The coronavirus (COVID-19) has become a global crisis. With coronavirus cases and deaths due to the virus increasing at an alarming rate, people have joined hands to accelerate the fight against it. This has brought together governments, organizations, businesses and industries including poker industry to respond to this serious disease. Phil Galfond’s Run it Once poker site is hosting a charity poker tournament to raise money to help fight against the COVID-19. This will be a heads-up No-Limit Hold’em tournament, which is slated to take place this coming Saturday, April 11, 2020.
Galfond himself will take a break from the much publicized Galfond Challenge against “VeniVidi1993” to focus to helping raise money to fight the COVID-19 that has already killed over 89,000 people and infected more than 1.5 million worldwide. The PLO specialist holds a decent lead in the challenge through around 23,000 hands, but it could be anyone’s game with around 2,300 hands remaining.
The upcoming 32-player heads-up NLHE tournament is a must-watch as it will feature some of the best players in the world and you can watch all the action on the Run It Once Poker Twitch channel.
In the field of the tournament, eight spots will go to those making the highest donations before the end-of-day on Thursday, while another eight spots will be awarded to random players donating any amount of money. Already 16 spots in the tournament have been filled, and they include big names like Galfond himself, Jamie Kerstetter, Dan Smith, Parker “tonkaaaaP” Talbot, David Tuchman, Sam Greenwood, Luc Greenwood, 2018 WSOP Main Event champion John Cynn, Marle Cordeiro and so on.
The winners will receive a trophy, access to a Run it Once MasterClass, and RUI training sessions.