The exclusive and glitzy Hollywood Park Casino in Los Angeles will be the venue of a poker tournament with a difference on the 20th of this month.

Brad Garrett will be hosting a tournament, the net proceeds of which will be donated to the 1736 Family Crisis Center.

The charity poker tournament is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. The buy-in is $350, which is not much considering the cause for which the poker is being played. In the first hour rebuys at $100 will be permitted.

Non-players will have to fork out $75 per head to witness the proceedings and get a look in at the celebrities who will be gracing the event. A cash prize of $10,000 will be awarded to the winner. The runner up will win a seat at the 2009 World Poker Tour Celebrity Invitational. For some this may be the better prize. There will be some other smaller prizes in cash or kind as well.

Though Brad Garrett has some association with poker, he is better known for his five Emmy Award nominations for his comic supporting actor role on Everybody Loves Raymond, in which he plays Robert Barone. Garrett’s tryst with poker so far has been restricted to a television appearance in the 2006 World Series of Poker main event and participation in the fifth season of Bravo’s Celebrity Poker Showdown.

Next Garrett will feature in the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. However Garrett has several celebrity friends who include Ray Romano, Mimi Rogers, Anthony Anderson, Jennie Garth, and Cyndy Violette. Violette is a poker professional of considerable renown. They will add glamour to the charity poker event and hopefully bring in a bigger draw to the benefit of the 1736 Family Crisis Center.

The 1736 Family Crisis Center provides succor to victims of domestic violence and abandoned youths. The center has no revenue stream of its own and is totally dependent on grants and donations. The benevolence of poker players on April 20 will be a welcome source of funds for this institution that has been serving the unfortunate since 1972.

The connection between poker and charity runs deep. Poker players are men and women with big hearts. The charity tournament at the Hollywood Park Casino is not a one-off event but a one-among-many event. In fact a permanent charity tournament center has been set up at the Nautica Entertainment Complex in Cleveland.

The Nautica Charity Poker Festivals have been running there for three years. The fourth season commenced on March 27, 2008 in a new 12,000 sq. ft. complex. Forty-six Thursday-to-Sunday weekend tournaments will take place this season and are expected to raise $1.5 million in charity. Various charities, such as Ohio Junior Hockey, the Police Athletic League and Art On Wheels, rent the complex for $1 per weekend and organize Texas Hold ‘em poker games. The charities do not get a rake but charge players $20 an hour as seat fee. With 200 people turning up every day and expenses less than $2,000 a day the charities take home a handsome amount.

Author:  Renee Kingsley