Tao of Poker

Charity Tournament for Leah

I need to improve my karma as much as possible and promoting worthy causes on my poker blog is a great way to start. After I helped save BG's ass, I got a slew of emails asking me to pimp chairty events. Thanks to everyone who blogged about and played in the one this past Sunday at Full Tilt. It was fun and I played. I had Erik Seidel at my table and Daddy convinced Jen Harman that he worked in a sausage factory.

Anyway, I got an email recently about a tournament scheduled for Thursday. According to Chad O., Noble Poker is not only donating the price of admission, but an additional $250 to his friend Leah who has been diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma. Pretty nice of them. If you are unable to make it this Thursday, another tournament is in the works on Poker Stars.

Site: Noble Poker
Date: Thursday March 2nd, 2006
Buy-in: $10 + 1
Time: 7:30pm ET
Password: charity

Coupon code to use when registering (if you need to register an account): help4leah

A little about Leah, from Chad:

This tournament is being held to raise funds to help out my good friend Leah. On Tuesday February 7, 2006, Leah was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma, a very rare form of bone cancer. Medically, Ewing's Sarcoma is best summed up as a cancerous tumor that attaches itself to a bone and destroys it. As I could not find Canadian statistics on this I will use USA stats. In the USA, there are only 150 new cases reported in a year. Of those 150 cases, only 9% affect Leah's age group of 20 to 30 which is the oldest age group affected. Treatment of Ewing's Sarcoma includes chemo, radiation and surgery to remove the tumor.

On a more devastating note, this form of cancer can result in amputation of limbs or even death.

Leah is a vibrant, confident, caring, beautiful woman who would do anything for anyone of her friends. She is the exact type of person who does not deserve to be going through this. Leah lives in Regina, Saskatchewan and because of this, she needs to travel to Calgary, Alberta for treatment. Her boyfriend Barry will be going with her standing beside her through every thing. The costs of both of them being away from work and living in hotels in a completely different province will be substantial at best.

I couldn't think of two more deserving and devoted friends who need our help. I want to personally thank you for joining this fundraising tournament to help my friend Leah through this difficult time. She really needs to focus on getting healthy and should not have to worry about the financial burden this will cause.

Thanks to Gracie for letting me cut & paste all of this entry. I encourage you to spead the word about this tournament, blog about it, and sign up. It's the least that we can do.