Third Annual Ante Up for Africa
The third annual Ante Up for Africa tournament has concluded for the 2009 World Series of Poker, and it is the last tournament before the Main Event starts. The tournament is designed to raise awareness about the atrocities and crisis that is happening in Darfur. The buy in for the tournament is $5,000 and players who cash in the money are expected to give at least half of their earnings to the charity. This is event is always sure to bring tons of celebrities and professional poker players.
The tournament saw a total of 138 players turn out. The total prize pool for the tournament was $670,680 with a first place prize of $177,730. Some of the big name poker players that attended were Jennifer Harman, Steve Zolotow, David Singer, Justin Bonomo, Chad Brown, Annie Duke, Chris Ferguson, and Phil Hellmuth. There wasn’t a lack of popular entertainers either. Jennifer Tilly, Herschel Walker, Sarah Silverman, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jason Alexander, and Cedric the entertainer also participated in this charitable event.
As the day went on, professional poker players and movie stars alike said their goodbyes. It came down to the final nine which included Eric Siedel, Matthew Kay, Phil Gordon, John Hennigan, Chris Ferguson, Rafe Furst, Adam Richardson, Alex Bolotin, and Jennifer Harman. The first to go from the final table was the very talented Jennifer Harman who donated all of her winnings to the charity. Matthew Kay went out in 8th place, and John Hennigan placed 7th. Phil Gordon went out in 6th place to Richardson. Chris Ferguson was all in against Bolotin. Eric Siedel went out in 4th place. Rafe Furst went out in 3rd, and then it was heads up against Alexander Bolotin and Adam Richardson. Heads up only lasted one hand before Bolotin came out on top for $177,730.
