I sat in my living room, and flipped between CNN and The Weather Channel. My mind struggled to process the catastrophic devastation unleashed by Katrina.
Tears filled my eyes and spilled down my face as the magnitude of this disaster set in. I realized that the last time I felt this way was during the tsunami, and 9/11 before that.
“I have to do something,” I thought, “but what?”
During the World Series of Poker, a good friend of several poker bloggers, Charlie Tuttle, died from cancer. A few Charlie’s friends put together a charity tournament at PokerStars, and we raised over $2000 dollars for the hospital that treated him.
“Why not run a small tournament like that?” I thought. “I’m going to do WWdN tournaments anyway, so why not do one to raise money for hurricane relief?”
I walked to my office, and sent an e-mail to one of my friends at PokerStars:
. . . I thought we may have an opportunity to help a lot of people, if we did a PokerStars charity tournament for the Red Cross, to support Hurricane Katrina relief.
I’m thinking a $20 buy-in, with 19.99 going to the Red Cross. We did the same structure with the Charlie Tuttle tournament, so we were basically just playing for bragging rights and good karma, and there were lots of great jokes about the ninety-seven cents in the prize pool.
I know PokerStars is crazy busy with the WCOOP, so if you don’t have time to make this a site-wide thing, would you be able to set it up the same way you set up the Charlie Tuttle Blogger tourney?
I planned on offering up a bust out gift, like an autographed book or something, and maybe I could even make a trophy that would go to the winner. Maybe we could get something from the FPP store for people who make the final table? If PokerStars can’t commit too many resources to this, I’m happy to buy the prizes and stuff myself.
Anne walked into my office. “Can we walk the dogs?” She said.
“In a minute,” I said. I turned around in my chair, and told her about my tournament idea.
“You should ask PokerStars if they’ll match the contributions,” she said.
I thought about this . . . I was already asking for a private tournament to be set up right in the middle of the World Championship of Online Poker, and I was already asking for some prizes from the FPP store . . . “Screw it. I’m already asking for the Moon. I may as well ask for the stars, too.”
“That’s a great idea,” I said, “I’m totally going to do that.”
I told Anne about my idea, and she suggested that PokerStars could match whatever the prize pool is. What do you think?
Talk to you soon,
Wil
We walked the dogs through the balmy August night, and counted our blessings.
The next morning, I got a call from Lee Jones, who is the manager of the poker room at PokerStars, and a good friend of mine.
“I want to talk to you about your tournament idea,” he said. Something in his voice made me feel like I’d been called into the principal’s office.
“Uh-oh,” I thought, “I over-stepped.”
“Okay . . .” I said.
“Do you know about the tsunami relief efforts we did?”
“No, I don’t,” I said.
Lee told me how PokerStars ran several charity tournaments, and did some other things that eventually resulted in PokerStars players contributing nearly $200,000 to the Red Cross.
“PokerStars matched their contributions, and we ended up sending four hundred thousand dollars for relief efforts.” He said.
“Oh my god,” I said, “I had no idea.”
“Yeah,” Lee said, “it was pretty incredible.”
He paused a moment, and said, “So. Since you mentioned your idea on your blog, we’ve been getting tons of e-mail from players who want to know what we’re going to do for Katrina . . . ”
“Here it comes. I’m totally busted. Crap.”
“. . . and we’re going to do the same thing.”
“Really!?”
“Really!?”
I could hear a smile in Lee’s voice. “[The President of PokerStars] is totally on board, and it’s going to be huge. We’re going to put it on the Pokerstars blog, and on the client, and on the home page.”
“Holy —” I said, “Wow! We’re going to help so many people!”
“We sure are.”
“I love it that this little idea I had has turned into something so much bigger.” I said.
“About that.” Lee said, “In addition to the twenty dollar freeze out, we’re going to do a five dollar tournament also.”
“What a great idea!” I said. “Do we have dates?”
“Yes,” he said. “We thought about waiting until the WCOOP was over, but the fact is they are going to need relief immediately, and we want to get some money to them as quickly as possible. We’re going to do the five dollar event on Monday, September 12th at 9:30 Eastern.”
I scribbled that down in my book.
“And we’ll do the twenty dollar event on Wednesday, September 14th at the same time.”
“Got it.” I said.
We spoke for a few more minutes, (we are friends, after all) and after I hung up the phone, I did my patented run-around-the-house-hollering move.
Otis has all the tournament details at the PokerStars blog:
. . . coming up on September 12th and 14th, PokerStars.com and Wil Wheaton will host two Hurricane Katrina Relief tournaments with all proceeds going to the American Red Cross. PokerStars will be matching every buy-in 100% and will be offering prizes to the winners. Wil will also be offering autographed copies of one of his books to every member of both final tables.
The event on September 12th will be a $5+$0 No-Limit Hold’em freezeout at 9:30pm.
The event on September 14th will be a $20+$0 No-Limit Hold’em freezeout tournament at 9:30pm
You’ll find the tournaments under the “Tourney” and “Special” tabs.
Until the prizes are finalized, I can’t list exactly what they will be, but they are going to be very cool (so cool, I’ll be playing my “A” game 😉 but I can promise autographed copies of Dancing Barefoot for everyone who makes the final table in both events, as well as an autographed Just A Geek for whomever knocks me out of each tournament, and the ultimate winner of each tournament.
A quick, personal note about PokerStars before I go today: I love this company. I have been involved in several business relationships over the years, and I can honestly say that I’ve never been happier in my life. I feel less like a sponsored player and more like a member of a family. I asked for an awful lot, with very little notice, and they willingly gave more than I ever hoped for or expected. I’m so proud and grateful to be part of such a classy organization, with such good people.
So please, sign up for PokerStars, and join me in one or both of these tournaments. It’s going to be incredibly fun, and will hopefully make a positive difference in the world.
While I composed this entry, I had CNN on in the background, and the level of suffering and devastation is just overwhelming. The looting, the people who are trapped and dying, the destruction of entire cities . . . it’s suffocating. This is going to get worse, and now, more than ever, good people need to come together and show what we are made of. Whatever you can do, do it. I suggest contributing to:
And take a minute today to call the people you love. If any of us needed a reminder of how fragile life is, we just got it.
Final note: South Central Rain just came on iTunes . . . it’s the first time in my life this song that I love has felt chilling.
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Congratulations Wil….I normally play at Party Poker but I plan on joining Poker Stars for this tournament.
Joe Romero
That is awesome! You have outdone yourself 😀
You may consider joining up to the Truth Laid Bear Katrina Relief day tomorrow as well…
http://truthlaidbear.com/katrinarelief.php
Basically it is for bloggers to help raise awareness, show support and try to get help for soem of these poor people…
Great Idea! Count me in, I’ll sign up tonight.
I felt the same way you did so I am hosting a Jambalaya night at my place where I will cook my famous Jambalaya for a $20 donation to the Red Cross. So far I think we have raised $400!
A little Canadian mojo for New Orleans.
Long time reader, first time post. You’re REALLY a nice guy. It’s awesome that you’re combining these things, and using your “intarweb power” to help all those folks. I’ll try and stop by!
Man, this is great, Wil. I so wish I could sign up for this, but i’m not exactly 18 yet and my bank isn’t a big fan of online gambling (damn Bank of America). I’ll try to drop in and watch a bit, though.
I intend to make a donation to the relief efforts as well.
Cheers. \m/
On a related note (sorry if i’m spamming, Wil, but I think this is a worthy cause as well) the MDA Labor Day Telethon is this weekend. I myself have a form of MD and would really appreciate it if any of you could spare a donation, any amount helps.
You can donate at MDA’s website, http://mdausa.org/, or through my blog (I collect money every year and present a check on tv at the local telethon) at http://geekygimp.com.
Sorry if this post is inappropriate, Wil. Feel free to delete it if you like.
Cheers.
congrats wil.
this makes me happy.
it is quite sad to see new orleans in such chaos. i think i’ve moved from shock to disbelief. it’s just all a little too surreal.
my family got out ok, but it was a weird feeling when it hit me that my entire family is now homeless and unemployed (although temporarily. they’re totally fine compared to the other 99%).
i feel really bad for everyone else. this next couple months are going to be very strange to say the least.
it was too hard to try to be funny this week also. i decided to go sad and sweet. check out this week’s comic when you get a chance.
and thanks for setting this up!
Well done, Wil. I am so there!
Hey Wil,
It’s going to be 2.30am for both of these tournaments for me since I’m over in the UK, but even if I can’t get the following days off work for each of them I’ll register anyway to contribute. It may not be much but every litle helps.
Chris
Wil-
That is just amazing. My husband and I just got word today that one of our friends made it out. He hunkered down in a Bell South ‘fortress’ over the weekend and then made it to Houston. He says he won’t be able to get back for several weeks. I will for sure be playing in the $5 tournament and depending on how late I’m in, I will try to do the $20 one as well (7am-4pm working stiff has to get *some* sleep lol).
I know I don’t just speak on behalf of myself when I say thank you and ask to virtually shake your hand. It’s trully an amazing thing that you have done and I’m sure your good karma is oozing right about now 🙂
Hope to see you at at least one table on the 12th 🙂
Kathy
Wil,
Thanks for what you are doing for people effected by Katrina. Fortunately I live in Texas now, but still have family that lives in Louisiana. My uncle is one of the furthest south relatives (he lives in Zachary) and is OK. My wife and I waited the hours after landfall to hear from him since he could call out but we couldn’t call in to the state. I wish you lots of luck because the Good Karma is definately headed your way!!! I may even try to be online and play a little myself.
Wil,
Please add this link to your list:
https://secure.hsus.org/01/katrina_relief/
It is the donation page for the Humane Society of the United States. They are out there rescuing animals and assisting their caregivers in the disaster areas as well.
I think what you got going is awesome, Wil! Congrats on pulling it off!
I spent the afternoon in Lafayette, Louisiana today. I made an H2O run for work, as we are donating tons of bottled water for the Katrina refugees. I was amazed at the masses and masses of refugees in Lafayette today. There were people everywhere. Many were obviously living with their kids and pets out of their vehicles. I spoke with many people, each with their own heartbreaking story or miraculous story to share. My heart goes out to each and every one of them. We tried to get some lunch at Burger King, but the doors were locked as they had run out of food feeding everyone from out of town.
We live only 150 miles from New Orleans, and we were spared. However, I have so many friends who have family who they have no idea if they made it out alive or not. I am in awe of how many residents of New Orleans ignored the mandatory evacuation before Katrina hit. I fear the body count will only start increasing by the hundreds, and possibly thousands.
It is hard to imagine being trapped in your attic, as the flood waters rise around you and through your house. Flood waters that are contaminated with sewage, as well as infested with sharks that somehow rode in with the storm.
Well done, Wil. It’s great to see those who are well known stepping up to help support the Red Cross and other organizations that are helping out the folks whose lives have been affected by Katrina. Cheers to you!
Well done, Wil. It may sometimes be a burden, but it must be humbling to know that your “celebrity” can put something of this magnitude into motion.
You’re like a super-hero, using your super-powers for GOOD. 🙂
Hey Wil~~
You should be congratulated for your generosity regarding your H. Katrina fundraiser. I have survived 6 Hurricanes in NC, and took a direct hit with Hurricane Fran which blew out my windows and flooded my house. When the wind blows hard now, I freak. It takes years to rebuild your place and a decade to get your mind back. Thanks for all you do and I hope you raise a @^*!^@ of money.
Regards,
Pook
*grumble grumble*
Well, it would appear that my bank doesn’t like online gambling either >:|
I can’t sign up for any of the other services because I got married but haven’t changed my last name on my bank account yet 🙁
I’ll be there in spirit though
GL 🙂
Thank you.
I’m usually a lurker here — actually I mostly read the RSS feed on LJ — but had to post on this one.
This is the first time in my life that I have ever been watching the disaster footage on TV and had the surreal experience of seeing the Dunkin Donuts I walk by every morning on the way to school on the TV in the middle of the flooding. I’ve only lived in New Orleans for a month, but it’s still home. My stuff is at best inaccessible for a few months and at worst just plain gone. It’s just starting to hit me that this is real, this is happening.
I am overwhelmed, but almost as overwhelming is the outpouring of support from all quarters. Please know that (to me, at least) simply the fact that you and others like you go to this effort helps make things easier for me. The money will help too, but honestly? Right now the support is more valuable to me. So thank you, and thanks to everybody here who is supporting those of us who are displaced. Thank you all very, very much.
“What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel!”
-Hamlet, II. ii.
I could gush about how completely geek-cool I think you are, but everyone here knows it. Admittedly, I
I was down in Destin Fl. for vacation with some friends and began to learn Texas Hold’m. We were lucky enough to leave just prior to the hurricane. If I am going to get fleeced this is the way to do it.
Wil–you are awesome. It’s not everyday Hollywood looks down here on the ole South and remembers that we exist. The charity poker tournament is a great idea. Good luck and thanks again!
Your friends in the backcountry…
CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Awesome! I can’t play poker (but I’m AWESOME at rummy) so I’ll see if I can’t scare up a couple bucks for the humane society instead.
OK – I admit it, I’m a geek and sometimes specifically a time-and-date geek. But Wil, in your post you never mentioned whether the time was AM or PM. Once could _assume_ that it was PM, but you never know…
It’s a great idea. I don’t know poker well enough to get beyond losing five dollars in about 5 seconds, so I’ll donate more elsewhere, but good luck to all the participants.
I’m in. I’ll be sitting here, with my little cheat sheet listing out which hands beat which and who has to put in blinds and what cards are dealt when, but I’ll play.
See y’all there!
Off to PokerStars…
Dear Wil,
Your idea for the charity poker tournament was great and I’m glad it will be played out. That is so wonderful.
I finally got a hold of my family last night, and it seems that their house is a lucky one, though that was before the levees broke. Now we just don’t know.They aren’t letting anybody in their certain parish until 6:00 AM Monday, and they evacuated this past Saturday. Now the future is sort of up in the air.
It reminds me so much of my favorite movie’s tagline: “Things fall down. People look up. And when it rains, it pours.”
But things do get better.
Much love,
Sam
grrrrrrrrrrrrr….can’t sign up for PokerStars until October because i’m underage!!! and here i was, all set to spend my next paycheck for something useful…this sucks…
Wil…
Thank you so much. Gulfport, Mississippi was my home town. I’ve watched the video and the reports only to realize the one place I called home is gone. Thank you for doing this to help the Coast. I don’t live there anymore, but once you get that sand between your toes, it stays with you. Maybe once they rebuild, you and the family can take a vacation down there. It’s really beautiful when it isn’t obliterated.
I just wanted to say thank you.
Okay this almost sounds like a commercial, so for that I am sorry. All I can say is, I have used it since last year and have never had a problem.
For those of you that are complaining about your bank not liking online gambling, you can use NETeller at Poker Stars. NETeller will link to your Bank Account and you can do electronic transfers from your bank account to your NETEller account – even banks that don’t like online gambling like Bank of America have no problem with NETeller. Once in the NETeller account you can deposit it into your Poker Stars account. I know they have other options as well, but since I have only tried doing the electronic transfer with NETeller, I don’t know how well the other ones work. It does take several days to set up everything with NETeller – including a phone call to verify information to ensure that you are the one that is trying to set up the account (at least it required a telephone call when I set up my account last year). Once the account is set up is does take a couple of days for an electronic transfer to happen. In other words, if you need to transfer money this way, do it soon so you have the money in the NETeller account in enough time for the tourament(s).
NeTeller doesn’t like me either 🙁 Some sort of error with the email verification thingie…gonna try to work around it…
Had to share…I FINALLY WON A SNG TOURNAMENT! Play money (of course :P) and only 18 people but I WON!! I’m so stoked…
Thanks for helping nudge me into poker, Wil…so much fun 🙂
See you at the final table, Wil.
Everyone: please check with your employer – or with friends who work for larger companies. Many companies are offering to match donations made to hurricane relief. My firm is doing that, and I’ve contacted my friends to ask if they want to double their dollars by buddying up with me when I make my own contribution. So far, I’ve got offers totaling $300, which will double when my firm adds their bump.
You go, Wil! Spread the monkey love, Baby.
You never cease to amaze me wil. I can’t even begin to tell you how shocked I was when I started to realize just how bad this hurricane had struck and the resulting loss of lives and homes… I think we all want to do whatever we can to help and I think what you and poker stars are doing is just wonderful.
Wil…I have to say thank you…for those of us from New Orleans. For everyone that is/was in all the states affected. I always check your site, obviously the last few days I haven’t…one of my friends over at connick.com posted that you were doing this. Lots of Harry Connick Jr. big band members are from New Orleans, and their everyday jobs is playing music in New Orleans, this is a big blow for them. So hopefully some of the money raised through this will be able to help them out. We are now one day at a time.
Very good cause. I can’t believe the devestation down there!!
stacey0821: That’s awesome. I’m a huge Harry Connick Jr. fan (his music played a very important part in the courtship of my wife), please convey my thanks to everyone over there for helping to spread the word.
Regarding a Mac Client: There is no native Mac client, as far as I know. I understand that it can work in Virtual PC, but I know first hand that it works in Linux under WINE, because that’s the way *I* play! If you’re on OSX, you may want to install Apple’s X Window system, and fink, and see if it works that way.
And if you can’t play on PokerStars, please consider donating to one of the organizations I linked in this post — and don’t forget to talk to your employer about matching contributions! Everything helps.
That made me cry…. you rock my socks, Wil!
I am glad you mentioned Noah’s Wish in your post, Wil. They do excellent work saving animals after disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Folks should also go directly to the charities’ web sites to donate and not thru places like “Network For Good,” who take fees off the top before sending the remainder on to the charity Since my Texas Hold ‘Em skills are lacking, perhaps I can adopt a player…
Wil Wheaton, Total Rockstar.
You’re my hero for using your powers for the good of mankind. Next you’re gonna tell us you can fly. 🙂
I’ll definitely try to make both the $5 and $20.
I figure I suck at Poker on my own all the time, I can just as easily suck in a charity tournament. I am so in.
Sweet, Wil. Nice going! Once again, your compassion makes things happen.
Wil I will try to play in the tourney, and since we are just north of Dallas we have applied to host one of the familys at our house so they don’t have to stay in Reunion arena.
Evacuees who made it to the Houston area who need a place to leave their animals can contact the Houston SPCA. They have already taken in hundreds of Amimals from Louisiana shelters. They can also use donations and supplies.
http://www.spcahouston.org/spcahouston/Default.asp
Wil,
you are very cool. Most of us folk watch this on the news and are deeply saddened but don’t have the resources or aren’t in the position to really do thing. That’s what makes this so sad for most people – we watch it and feel helpless.
It’s great that you are willing to use your reputation to help out thousands of people affected by this trajedy.
-matt
This tourney idea of yours was going to push me to finally get a Poker Stars account. Unfortunately I’ll be in LA for a big convention that week, and I’ll be too busy with related events to play :-(. I’ll keep my eyes open for other WWDN tourny announcements! Thanks for your efforts with the relief fund!
This tourney idea of yours was going to push me to finally get a Poker Stars account. Unfortunately I’ll be in LA for a big convention that week, and I’ll be too busy with related events to play :-(. I’ll keep my eyes open for other WWDN tourny announcements! Thanks for your efforts with the relief fund!
Wil,
As someone who fled the city and is facing the loss of everything, I thank you for all your efforts and charity support.
The loss of my beloved city is devastating beyond belief and stupidly I keep thinking “My copies of JAG and Dancing Barefoot are gone!”
Its strange the things your mind seizes on in times like this……
My eyes filled with tears befor ei was even half way through your post, thats awesome Wil. You have a good heart, and it’s great to see how many people are on board and how generous people can be. I’m gonna have to contribute. I suck at poker but i’m not gonna sit this one out 🙂
Grats on this slam-dunk. /smile
-=Mynna
You’re a good man, Wil.
I can’t wait to tell my son about the tournaments. I’m the one who turned him on to ‘Just a Geek’ and he’s the one who turned me on to Poker Stars. Now we’ve got ‘Dancing Barefoot’ waiting for us at the library and we’re fighting to see who reads it first. It’s a solemn day on the one hand because of Katrina but I’m excited about this post. My internet’s been down for days and first time I get back on — well, it was good.
Way to go, Wil. I’m really proud of you. What a way to brainstorm taking your idea for something fun and turning it into something that can really make a difference. And you brought your friends at PokerStars along for the ride. This is absolutely great! This is what life is really about – looking out for one another, helping out where and when needed. Great job – way to go, Wil!