West Virginia, which had suffered from severe flooding. Koon himself was the first to contribute $10,000, and other players actively supported his call, including Phil Hellmuth and David Chen. Together they managed to raise $26,000 in just two days. However, this is just one small episode in the charitable work carried out by poker players and entire series. 

One Drop

In 2007, Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté created the One Drop Foundation, investing $100 million of his own money. This organisation provides access to clean drinking water around the world, especially in the least developed regions. Being an avid poker player, Laliberté decided to combine his favourite game with the charitable initiative. This is how the super high roller tournament The Big One for One Drop came about.

The event with a $1,000,000 buy-in became the most expensive in poker history and debuted at the World Series of Poker in 2012. 48 players took part in the first edition, and the WSOP waived its standard rake. Instead, the series transferred $111,111 from each buy-in to One Drop. The champion was Antonio Esfandiari, who won the largest prize in poker history — $18,346,673. Guy Laliberté himself finished fifth and donated his entire winnings of $1,834,666 to the fund, bringing the total raised to $7,280,000.

Within the WSOP, The Big One for One Drop was held three more times — in 2014, 2016 and 2018. In addition, in partnership with Laliberté's fund, a $100,000 high roller and an event with a $1111 buy-in appeared on the World Series schedule, with funds from these also going to charity. 

In 2023, One Drop announced a partnership with the World Poker Tour, organising The Big One at the series' festival in Las Vegas. The high roller drew 17 entries, and its winner was Nikita Badziakouski, who beat Mario Mosboeck heads-up. However, in this edition, $60,000 from each buy-in went to Laliberté's fund. This year, One Drop, together with the European Poker Tour, held a €100,000 tournament in Monte Carlo with a record field of 76 entrants. The combined prize pool of all editions of The Big One totalled $132,277,574, with around $16 million going to donations.

The main achievement of the One Drop and WPT partnership was the integration of the charitable initiative into the structure of WPT Global. It now covers not only wealthy businessmen and high rollers, but the entire poker community. Any player can qualify through online satellites, including freerolls, for the $10,500 WPT Every One for One Drop event, and even donate money directly to the fund when depositing or withdrawing funds from the room. 

Raising for Effective Giving

The founders of Raising for Effective Giving (REG) chose a different approach to charity. This organisation is based on the principles of effective altruism, that is, it prioritises the most effective charitable funds. It was founded in 2014 by Igor Kurganov, Philipp Gruissem, Olivia Boeri and Stefan Huber. They proposed that the poker community not simply give away part of their earned millions, but use their own money to motivate others to make donations.

The history of REG began in February 2014 with a donation-matching campaign by Kurganov and Gruissem. As part of the initiative, they matched every dollar donated with their own funds. In this way they managed to raise $148,736. $59,858 was sent to the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, which fights the parasitic disease schistosomiasis, widespread in African countries. The remaining $88,878 went to the Effective Altruism Foundation for projects developing the effective altruism movement.

REG's philosophy is based on applying the same equity approach to charity that poker players use at the tables. The company is now supported by more than 500 people and has raised over $14,000,000 in donations. And each of the organisation's regular members contributes 2% of their income to it every quarter. 

REG are supported by many well-known regulars, including Hall of Famer Erik Seidel and 2014 WSOP Main Event champion Martin Jacobson. The winner of the 2018 WSOP The Big One for One Drop, Justin Bonomo, is also known as a proponent of effective altruism. The American pro donates part of his winnings, for example, to life-extension research. And after winning The Big One, Bonomo admitted he felt guilty for knocking philanthropist David Einhorn, who donates all his prize money to charity, out of the tournament.

The founders of REG are also active philanthropists themselves. In 2017, Liv Boeree and Igor Kurganov won the WSOP Tag Team event, earning $273,964. They donated half of the winnings to their organisation. In addition, together with the World Series, Boeree and Kurganov held a charity auction where they sold one of their bracelets. They also donated the entire proceeds to REG. 

And quite recently, in December 2024, Boeree set a record for the biggest cash won by a woman, taking home $2,800,000 for a fourth-place finish in the $25,000 WSOP Paradise Super Main Event. The British poker player directed $560,000 of that money to helping animals. After the tournament, Boeree explained her decision: "Standing in the shower and trying to get in the zone, I made a promise out loud to the universe to donate 20% of any winnings to improving conditions for animals on factory farms." The trigger for this was a fire on a farm in North Carolina in which a thousand pigs died.

And, of course, we can't fail to mention REG's collaboration with Triton Poker, which has lasted several years now. In August 2019, they jointly held the Triton Million for Charity event with a record buy-in of £1,050,000, of which £50,000 went to charity. In this way, they managed to raise and donate £2.7 million to various organisations. After the tournament's success, charity auctions and voluntary donation drives began being held at Triton stops, and REG representatives gained a platform for engaging with high rollers.

The effectiveness of REG's fundraising has increased over the years to a ratio of 1 to 29. That means every $1 spent on the organisation's operations helps attract $29 in donations. The funds the organisation supports work in healthcare, animal protection, and research into AI safety.

Dan Smith's Double Up Drive

Closely tied to REG is Double Up Drive, an organisation founded by Dan Smith in 2014. The WSOP and WPT champion found in charity work a way to escape his own mental struggles. The American regular has said he went through an existential crisis because he felt uncomfortable playing a game that brings no benefit to society. Philanthropy helped him overcome this.

Double Up Drive operates on the same principles as Raising for Effective Giving: effective altruism and doubling every dollar donated through a matching fund formed by major benefactors. The starting point in 2014 was Smith's personal commitment to match donations of up to $25,000 to the animal welfare organisation The Humane League.

Double Up Drive usually ran one large-scale campaign a year. For example, in 2017, through the efforts of 700 benefactors, the organisation raised $4.5 million for various charitable funds. However, in 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic, four separate campaigns were organised. One of them was held in partnership with GiveDirectly, which delivered cash to families in the areas hit hardest by COVID. Most of the payments went to single mothers, who received $1000 each. 

Fedor Holz and Dan "Jungleman" Cates joined Double Up Drive's campaigns, and the world's second-ranked player on the All-Time Money List, Stephen Chidwick, became a permanent member of the organisation in 2018. Over the course of its work, Dan Smith's fund has raised $28,720,885 for various charitable causes. 

Daniel Negreanu: Millionaire, Champion, Philanthropist

One of the most influential and popular poker players in the world, Daniel Negreanu, has been involved in charity work for many years. The Canadian professional has served both as an ambassador and as the creator of various initiatives. 

In 2006, WSOP champion Annie Duke, together with Don Cheadle and Norman Epstein, created the organisation Ante Up for Africa to draw attention to the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan's Darfur region and raise money to help those affected. The first charity tournament under the company's aegis took place as part of the World Series as early as 2007. The buy-in was $5000, and all prize winners donated half of their winnings.

Daniel Negreanu regularly took part in Ante Up for Africa events and actively drew public attention to them. At these tournaments, you could see not only poker stars like Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey, but also Hollywood actors: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Shannon Elizabeth and many others. By 2009, Ante Up for Africa had raised more than $2,5 million.

In the late noughties, Negreanu launched his own personal charity project, which combined his love of poker and golf with a social mission. In 2008, the WSOP champion organised the first Big Swing golf tournament to raise funds for the Lili Claire Foundation, which helps children with developmental disabilities and their families. Participants donated $3000 each to the foundation, and the first edition featured poker stars Scotty Nguyen and Erick Lindgren. Big Swing was held for several years in a row, but the tournaments' financial results were never publicly disclosed.

In 2014, Negreanu founded a poker tournament, St. Jude Against All Odds, in support of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. This clinic treats children with cancer and other serious illnesses. The events take place in Las Vegas in the format of charity evenings and include live auctions. 

In the early years, the St. Jude Against All Odds buy-in was $750 plus $200 for dinner. However, in 2018, Negreanu handed the organisation over to Matt Stout's Charity Series of Poker (CSOP), and the buy-in dropped to $500 with dinner included. The event featured Phil Ivey, 2018 WSOP Main Event champion John Cynn, Poker Hall of Famer Todd Brunson and legendary NFL player Jonathan Ogden. 

In 2019 alone, the tournament brought in $330,000 in donations, and the total raised over the years the event has been running exceeds $1,9 million. Despite handing the reins to CSOP, Negreanu remains the face and co-organiser of the event. The Canadian has also emphasised that St. Jude holds a special place among all his charitable initiatives.

1000 km in support of sick children

It's not only leading professionals and the major poker series that engage in philanthropy. In 2018, the Global Poker Award named Running Well, a project run by poker journalist Robbie Strazynski, the best charitable initiative. 

Strazynski launched Running Well in 2015 to support the Kids Kicking Cancer programme, which uses martial arts therapy for critically ill children. The journalist ran more than 140 km and donated $1 for each kilometre. The following year, the programme expanded. He not only ran 250 km on the same terms, but also played 31 tennis matches, transferring $5 for each one.

In 2017, Strazynski turned his programme into a genuine running challenge, raising the bar to 1000 km. He managed to complete this marathon about a week before the end of the year. In 2018, the journalist ran 1000 km again, but this time directed the donations to Save a Child's Heart. This organisation performs heart surgeries on children and improves the quality of cardiac care in developing countries. More than 40 sponsors joined Strazynski's initiative, thanks to which the amount raised grew to $10,000. 

Robbie Strazynski admitted he was in shock when he received a letter from the Global Poker Award organisers and learned about his award. According to the journalist, this award proved that you don't need to raise millions to really help people. In 2020, after a year's break, he once again repeated his running challenge in support of Save a Child's Heart. Strazynski has also held charity poker tournaments, raising more than $200,000 for various organisations with their help.

Jennifer Harman's struggle and successes

Two-time WSOP champion Jennifer Harman engages in charity work systematically not only out of altruism, but also because of her own history of fighting for her health. Harman herself, as well as her mother and sister, suffered from kidney disease. Harman's mother died of kidney failure when Jennifer was just 17 years old. At the same age, she was diagnosed with a hereditary kidney disease and underwent her first organ transplant. In 2004, a second transplant took place, forcing Harman to step away from poker for a year.

It was after the second transplant that Jennifer Harman founded Creating Organ Donation Awareness, an organisation dedicated to raising funds and awareness about the critical shortage of donor organs. "I created CODA because my heart breaks when I see people dying while waiting, even though most of the time, after a transplant, they become completely healthy," the poker player said in an interview.

The WSOP champion has also organised several charity events called the Jennifer Harman Charity Poker Tournament. The first one, with a $230 buy-in, took place in March 2009 in support of the National Kidney Foundation, which deals with kidney disease. At Harman's insistence, 90% of the funds raised went towards free programmes for patients. The tournament attracted 300 entrants, including Todd Brunson, Maria Ho and Andy Bloch, and helped raise $111,000 for the NKF. 

Harman has also held tournaments in support of the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA). Thanks to these events, she managed to raise $450,000 for the organisation's shelter. Meanwhile, the Jennifer Harman Charity Poker Tournament series has attracted more than $500,000 in donations. As part of the All-In for Cure programme, Harman donates 1% of her personal income to the NephCure Foundation. This organisation funds research into nephrotic syndrome and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, conditions that the poker player and her family have suffered from.

The transplant main event

Jennifer Harman's pain is also understood by veteran poker player Debbie Tronconi from New Jersey. In April this year, she required a kidney transplant on which her life depends. Her poker friends Lisa Pickell and Regina Oletta came to Tronconi's aid, volunteering to become donors. 

However, Oletta's organ turned out to be incompatible with Tronconi, while Pickell's kidney would have been a match for her friend, if not for one thing. During testing, it emerged that Pickell's kidney would not be able to function on its own, so the transplant did not go ahead.

Florida-based poker player Dawn Wilno stepped in to help solve the problem. She launched a fundraiser on GoFundMe called All In for Debbie and Lisa's Transplant Main Event. The goal of this campaign is to cover the medical expenses, travel costs and lost earnings of Tronconi and Pickell. Commentator Joe Stapleton and poker player Maria Ho have contributed donations to it. The fundraiser is still open, and out of the required $100,000, only $20,393 has been raised so far.

These are, of course, far from the only charitable projects that exist within the poker community. However, they cover an enormous range of causes and, we believe, are genuinely making the world a better place. And, most importantly, most of these initiatives don't require millions in investment. Anyone who wants to can visit the official website of these programmes and make their own contribution to helping people or nature. And Strzyzewski's example shows that a big and important cause can begin with literally one dollar and one step. We hope that his story, like the other projects, will inspire and unite followers in the fight for a better future.