Home / Poker News July 2009 / Aleksandr Bolotin “Antes Up for Africa”
Aleksandr Bolotin “Antes Up for Africa”
Posted by: James Carter. - Tue, 2009-07-07 06:40
The $5,000 buy-in “Ante Up for Africa” charity event of the 2009 WSOP featured a star-studded field, complete with amateurs, professional players as well as sports and movie stars. Charles Barkley was there as well as Mike Tyson, Kenny Smith, Jennifer Tilly, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Brad Garrett and Jason Alexander.
138 such celebrities and poker players bellied up to the tables at the start of the event. The tournament was hosted by Don Cheadle and Annie Duke.
At the end of it all, it was Alex Bolotin who won the $177,730 first prize, half of which he promptly donated to charity. The AUFA event aimed to raise funds for humanitarian relief efforts in the war-torn Darfur region.
The event was filmed by ESPN and it will be aired as part of the channel’s 2009 WSOP package. In addition to the celebrities and stars named above, poker celebrities were well represented as well. Jennifer Harman, Andy Bloch, Joseph Hachem, Tony G, Erik Seidel, Greg Raymer, Luca Pagano, Victor Ramdin, Mike Matusow, Howard Lederer, Peter Eastgate and Brandon Cantu were all there just to name a few.
Several of the celebrities in attendance have pointed it out that the event served a double scope for them. On one hand they could measure up their poker skills against some of the world’s best players, on the other hand, they could make a significant contribution to a charity they really believed in.
Montel Williams said that the AUFA carried a special meaning for him since he was going to Africa to shoot a documentary shortly.
Dean Cain iterated the importance of such poker fundraisers, pointing it out that poker players wage war on the green felt for huge sums of money, but they have proved their generosity countless times in the past. He also said that being able to see the suffering and poverty in Kenya and Darfur first-hand, he is definitely in a position to truly appreciate the gesture of those who have finished in the money in the AUFA event and who have donated their winnings to charity.
WSOP Main Event champion Greg Raymer, who is also at the forefront of the PPAs efforts to legalize online poker in the US, didn’t miss the opportunity to showcase the generosity of the poker world. With the winnings donated to help some of the poorest and most troubled people on the planet, the AUFA event has finally brought a different face of the poker industry to light. According to Annie Duke, such fundraisers have always been around and now that they’re no longer low profile, now that the public has learned about them, they’re bound to become even more successful in the future.
The final table of the AUFA event featured Phil Gordon, Chris Ferguson, John Hennigan, Rafe Furst, Jennifer Harman and Erik Seidel, together with Aleksandr Bolotin, Adam Richardson and Matthew Kay.
The heads-up match was between Bolotin and Richardson. Altogether, 18 players finished in the money.
