The World Poker Tour has reevaluated their decision to make a charitable donation a requirement for the Ladies Championship Events. This came after several top female professionals had boycotted this year’s event, currently being played, and after the World Poker Association urged the WPT to fix this mistake for the future.
A group lead by former WSOP Ladies Champion Susie Isaacs had been very vocal about their disappointment over the World Poker Tour’s decision to withhold 15% of the prize pool for a donation to Susan G. Komen for the Cure (SGK), a breast cancer charity. Its not that the group was at all anti-charity in fact most of the boycotters stated they would gladly volunteer a percentage of their winnings, but did not like being forced to have such a large percentage donated.
According to a pokerpages.com article World Poker Associate Chairman Wendeen H. Eolis more or less agreed with Susie Isaacs and the other boycotters and urged the WPT to “reverse this mistake” for the future. Included in his statements was this quote: “The furor has centered on the WPT’s insensitivity to the varying financial means of ‘working players’ and more broadly on the decision to compel a charitable donation in an event labeled as a championship.”
Lyle Berman, Chairman of the Board of World Poker Tour Enterprises has always been a strong supporter of the World Poker Association and responded today by saying the World Poker Tour has reevaluated their decision and in the future would have no such charitable withholding on any WPT event labeled “championship”.
Editor’s note: No changes have been made to the 2008 Ladies Championship as some news sources have mistakenly reported. This decision only involves future tournaments.
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