Celebrities Give a Hand to Charity

The Africa Poker Charity Tournament takes place on July 5th, and this year's benefit will see a long line up of celebrities putting on their poker faces to compete. Held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in the rooftop VooDoo Lounge in Las Vegas, the 38th annual World Series of Poker will include stars such as Ben Affleck, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Adam Sandler, James Woods, Jennifer Tilly, and a whole lot more.

Designed by ace poker face Annie Duke, with her long time actor and Oscar nominee friend, Don Cheadle (of Hotel Rwanda), this charity Poker tournament is designed to aid the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, and generate humanitarian awareness to the area's desperate situation.

Participants in "Ante up for Africa" poker tournament have agreed to donate half of their winnings to the ENOUGH project and International Rescue Committee, to fund all sorts of aid to Darfur survivors, which according to last years figures reached over two million who remain homeless, injured, and abused.  Those throwing their hats in include not only A-list actors and actresses, but also some of the biggest names in poker, such as Erik Seidel, Robert "Mr. Omaha" Williamson III, and Doyle Brunson.

Other poker experts doing it for the love are Howard "The Professor" Lederer, Phil "The Poker Brat" Hellmuth, Phil Gordon, Joe Hachem, Andy Bloch, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Phil "Unabomber" Laak, Phil Ivey, Ted Forrest, Mike "The Mouth" Matusow and Clonie Gowen. Attendance has also been confirmed by a range of additional rich and famous, including Jason Alexander, Hank Azaria, Danny Masterson,  Melhi Phifer, Ray Romano, Brad Garrett, Gina Gershon, and Shannon Elizabeth. NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkely also plans on attending.

According to Jeffrey Pollack, commissioner of the World Series of Poker, We're honored to host this event and hope that entrants particularly those fortunate enough to win money will make donations to help ease the human suffering that defines the crisis in Darfur. With such a juicy list of guest appearances and talented personalities, it s sure to a highly covered event, with plenty of good spirits and quality poker play.