Las Vegas Weekly

July 9, 2008 · 6 AM

Poker-playing stars raise thou$and$ for Cheadle charity

By Robin Leach

Annie Duke and Don Cheadle teamed to raise awareness and money for Darfur at Cheadle's WSOP charity tournament.

Photo: Scott Doctor

Win or lose, the Hollywood celebrity contingent didn’t care because they were having fun and raising almost $1 million for fellow actor Don Cheadle’s second “Ante Up for Africa” poker tournament. Last year Don and poker princess Annie Duke teamed for the inaugural challenge as part of the World Series of Poker at the Rio -– and raised $700,000 in their campaign to bring awareness to the suffering of refugees in the horrid ethnic-cleansing warfare in Darfur.

It was a turnout worthy of an Oscar’s red carpet, with Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and brother Casey, Adam Sandler, Ray Romano, Jason Alexander, George Lopez, Mekhi Pheifer, Montel Williams and Anthrax rocker Scott Ian taking part. Last year co-founders of the “Not on Our Watch” project, George Clooney and Brad Pitt, attended but both were unable to head into Vegas this time because of travel commitments in Europe.

By the end of play, poker star John Hennigan won the tournament and celebrated by donating his entire winnings back to Don as he hosted the after-party at Pure in Caesars Palace. About 300 guests, including Ben and Casey Affleck, Lopez, Charles Barkley, Phil and Annie mingled with Damon, who was doting on his lovely and very pregnant wife, Luciana and movie-shoot co-stars Bai Ling and Billy Zane looking quite cozy together over martinis!

Poker pro Phil Helmuth was emcee for the event and told my ABC News producer Al Mancini: “I like having the mic and teasing all the stars. I am certainly going to tease Ben Affleck. I like to think I do a good job and bringing a vibe to the room. This event really puts the spotlight on Darfur as something that needs to be done. Normally I charge $50,000 a night to host and play, so it is a pleasure to do this one for free. Ben is a great player, but he went broke so I let him play with my chip stack and he ran it up from $20,000 to $150,000. For legal reasons I had to take it over, but he told me what to do with each hand.”

Phil also plays in the big WSOP tournament: “It’s the biggest event in poker and if you win you are called world champion for the rest of your life. I have been a champion since 1989 and it is a real honor. This year there’s a four-month delay after play before the finals are announced for November. I think that’s great for poker. There will be all these stories if they can win it. If I make the final table I almost have to win.”

Annie Duke told Luxe Life: “It’s been a great event again with almost the whole prize pool donated back. I got involved with this charity because it is one of the biggest humanitarian crises in our generation. It received so little attention and stories written about it that it was important to Don and myself to get people to focus on it. We have the responsibility and the leverage to get people to care about this. We have already seen a lot of results with aid, food and water going right there plus raise the awareness about what is still causing people to die. I don’t have any favorite celebrity players here because I am so happy they all came out. I sat next to Ray Romano and Ben Affleck was getting a massage. Ray gently pushed the masseuse aside and gave Ben one himself without him knowing!”

Annie also plays in the WSOP race to the finals: “This is our Super Bowl -- so huge with so many people. It is what everyone dreams about. Every year is a long process and you don’t want to get knocked out early because it’s 12 months before you can do it again. One year I’d been away from my home for a month, got knocked out, was so devastated I didn’t get out of bed for two days. There is nothing like the excitement for me -- although my kids do come first. I made a final table early on and won $80,000, so I’m good although I would have loved to get the bracelet win.”

Matt Damon told us: “This tournament is a brilliant idea to raise money and awareness. It’s a smart way to get the issue a lot of attention. Last year I was the second guy out, but this year I lasted much longer. I’d love to play in the WSOP Main Event, but its too time consuming for me with my young kids. It would be hard to give up a week to play poker.”

Organizer Don Cheadle added: “We are very happy to have our partnership with the Rio and Harrah’s and Pure nightclub to combine poker with something that helps people that desperately need help. We have to keep it in the forefront of the press because if it doesn’t get those attention things that are allowed to be in the dark can thrive in the dark. When you shine a light on bad things sometimes it can put the brakes on.”

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