Jamie "Has a Heart of" Gold
If you know of Jamie Gold, it may be because of his $12 million win at the WSOP -- or his subsequent $6 million loss when he had to give up half of it. But you may not know that he, like a lot of big poker pros, is a philanthropist as well.
Gold gets a kick out of his charity work. Not only does he get to give back, something he feels he is called to do, a sort of “thank you” to the universe for the great life he’s had, but he also gets to meet all sorts of interesting people while doing his charity work. And of course, play a lot of poker.
One of the interesting folks he has met from poker charity is US TV show host Montel Williams, a former Marine-turned-daytime TV host. Williams himself has shown up at the WSOP a few times, but Gold encountered him when asked to help host a Multiple Sclerosis charity tournament … which Gold won… and immediately pledged back the first place prize. “It’s not all about poker” Gold has been heard to say.
Having put on more than a dozen (and on his way to more than a score) of charity events since his fantastic victory at the 2006 World Series of Poker main event, Jamie still has plenty of time left over to play poker in all sorts of venues, including TV poker shows where he draws a lot of attention because so many people think his run at the WSOP was a fluke.
But he really does know how to play poker very well -- he was trained by Johnny Chan, after all. And he’s done a bit of training himself. For example he has hosted a celebrity poker game for Sir Richard Branson (twice), who Jamie says he taught how to play (and that he played very well).
Jamie Gold’s heart of Gold will continue to drive him to do good -- according to him he’s raised more than a million dollars for good causes -- and poker fans will be there to watch.
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