Well-known tournament director Bob Smith has had a $25,000 load taken off his mind due to the generosity of the poker community. Smith, a familiar face during televised and streamed broadcasts of WSOP events in recent years, and even more so in person, has always walked with a noticeable limp, the result of a severe sports injury and the need for a hip replacement five decades ago.
Poker Royalty's Jesse Fullen shared on social media what happened when Smith finally agreed that the original artificial hip had reached the end of its working life:
The "pickle" was solved almost instantly due to the poker world's generosity. After being directed to a GoFundMe campaign started by Smith's friend Sarah Sherman, poker players and industry friends quickly made sure the expected $25,000 in surgery and rehab fees were covered, and then some. In just a day, roughly 150 people had donated just shy of $36,000 in total, which should cover the procedure and rehab and even provide some cushion in case unexpected expenses arise.
Surgery scheduled for May 9
Smith's surgery is already scheduled for May 9, and he plans to be back at his WSOP post at the end of the month. That post is typically among the televised tables that comprise the WSOP's "mothership" set. Any overage from the GoFundMe campaign will be sent by Smith to an animal shelter in Las Vegas in honor of his recently deceased pet Georgia, the fundraiser notes.
Smith, who posts only rarely on Twitter as @PokerAmbassador, sent out a response via Fullen's more wildly viewed account after being stunned by the poker world's generosity:
If all goes as planned, Smith will be back at the WSOP in fine form in just a few weeks. And to paraphrase one of his pet sayings, "It won't be his first rodeo."
