Online Poker Sites Matching Players' Donations for Haiti Earthquake Victims by Russ Scott on Creators.com

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Online Poker Sites Matching Players' Donations for Haiti Earthquake Victims

Last week's catastrophic earthquake in Haiti quickly put many online poker sites in action to raise money from players to help victims, but a LuckyDog Poker reader raised a common concern about the safety of such donations.

Q: Do we really trust these sites to donate the money? That's the toughest part about these things: finding the right place to put your donation. These situations scream out for scam artists to make a nice chunk of change. — Ken L. in Pennington, N.J.

A: It's true, Ken, the potential for scamming always is present in charitable fundraising efforts or any time there's a pile of money being collected or exchanged.

The "right place" for a Haiti donation probably is directly to the Red Cross, but even then you can't know for sure if your gift will be used for its intended purpose or some other project, however worthwhile.

The key factor, of course, is trust. Whether you donate to the Boy Scouts, war veterans or your own church, you accept in good faith that your money will be spent properly.

In the case of the Haiti drive by online poker sites, I DO trust the biggest sites to follow through completely. For instance, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker are mega-giants in the business, continuously pulling in millions while maintaining scandal-free histories. They wouldn't jeopardize their success and credibility by skimming from players' donations.

PokerStars has chosen the Red Cross as its beneficiary and will match every contribution through Jan. 31. "Haiti Earthquake Relief" tournaments have been set up, but no poker actually will be played. Instead, players choose a "buy-in" from $1 to $1,000 and twice that amount will be donated directly to the Red Cross.

In addition, there's a direct-transfer option to the "Haiti Fund" account, which also will be matched.

Full Tilt Poker, the world's second-largest site behind PokerStars, will send donations to several charities on the ground in Haiti. The site launched "Aid for Haiti" tournaments in which it will match the tournament rake as a donation. It also scheduled "no play" tournaments, matching players' buy-ins as donations and will match direct fund transfers to an "Aid for Haiti" account.

Based on the proven generosity of players, I'm sure a significant amount of money will be raised in the next two weeks.

Q: I spotted you at the final table of an online seven-card stud tournament recently. It looked like you were doing well, but you agreed to a four-way chop at the end. Why? — Jody N. in Geneseo, Ill.

A: The $26 tournament had a $2,000 guaranteed purse and drew 89 players with about $700 ticketed for first place.

I was chip leader several times as the field shrank and made the final table with a tall stack. But with four players left and betting levels getting high, our stacks all hovered around 40,000 chips. Just one big lost pot could wipe out any of us.

The player to my left suggested a four-way chop, based on chip counts. After checking payouts on the "make a deal" screen, all of us agreed and received about $400 each, roughly equal to second-place money.

I made the deal for three reasons, Jody: My opponents all were strong players, second-place money was a good score, and there had been a disturbing number of player disconnects at the final table which, if they continued, might have affected the outcome.

Good question, and thanks for watching!

E-mail your poker questions and comments to russ@luckydogpoker.com for use in future columns. To find out more about Russ Scott and read previous LuckyDog Poker columns, visit www.creators.com or www.luckydogpoker.com.

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