Jennifer Harman

There are a lot of poker charity events, I wonder why that never comes up when politicians are gassing off about the evils of gambling?

Anyway, today is not a rant but the announcement in praise for my favorite poker charity event: The Second Annual Jennifer Harman Poker Charity Event to benefit the Nevada SPCA No-Kill Animal Shelter. One of the best run, most fun and best attended charity events in Las Vegas, this year will be held at the Venetian Poker Room, which is just the best room in Las Vegas for such events. Below are the complete details for the April 18th event. If you are intown, see you there.

The Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino will host the Second Annual Jennifer Harman Charity Poker Tournament on Friday, April 18. The no-limit Texas hold'em poker tournament will take place inside The Venetian Poker Room beginning at 3pm. All proceeds of the tournament and live and silent auctions will benefit the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) no-kill animal shelter. The recommended donation to participate in the tournament is $300+30. There will be optional $200 re-donations for additional tournament chips throughout three 20-minute rounds and a $200 last chance add-on. The first place prize is a $10,000 seat into the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event.

The Nevada SPCA no-kill shelter in Las Vegas gives comfort, food, and veterinary care to thousands of animals every year. Many of those animals thrive in environments without cages. You can find the Poker Shrink hanging out in the cat wing quite often.

"Last year we raised $130,000, allowing the Nevada SPCA to expand their facility," said Harman. "The Venetian Poker Room is a perfect venue, and their professional staff has been very gracious. This year's event promises to be bigger and better and many of my friends will be there to support this great cause."

Preceding the tournament, a red carpet reception will be held inside The Venetian Poker Room from 2 p.m. - 3 p.m. Confirmed celebrity poker players include Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Howard Lederer, Phil Hellmuth, Jerry Yang, Marco Traniello, Jamie Gold, Hoyt Corkins, Amarillo "Slim" Preston, TJ Cloutier, Todd Brunson, Barry and Allyn Shulman, Erick Lindgren, Gavin Smith, Quin Do, Russ Hamilton, Lacey Jones, Roy "The Oracle" Winston, Freddy Deeb, Kristy Gazes, Antonio Esfandiari, Joe Hachem, Carmel Petresco, Daniel Alaei, Brad "Yukon" Booth, Barry Greenstein, Joanne "JJ" Liu, Layne Flack, Chau Giang, Cyndy Violette, Chris Ferguson, David Chesnoff, David Williams, Chad Brown, Vanessa Rousso, Lynette Chan, Huckleberry Seed, Jennifer "Jenocide" Leigh, Joe Sebok, Eric Mizrachi, John Phan, Jeff Madsen, Scotty Nguyen, Dan "Who's Your Daddy" Fleishman, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Steve Zolotow, defending champion Kirk Morrison, and many more.

The tournament is open to the public. Seating is limited and going fast. Please visit the NVSPCA site to reserve your poker tournament seat today, or call Lisa Wheeler at (702) 327-7250.

Other confirmed sports celebrities include ESPN commentator Lon McCarron, NFL quarterback Shaun King, Burton Snowboards David Driscoll, World Champion snowboarder Jeff Brushie, professional snowboarder Keir Dillon, Olympic snowboard medalist Ross Powers, and professional motocross rider Jimmy Button. Confirmed celebrities and entertainers include "Whale Hunt in the Desert" author Steve Cyr, local comedian Carrot Top, KVBC meteorologist John Fredericks, KXNT talk show host Alan Stock, KDWN's Heidi Harris, and Life's A Bluff comic creator Frank Frisina.

Celebrity tournament director and Tournament Directors Association (TDA) founder Matt Savage will host the tournament. TV Poker and FoxSportsNet hosts Robert Justin Huxley and Kyle Morris will emcee the event. Robert Williamson III will host a live auction during the breaks between tournament rounds, including official Burton Snowboards autographed by attending athletes, "The Simpsons Movie" memorabilia donated by Nancy Cartwright (voice of Bart Simpson), and personal items signed by poker professionals Jennifer Harman, Howard Lederer, TJ Cloutier, and Doyle Brunson.

A silent auction sponsored by Triumph sports includes a "Pete Rose & Jennifer Harman" dinner package with all proceeds going to the Nevada SPCA, a Joe Montana "Stephen Holland" limited edition framed giclee print, a Muhammad Ali & Joe Frasier limited edition framed photo, an "I'm sorry I bet on baseball" official baseball autographed by Pete Rose, as well as official helmets and memorabilia signed by Dan Marino, Dick Butkus, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Emmit Smith, Bill Parcels, Phil Simms, LT Adams, Joe Montana, Joe Namath, John Elway, Ladainian Tomlinson, Fred Biletnikoff and Jim Plunkett.

Sponsors and supporters of the Jennifer Harman Charity Poker Tournament include The Venetian, PocketFives.com, Poker Players Social Network (PPSN), Triumph Sports, Who's Your Daddy Energy Drink, Howard and Suzie Lederer, PokerNews.com, The Cartwright Foundation, Poker Road, WPT Boot Camp, NettieScrub, CardPlayer, TinyPrints, Poker School Online, Fundraisers.com, Sabre Design, and Life's a Bluff Frank Frisina.

If you are unable to attend this red carpet affair but would like to make a donation to the SPCA, here is the link. For information on other ways you can directly support the Nevada SPCA no-kill animal shelter contact Doug Duke at (702) 873-7722 or email the NevadaSPCA@aol.com.

The Spring and Summer are clearly the "high" seasons for poker in Las Vegas. I have been looking over my schedule for the next three months and it basically says:

"ALL POKER ALL THE TIME!"

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Over the next several months, I am going to try and give you some of the flavor of what it's like during this period for players, for fans, for dealers and tournament staff and yes for a poker journalist during the "High Season of the Las Vegas Poker Year."

Today was a fun event: The First Annual Jennifer Harman Charity Tournament for the Nevada SPCA Sanctuary. A hundred professional players and lots of local amateurs all coming out for a great cause.

Tomorrow the final event of the 5th season of the World Poker Tour Championship kicks off at Bellagio. A big seven days $25,000 tournament to end the most successful WPT season to date.

Immediately following that event, the WSOP Circuit hits town at Caesar's Palace for another run. In fact, the preliminary events of this Circuit stop are already underway. Final Table will be May 2nd.

Take a short break and Season 6 of the WPT launches with not one but two back-to-back events. First, the Mirage Poker Showdown runs from May 7th to May 23rd and then the Mandalay Bay kicks off their Poker Championship on May 22nd with a main event final table on June 2nd.

Which takes us to the 2007 World Series of Poker running 55 events from June 1st until July 17th at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino.

And don't forget the Bellagio Cup III, which runs from June 11th to July 15th and has just been added to the WPT schedule.

Quite a Spring and Summer in Las Vegas - stay tuned.

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OK for all of the purists who hate when a poker blog is not about poker. For Felicia who really does not like poker posts hi-jacked by cat stories..... Turn away from the screen now!

Hey wait! This is about poker and about poker and charity. This coming Friday April 20th, in Las Vegas Jennifer Harman is leading over 300 celebrities and professional poker players in what will undoubtedly be the most fun most of them have had in a long time while at a poker table. It all takes place at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. There will be:

-a Red Carpet arrival for celebrities and professional players;
-an auction of some really cool sports and personal items donated by the players (I got a sneek preview);
-the auctioneers will be Robert Williamson III and Daniel Negreanu;
-a silent auction with some even more cool items, two of which have never been available anywhere before;
-a poker tournament limited to 400 players with 290 professional poker players and celebrities already signed up; imagine the table you could be seated at.....

And get this 100% of the buy-ins $300 and the rebuys $200 will go to the Nevada SPCA No-Kill Shelter.

And don't think you are playing just for fun- First place gets a $10,000 seat in the WSOP Main Event this summer.

The fun starts this Friday, April 20th at 10 AM outside the Poker Room at Caesar's Palace. The tournament starts at noonish. There will be lots of opportunities for the public to interact with the players and there are still seats available for the tournament.

I attended a press conference with past week at the Nevada SPCA Shelter here in Las Vegas. Jennifer, Daniel and Todd Brunson were there and so were lots of lucky pets, who will not be put down or left on the streets. This is a great charity and a great bunch of volunteers. If you can't make the event this Friday, please consider an online donation. Thanks.

Photo credit: Amy Calistri and Sammy, her owner