Celebs to Compete in WSOP Tourney
Written by 2Scoops in Poker NewsBY TOM SOMACH
More than a dozen celebrities are scheduled to join some of poker’s greatest players to raise public awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur in a special “Ante Up For Africa” tournament at the 2007 World Series of Poker, WSOP officials announced.
The tourney is a joint project created by actor Don Cheadle and professional poker player Annie Duke, the officials said.
The “Ante Up For Africa” tournament is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m., July 5, 2007, in the WSOP tournament area in the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, they said.
According to the WSOP, those who have expressed their intent to play are: actors Cheadle, Ben Affleck, Brad Pitt, Jason Alexander, Jennifer Tilley, Hank Azaria, George Clooney, Matt Damon, George Lopez, Danny Masterson, Mekhi Phifer, Ray Romano, Adam Sandler and James Woods.
Also: retired basketball pro Charles “Round Mound of Rebound” Barkley and poker pros Duke, Erik Seidel, Howard Lederer, Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmuth, Phil Gordon, Joe Hachem, Andy Bloch, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Robert Williamson III, Phil “Unabomber” Laak, Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson, Phil Ivey, Ted Forrest, Mike Matusow and Clonie Gowan.
“We’re honored to host this event and hope that entrants, particularly those fortunate enough to win money, will make donations to help ease the human suffering that defines the crisis in Darfur,” said WSOP commissioner Jeffrey Pollack.
“Four years ago, the specter of genocide reared its ugly head in an area of the Sudan called Darfur,” said Cheadle, whose role as a hotel manager in the true-life film “Hotel Rwanda” earned him an Academy Award nomination.
The film told the story of the government-sanctioned slaughter of over a million people in Rwanda in 1994.
For more than two years, Cheadle has worked to raise public awareness of the Darfur humanitarian crisis, and recently testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee about his visits to Darfur and refugee camps in neighboring Chad.
(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)
