Mike Sexton, the 2006 WSOP Tournament of Champions winner and World Poker Tour Host, announced that he would be donating $500,000 (half of his $1 million win) to be split evenly between five different charities.

Sexton has long been one of the most outspoken pros on the issue of donating money to charity. The charities that he chose include the Special Olympics, The Buoniconti Fund to help cure paralysis, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, the Wounded Warrior Project that helps families of those wounded or killed in battle, and Children Incorporated, the charity of choice for Barry Greenstein that provides food and school supplies for underprivileged children around the world.

Mike joins a trend made famous by Greenstein, who is referred to as the “Robin Hood of Poker” for his large tournament donations to charity. Upon the announcement of his donation, he noted, “Barry is a pioneer. Poker can do good things for underprivileged people.”

Sexton is known for lending his golden touch in many poker ideas such as PartyPoker, the WPT, and the Tournament of Champions. Of late he has been attempting to push pros and businesses to donate large amounts to charity because of the benefits that it could bring to both the poker community and the world.

“The most ardent adversaries of poker could not be against poker if we were to start donating huge bucks to worthwhile charities. And why not? It’s the right thing to do,” he said.

“My next goal in life is to lead this change, because there are many worthwhile charities, and it’s a win-win situation for all. The time is here for this to happen.” Sexton added.

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 30th, 2006 at 10:56 am and is filed under Poker Events, Poker Industry News, Poker Players, Poker Tournaments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.