Dan Smith has earned more than $36.7m playing live tournament poker, ranking fifth in the All-Time Money List on the Hendon Mob website.
$36.7m is a lot of money, but this story isn’t about money. It’s about humanity coming together at a moment of crisis, and it begins in 2015 with a little musing by the man whose name adorns the first two words of this little ditty.
In 2015, writing about his Burning Man experience, Smith, shared his vision of making the world a better place.
“Sometimes, I like to think about the big picture,” wrote Smith. “And, in an attempt to feel more human, I sometimes will fantasise about making the world a better place. But being practical, if I were to want to make big changes in the world, the most effective way to do it is probably to play as much poker as possible. We live in a society where money can make a big difference, and while reading books to children might be helpful, if I can play poker for 2 hours instead and hire ten more qualified professionals to read instead, that is just strictly better.”
Fortunately, for Las Vegas residents hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, Smith turned his dreams into a reality.
The Double Up Drive
Smith went on to create ‘Double Up Drive’ a non-profit organisation that matches donations given to charities, with those bound by effective altruism ribbons at the centre of his big heart. Matthew Ashton, Stephen Chidwick, Elio Fox, Martin Crowley and Aaron Merchak joined the DoubleUpDrive cast, and together they’ve raised millions in matched donations.
Live tournament poker is dead in the water, but that doesn’t mean Smith’s cape is in storage. Quite the contrary. Smith has teamed up with Chidwick, Daniel’ Jungleman’ Cates and an anonymous donor to pledge $250,000 to those in need, matching up to $500 per donation in his latest Double Up Drive.
Who Are Those in Need?
In previous drives, Smith disseminated donations to a variety of charitable organisations with GiveWell’s knowledge and experience the guiding hand in most cases.
Smith has designed his latest drive for one specific purpose – helping Las Vegas citizens hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time of writing, there have been 330,891 confirmed cases of the virus in the US, with 8,901 deaths, making it the epicentre of the pandemic, globally.
Nevada has recorded 1,836 cases and 46 deaths.
Nevada’s Governor, Steve Sisolak, announced a state of emergency on March 17 and ordered people to stay at home on April 1. Sisolak’s efforts to provide support for victims of the pandemic include banning evictions and relaxing laws on unemployment benefits.
Sisolak isn’t fighting this war, alone.
Double Up Drive Partners With GiveDirectly
Smith has chosen to work with GiveDirectly on this project, and with good reason. GiveDirectly is the leading global non-profit specialising in digital cash transfers raising more than $300m for the extremely poor and those affected by natural disasters.
GiveDirectly will deliver money raised through Smith’s drive to families enrolled in the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). A significant number of SNAP registrants are single mothers, and each will receive $1k, digitally, thanks to the sterling work of all involved.
RunItOnce in on The Act
GiveDirectly isn’t Double Up Drive’s only partners. Phil Galfond and the team at Run It Once (RIO) have also offered to help.
On Saturday, April 11, the online poker platform plans to host a 32-player heads-up charity tournament, giving us the double benefit of giving to a worthwhile cause with a much-needed poker fix at the same time.
The bracket already contains 14 names.
Here they are:
- Marle Cordeiro
- Andreas Froehli
- Kevin Rabichow
- Daniel Dvoress
- Sam Greenwood
- Luc Greenwood
- Kevin Martin
- Parker Talbot
- Jamie Kerstetter
- David Tuchman
- Phil Galfond
- Richard Gaylor
- Dan Smith
- John Cynn
Two more (TBA) pros will round-up that number to sweet 16. The other eight places fill as follows.
The people who donate the eight most significant amounts between now and 25:59 (UTC) on Thursday, April 9 win a seat, as do eight donators chosen randomly within the same timeframe.
RIO pledges to donate €10 for every player who plays a hand on the site on the date in question.
The winner receives an A-Game Poker Masterclass from Elliot Roe, a three-month Elite Plan and three months of RIOs Vision GTO Trainer.
And great news.
As there is no buy-in, RIO can host the tournament on their testing environment, so players locked down in countries that can’t legally play on RIO can get involved.
It’s just like the old days.
If you also want to get involved, then here is the link to GiveDirectly where you can pledge, and take advantage of the $500 matching opportunity.