On August 16th we brought you the news of a charity poker tournament that was going to have over 200 professional poker players and celebrities in attendance. The reason that this charity tourney got so much attention was that it was held at the Democratic Convention.
The Poker Players Alliance hosted the tournament and the proceeds went to the Paralyzed Veterans of America. Since it was a charitable event the PPA could host the tournament and lobby for online poker at the same time. Besides professional poker players and celebs there were also lawmakers, aides and delegates that played in the tournament as well.
The tournament was held at the Club Level area of Coors Field and Ben Affleck managed to outlast the rest of the competition to become the winner. He started out with that goal set in his mind and according to John Pappas, Affleck said he was “in it to win it”.
All 100 poker players started out with 5,000 in chips for the tournament that was expected to play for around 4 hours. Affleck outlasted celebrity players Seth Meyers from Saturday Night Live, Sarah Silverman, Montel Williams and Richard Dreyfuss. He also had to take out professional poker players to win the event so maybe he should consider a side career?
There were new ethic rules and laws put into action in 2007 to make it harder for lobbyists to buy their way in. But this charity tournament got the okay from the Congressional Ethics Committee because all of the proceeds from the tournament were going to charity.
The tournament wasn’t the only entertainment at the Democratic Convention, there was also a live performance from Kanye West, drinks and cigars and some got to play ball at the Coors Field and all was provided by different lobbyists.
The charity tournament did two things it helped to raise about $60,000 dollars for the Paralyzed Veterans of America and it might have changed the thinking of our lawmakers, who knows. The Poker Players Alliance is far from done however as they will be holding another tournament next week at the Republican National Convention in Minnesota.
If you want to know more about what went on at the Democratic Convention you can read the previous article, PPA Parties with the Democratic Party to Legalise Poker.
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