[toc]The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in was the big winner coming out of the Twitch $100K Poker Charity Invitational event this past weekend.
St. Jude was the charity of choice for winner’s on both of the event’s two days. As a result, the event generated as much as $85,000 for the cause.
The Twitch $100K Poker Charity Invitational took place Nov. 17 and 18 at the MGM-run ARIA Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.
Nine streamers from the popular livestreaming site Twitch competed for $110,000 for the charities of their choice. The top four finishers on Nov. 17 split up $100,000. Additionally, there was a $10,000 winner’s-charity-take-all event on Nov. 18.
Poker player and streamer Jeff Gross and poker commentator David Tuchman provided commentary on a Twitch livestream of the event. Plus, the action was streamed on a 30-minute delay on Jason Somerville‘s Twitch channel. The other streamers featured the event on their channels as well.
Twitch Hearthstone streamer ‘itsHafu’ wins big
Hearthstone Arena streamer Rumay “itsHafu” Wang won the initial tournament, donating the $50,000 first-place prize to St. Jude.
World of Warcraft streamer Byron “Reckful” Bernstein came second, also donating his $25,000 prize to St. Jude.
Meanwhile, , In Real Life streamer PMSProxy finished third for $15,000, and poker player and streamer Somerville finished fourth for $10,000.
Somerville donated his winnings to the Raising For Effective Giving Charity aimed at donating to other charities that provide the biggest impact for each dollar donated.
IRL Twitch streamer Mitch Jones gets winner-take-all
Finally, on Nov. 18, In Real Life streamer Mitch Jones won the $10,000 winner-take-all tournament, and donated the money to St. Jude. Jones beat In Real Life streamer and former MTV star Andy Milonakis heads-up. Somerville finished third.
Also competing in the events were poker player and streamer Lex Veldhuis, Counterstrike streamer Craig “Onscreen” Shannon, and In Real Life streamer Timmac.
St. Jude is a leading children’s hospital pioneering research and treatments for kids with cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
Twitch executives initially said the event was aimed at highlighting Twitch poker and helping charitable causes. Additionally, the event was designed as a way to build awareness for poker on Twitch while raising money for good causes.
The line-up of players was created with an eye on streamers who have big followings. Additionally, they were after players with entertaining personalities and experience playing poker.
PokerGo co-sponsors
Poker streaming subscription service PokerGo co-sponsored the event.
PokerGo regularly streams live tournament action from ARIA, including the annual $300,000 Super High Roller Bowl and the regular ARIA high roller series. Additionally, the inaugural Poker Masters high roller series also ran at the Nevada casino earlier this year and streamed on PokerGo.
Photo by Allmy / Shutterstock.com
