There are many charity events in poker. Many places, and many very worthy causes for poker players to put their hard earned cash. By writing this post, I certainly do not mean to say one charity is better than the other, or to select one over the other. That is a matter of personal choice, and certainly, there are plenty of worthwhile organizations out there. But, this one is special to me, and to many folks in the poker world.

Phil Gordon and Rafe Furst are once again asking poker players to donate 1% (only one percent) of their Main Event winnings to their organization, ‘Put a Bad Beat on Cancer’. I agreed yesterday to help distribute patches to players that were willing to wear them, and to make the pledge. Little did I know Cancer would touch my life less than two hours after I had the conversation with Rafe, and took the patches from him.

As some reading this may know, I was in the music business for 15 years, mostly in artist management. Yesterday, a member of one of the bands I used to manage passed away from Cancer. Natasha Shneider was a spirited, funny woman from Russia who played in the band Eleven with her husband Alain Johannes, and drummer Jack Irons, who also played with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Pearl Jam.

I don’t want to get too heavy, but life is a fragile thing, and I am one of those dreamers that believes that its only a matter of time until human creativity and technology meet to find a cure for this disease that baffles us all. 1% is not a big piece of your Main Event cash, and I urge everyone to get involved. For more info, check out preventcancer.org.