| Published on May 11, 2009
PokerStars is the largest online poker site in the world and as every year, also this year it is organizing a European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final week. As an addition this year, during the Grand Final week, they are hosting also a star-studded charity tournament, the Ante Up For Africa Europe Celebrity Charity Poker Tournament. The aim of this event is to raise money within the poker community for the current humanitarian mission in crisis torn Darfur.
April 27th at 6 pm will be the big day for the big charity event. The day after will be PokerStars EPT Season Five Grand Final Main Event.
The Ante Up For Africa Charity Event will join many celebrities like Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem and Vanessa Rousso. They all will also compete in the Ä 4,000 buy in no-limit Texas holdÃem tournament, which will take place in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
All the money that is going to be raised at the PokerStars Ante Up For Africa Europe tournament will be donated to Ante Up For Africa for funding the work of charities that help survivors of the situation in Darfur, Sudan, and support activism dedicated to solve the crisis. Besides, the winner of the tournament will be awarded by PokerStars with a special prize package to their flagship EPT event in the Bahamasà in January 2010.
It's the 3rd season for the Ante Up For Africa charity event. The previous tournaments were held the last two summers during the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
Many Hollywood stars had participated at these two seasons of the charity event. Among them were actors Adam Sandler, Ben Affleck, Shannon Elizabeth, Matt Damon, Montel Williams and Don Cheadle, who is the founder of this great big event. Besides the Hollywood stars, many professional Poker players took part at the event: Barry Greenstein, Joe Hachem, Daniel Negreanu and at that time they raised about $ 2 million for the cause.
All the money that has been already raised, to help people in Darfur, showed signs of improvements in that area, but still there is a lot work to do.
In Sudan the situation isnÃt better. Along the Sudan-Chad border, people are living in terrible conditions in refugee camps and a campaign of ethnic cleansing by Government forces, left more than 300,000 dead over the years.
The hope of PokerStars and his charity event is to bring more attention to the crisis and create further support and aid in the region of Africa.