Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

Hi folks -

Many people have contacted us at PokerStars and said "How can we help Katrina victims?"

One of the people who contacted us was Wil Wheaton, a member of Team PokerStars. Wil wanted to put on a tournament to raise money. Quoting Ernie Banks, we said, "Let's play two!" [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

Monday, Sept. 12th at 9:30 PM Eastern Time : $5+0 NLH

Wednesday, Sept. 14th at 9:30 PM Eastern Time: $20+0 NLH

$.01 (yes, one penny) of each buyin and rebuy is going to the prize pool. PokerStars is 100% matching all buyins and sending the money to the American Red Cross.

PokerStars and Wil Wheaton will also be providing cool prizes for the final table finishers.

You can follow the details at

Brad Willis's PokerStars blog

And if those dates are bad for you - well, go ahead and register anyway. Those people in Louisiana and Mississippi need your help.

Expect to see the tournaments deployed in the next hour or so in the Special section of the PokerStars tournament lobby.

Thank you all for letting us be part of this.

Best regards,

Lee Jones
PokerStars Poker Room Manager

P.S. I just edited this post - it turns out that we can't do rebuy events and keep the rebuys out of the prize pool. So both events are no-rebuys.

Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

Excellent.

Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

awesome!

Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

Great job!

Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

Thanks Lee. Count me in.

Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

Great Job !!!
Thanks
Tess

Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

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Thanks Lee. Count me in.

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Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

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Thanks Lee. Count me in.

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Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

It is nice to have multiple tournaments to play in. It just keeps getting better.

This hurricane obviously affected many regular online players who live in the affected area.

Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

will def be playing in both of these tournies. great job by stars.

Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims *DELETED*
 

Post deleted by Mat Sklansky

Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

That's awesome. I don't normally play MTT's but I'll try and be there.

Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

im in depending the old work schedule.

Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

I think it would be good if all the upcoming tournaments for the benefit of the hurricane victims had stickied threads, like the one originally proposed by Slacker13.

We should encourage every major and minor site to hold a tournament, and as long as they are not being stingy with their generosity, we should make the announcement of said tournaments visible in the forum, whether organized by 2+2ers or not.

Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

Great job Lee and pokerstars.

Any idea around about making this tourney a rebuy event? I think some would enjoy the rebuy format as well as knowing that each rebuy will be going to charity, and if there are interesting prizes for final table participants, the rebuy format could give more incentive for folks to donate more.

Just a thought.

Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

Also please read about Relief Tournament at Paradise

Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

Pokerstars is very generous when it comes time to help those in need. Good job guys!!!

Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

Very generous of Poker Stars, though, as a lifelong Cubs fan, I feel obligated to point out Ernie was famous for saying, "Let's play three!" (There are numerous references on the internet to him saying, "Let's play two," but that doesn't make all that much sense as a clever catchphrase since teams often do play two. The whole point of "Let's play three," is that no one ever does.)

You needn't feel obligated to add a third tournament. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

Lee,

I've argued previously that poker sites should have a "tip the dealer" button, that would be present next to the dealer on every table. All the proceeds of this would go to a range of charaties. For example, at the moment it would be stated that proceeds would go to Hurricane Katrina relief. At other times the proceeds might be split between say Water Aid, Amnesty, and a Problem Gambling Charity.

All of us -- non excepted -- should be doing more to help charity. I think making it quick and easy for people to give to charity would be a good thing. Also, this would be beneficial for your PR, especially if you matched the donations by 10%, or a figure that did not affect your bottom line too much. Furthermore, it would be beneficial to the image of poker in general, if a press release one day stated "$x million dollars was donated by poker players and sites to charity this year". The chequered history of poker means that the game needs all the good publicity it can get.

I for one would be inclined to "tip the dealer" and donate a few dollars after a good session. I think many other recreational and proffesional players would feel the same way. In particular, big winners at poker have a lot of disposable income and should be encouraged to distribute their wealth to those more in need.

Anyway, just and idea, but one I would love to see implemented one day.

Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

Stars is the classiest, best run site on the web - period full stop.

Re: Help Wil Wheaton and PokerStars help Katrina Victims
 

I signed up for the 20 dollar tourney, and I have no intention of playing in it. (Will be driving across the country that day)

But my question was, does PS have a way to prevent a lot of Player Points from accumulating because of the high "fee"?
So in essence, can I deposit 600 dollars, register for the 20 and the 100 dollar tourneys, get 600 player points because of the fees, and then get a 120 dollar bonus?
I don't think it would be right, but I am still donating a little bit.