Jennifer Harman raises $125k for Nevada SPCA

If there was any doubt that Jennifer Harman has some weight in the poker world, it was dispelled on Friday when more than 200 poker players, several of them pro poker players, showed up for her charity event benefiting the Nevada SPCA.

The combination of money from the poker tournament as well as a benefit auction totaled more than $125,000 for the SPCA.

Doug Duke, of the Nevada SPCA, said that donations through t-shirt sales and other sources continued to roll in Saturday as a result of the tournament, actually bringing the numbers up to more than $126,000.

"That is almost $100,000 more than has ever been raised for the Nevada SPCA at an event before," Duke said.

A large portion of the donations came from the charity poker tournament, which had 215 participants.

The buy-in for the tournament was $300, plus $30 for the dealers, and there was an optional re-buy and one-time add-ons that also added to final $101,860 total from poker.

An additional $23,500 was donated through live and silent auction.

Howard Lederer and his wife Suzie did their part by playing in the tournament and by purchasing more than $3,000 in live auction items. Vince Neil also attended and donated a signed guitar for the live auction.

Robert Williamson III played auctioneer for the live auction, and even managed to auction off a pair of his own socks for $500.

Some of the pros in attendance for the poker tournament and the auction included Marcel Luske, Marco Traniello, Shannon Elizabeth, Erik Seidel, Todd Brunson, Cyndy Violette, Hoyt Corkins, Men "The Master" Nguyen, and more.

Daniel Negreanu was in attendance and even managed to make it to the final table of the poker tournament.

He was up against Ronnie Salvatore, Justin Marchand, Erez Ozer, Marry Ann, John Spadavecchia, Kirk Morrison, Merri Perry and Chris Clarke.

The final table results were:

Kirk Morrison
Justin Marchand
Daniel Negreanu
Erez Ozer
Marry Ann
Ronnie Salvatore
Merri Perry
Chris Clarke
John Spadavecchia
For his first-place finish, Morrison received a seat in the World Series of Poker Main Event. He pledged to donate 5% of his winnings at the event to the Nevada SPCA as well.

Second place received a "Music Mania" package donated by Williamson. Negreanu received a chip set autographed by Scotty Nguyen for his third place finish.

First through third places also received Sasaki vases, and all of the players who made the final table received prize packages.

To learn more about the Nevada SPCA or make a donation, visit its page at www.nevadaspca.org.

courtesy of Sarah Polson

News Added: 24 April, 2007

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