Fans of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice may need to do a double take on May 27th after seeing Annie Duke join forces with archrival Joan Rivers at a charity poker tournament today in Las Vegas.
Online poker site www.UltimateBet.net announced the sponsorship of the “Sucking out on the Rivers” charity poker tournament in support of Refugees International. Annie Duke will be hosting the event alongside Frank Marino, a well-known Joan Rivers impersonator. Nearly all of the top poker pros in Vegas are already on board to play in the charity tournament.
“I think that after this poker tournament, the real Joan Rivers will quickly realize that poker players are good-natured
people – professional people with respected occupations and families – who really want to change the lives of those less fortunate,” stated Annie Duke. “As poker players, we’re all banding together, not just to prove a point to Joan, but to actually change the world.”
While the charity poker tournament will be co-hosted by a Joan Rivers impersonator, the real Joan Rivers went head-to-head with Annie Duke on the most recent season of Celebrity Apprentice. The often abrasive and brash comedienne told Annie, on camera, that all poker players were white trash and that none of them had last names, suggesting that those who love poker are automatically linked to organized crime. Rivers’ opinion has drawn the ire of many in the poker world.
The world’s top poker players and several Hollywood celebrities are slated to play in the charity poker event today to show that there’s a lot of good that comes from poker. Over 20 Joan Rivers impersonators will also be playing in the event and each one will have a bounty on his or her head. Poker fans can secure their spot in the tournament for $200 and the No Limit Texas Hold’em tourney features rebuys and add-ons to help the prize pool grow even higher.
Although all the prize money will go to the winner, half of the winnings are being voluntarily directed to charity. While Nevada gaming laws prohibit money being given directly from the prize pool to charity, the winner may volunteer to donate half of their winnings to the charity in keeping with what had been done in previous charity events hosted by UltimateBet.net.
The “Sucking out on the Rivers” Charity Event, sponsored by www.UltimateBet.net, DeepStacks University, Hard Rock Poker Lounge, and WSOP Academy, gets underway today, May 27th at 6 p.m. at the Hard Rock Casino Poker Lounge.
Vegas Backstage Access (VBA) 