Last week we covered the poker community's rallying behind Drea Renee and her family in the aftermath of her sister Audrey Gray passing away due to COVID-19 complications. The GoFundMe page was designed to raise money for Gray’s medical bills, funeral, and memorial service. It also gathered support for her four children, and received over $25,000 in donations within the first 24 hours of going live. The campaign eventually raised a total of $35,364 for Gray’s family. Now, more help is on the way, with GGPoker scheduling a charity tournament for this Thursday afternoon.
GGPoker is running a $50 buy-in “Beat the Pros Charity Special” tournament that starts on Thursday, September 23, at 1:00pm ET. The tournament has no rake, and will allow for unlimited re-entries during the late registration period. 25% of the prize pool generated from this event will be donated to the Audrey Gray Memorial. GGPoker has added a guarantee of $20,000 to the prize pool, guaranteeing that at least $5,000 will be going to Gray’s family in this time of need.
Erik Seidel pushed for this type of event last week
Erik Seidel, who originally brought Audrey Gray’s GoFundMe page to the poker community’s attention, also called for some of the world’s top poker sites to consider running a charity tournament to help out Renee and her family in a tweet last week. “Given the impact Drea Renee has had within our community it’d be great if we can hold a tournament to give support to her family,” Seidel posted on September 14. “@GGPoker, @PokerStars, @partypoker, who’s game?”
GGPoker answered the call by hosting this event. Unfortunately, poker players in the United States will not be able to participate, as GGPoker currently does not operate in the country. Though it is possible that other poker sites or brick-and-mortar locations could still follow suit with a similar charity tournament in the weeks or months to come.
“Thank you all so much for doing this in honor my sister Audrey Gray who recently passed,” Renee tweeted on Tuesday morning. “Erik Seidel and GGPoker, thank you from the bottom of my heart! I appreciate this so much! Please join and support as my sister left behind four beautiful children and this is for them.”
Renee also thanked Daniel Negreanu for his help in making this event come together on the GGPoker platform. Poker players outside of the United States can help raise money for a great cause by playing in this event on Thursday.
Featured Image Credit: Twitter - GGPoker
