It is not uncommon for the poker community to give back to others. For decades, poker players have taken part in charity events, raising money for the less fortunate as well as current causes. Just recently, poker players logged on to GGPoker to take part in a charity event during the WSOP Online Series. The winner earned prize money and a gold bracelet while Caesars Cares, a Covid Relief charity, was able to receive a donation of over $350,000!
Details of Event #33:
The charity tournament was Event #33 on the schedule, titled Every 1 for Covid Relief (Caesars Cares). The event had a $1,111 buy-in and saw 2,323 players competing. Each of the players posted the buy-in with $111 of the amount going towards the charity. In the end, it was Alek Stasiak who earned the first placw win, taking home just over $343k and a WSOP gold bracelet.
The event raised $257,853 for the Caesars Cares assistance fund. This fund is used to support Caesars Entertainment employees throughout the United States who have faced hardships due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On top of the money generated from the charity event, GGPoker added $96,903. This made the donation soar to $354,756. Executive Director of the WSOP, Ty Stewart, commented on the event and how GGPoker contributed to the case. According to Steward, the donation will help to provide support for Caesars employees who have experienced setbacks.
So far, the poker community as a whole has provided over $600,000 in six months to the COVID-19 relief efforts. Almost half of that amount came early on during events hosted by the online poker platform.
Tackling COVID
The poker industry has been greatly affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, as has many other industries. When businesses began to close down around the world, casinos were part of the non-essential group. Players as well as employees involved in the game of poker were affected.
Once casinos started to reopen again in May, the game of poker was still affected negatively. Players were unable to find live poker games at casinos as the game is considered a highly social one and it was just too difficult to be able to offer the game and stay social distant from other players.
During the months of closure, platforms like GGPoker, WSOP, PokerStars and partypoker as well as brands like the WPT all looked to the online sector to provide gaming. In the US, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Nevada all offer online poker gaming. These states provided a way for players to have access to major events, including new series launched by these poker operators in the absence of live gaming.
For the WSOP, they decided to postpone the live series that always takes place from May to July. Instead, they offered 31 online events via WSOP in Nevada and New Jersey and then started the online series via GGPoker for players located in other countries.
While the WSOP.com version has finished up, the GGPoker option is just getting started. Players have until September to take part in GGPoker online bracelet events from WSOP.
