Poker News

Ashley Adams

Back about ten months ago I wrote an article about running charity poker tournaments. I explained that they benefited the industry as a whole while doing good for a bunch of worthwhile causes. I recommended them highly.

Since then, the entire world has gone crazy withthese tournaments. Where I’m from, Boston, Massachusetts, there are at least a couple of tournaments every night - for one “charity” or another. But they’re not all created equal. Some are pure fundraising events where the buy-ins are donations and the prizes are donated to the charity. The events are run by volunteers. Only the charity makes money. I work with Jason Daloia and the Multiple Sclerosis charity in Connecticut running a tournament like this every year. They raise $20,000 or so - and everyone has a good time.

On the other end of the spectrum are the charity tournaments run by the professional operators who bring in a paid crew who deal, set up, and run the games - much as professional operators run Las Vegas Nights for charities. They rent their equipment out, handle the money, and at the end of the night, if the event has been profitable, after the professionals take their large cut, the charity makes money. I played in a tourney like this a month or so ago where the charity only made 20% of the buy-in. The professional operator of the event took away 44% of all the money and the charity was lucky to get about a third of the cash. In between are events that bring in a professional tournament director for a fee who acts like a host, MC, and speaker. But the game is self dealt, the charity sets up the operation, collects the money, and hands out either cash payouts or gift certificates. The charity doesn’t make nearly as much money as in the first example, since there are cash prizes and they do pay a tournament director, but they make much more than in the second example.

When you play in these tournaments you need to consider your combined interests of benefiting the charity and having a decent shot of making some money. Make sure you know what percentage of the buy-in goes to the charity, what percentage goes to the prize pool and how much, if any, goes to the professionals who run the event. Only you can decide what the right mix is for you - but you probably want to avoid events where neither the participants nor the charity end up with the bulk of the buy-in.

When I run tournaments for rotary clubs, fraternal organizations, synagogues, foundations or churches I either volunteer my time or charge a standard fee of $80. That includes the use of my casino quality chips and cards, consulting with the charity on how to run and publicize the event, set up, break down, and any auctioning or MC duties that the charity wants. I also bring along an assistant to help with all of these tasks. The charity usually makes between $3,000 and $15,000 - depending on how large the event is and how much they are charging. Typically, half of the buy-ins and re-buys go out as cash prizes, with the charity keeping the other half, minus their expenses.

Some charities have told me that they don’t want to spend this much - and they have elected to run the events themselves. I encourage them to do so, as it leaves them with more money. But I’ve also received calls and ended up running tournaments from groups that tried and failed to run an event on their own.

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