Spontaneous Act of Poker Kindness

After Ultimate Poker shut down, no one thought it would bring anything good.

Everyone who had an outstanding balance at Ultimate Poker received an email about getting their money back, even if they had not requested a cashout. For some players, these were tiny amounts of money, cents even, and most of the balances were in that vicinity. Individually, that amount is worthless for the former customers of Ultimate Poker, but Marco Valeriogot an excellent idea on what to do with that money.

After receiving an email about being sent a check for $0.18, Marco realized that all of the amounts could be pulled together and donated to charity. He has no experience in collecting and donating money, but he decided to tweet about it and see how other players would react. Marco’s expectations were not that high, but he knew that even a relatively small amount of money could help those in need.

Looks like a lot of Nevadans are getting Ultimate Poker checks for tiny amounts. Is anyone interested in pooling them & donating to charity?
— Marco Valerio (@Agentmarco) November 24, 2014

To Marco’s surprise, players soon started to pledge. They were pledging cents, even dollars. For less than an hour they raised $40. It seemed that people from all around the world were willing to help and donate.

Professional poker player Danielle Anderson also tweeted about this humanitarian action, and after her tweet most of the pledges were doubled. A few hours later, over $500 was raised, which was a big surprise for Marco, who didn’t expect such a great response. The outporing of support truly inspired Valerio, who decided to appropriately name this action Spontaneous Act of Poker Kindness.

@Agentmarco I'll double donations up to $500. Also, I've got $1.11 to start the cause :)

— Danielle Andersen (@dmoongirl) November 24, 2014

Marco believes that more money will be collected and isn't sure how high the total might go or where to send the cash. He likes the idea of giving money to kids like Billy Vogel did. Vogel collected donations from the online poker community and bought toys for kids in need.

Valerio is willing to take advice and help to pull this off because he has no experience in charity work. Marco decided that the best possible method for transferring funds from so many donators is a web-based crowdfunder.

Marco’s work in the poker media and his multimedia skills are of relevance for people to see that the poker community can often be very generous.

Random Acts of Poker Kindness - http://t.co/mqN1IXabrrpic.twitter.com/BZzG6afLcN" @dmoongirl@Agentmarco *We can do better. I raise. $2 per RT
— Melissa Burr (@burrrrrberry) November 25, 2014

This man's idea and realization are proof that everything is possible if we join together and that even a tiny deed can make a difference for those in need.