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I’m Rooting For This Guy

As you may know, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) started on July 28 and is scheduled to finish this Thursday, August 10. The winner of the event gets $12 million. Other top finishers win millions, or hundreds of thousands, of dollars as well. It’s quite a payout.

Almost all of the well known poker professionals have been eliminated. It’s mostly just Internet players or particularly skilled amateurs that remain. The current chip leader is a former Hollywood agent named Jamie Gold, and from what I’ve read, he’s not been particularly classy in his pursuit of the WSOP title. After reading this article from SI.com, I know exactly for whom I am rooting: David Einhorn. Here is what Mr. Einhorn said about what would happen to his winnings:

“I’m playing for charity,” Einhorn said, as players’ jaws dropped around him. “The Michael J. Fox Foundation. Anything I win goes to that. My grandfather had Parkinson’s. I’m on the board of the charity, and Michael said if I make it to the final table, he’ll fly out.”

How cool is that? He’s in third place currently, and twenty seven players remain. If he wins the $12 million grand prize, all of that money is going to help fight Parkinson’s. The article described Mr. Einhorn as a “hedge fund manager”, so I doubt he’s hurting for cash, but that kind of donation is exceptionally generous, no matter how well off Mr. Einhorn may or may not be.

Even if Mr. Einhorn is the next player eliminated, the Michael J. Fox Foundation will receive $494,797. Here is the payout structure for the twenty seven remaining positions:

I also wanted to pass along a link to a poker blog I have been following to get updates on the WSOP: Tao of Poker. The guy seems very dedicated to getting the latest breaking news and passing it along to his audience, and his insights, while often times crass, can be pretty amusing. Good times.