This week’s poker news starts off with a feel-good story from the holidays. One poker player helped 38 families in need and showed just how charitable the poker community can be when they were together.
Lee Teams Up with FamilyAid Boston to Battle Homelessness
Bernard Lee and FamilyAid Boston brought some happiness to families that needed it during the holidays. For the 11th consecutive year, these two entities have partnered up to give packages to local families battling homelessness. The two raised awareness and some help from the community to make some custom packages that were sent out to 38 families. RunGoodGear.com sponsored the whole thing this year.
Lee said that he was incredibly fortunate to be able to give back to families that needed it. He used to give custom gifts to families at a holiday party but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, he decided to send them straight to them.
Lee is responsible for founding the Full House Charity Program back in 2011. Overall, the charity has given back $100,000 worth of goods to other organizations centered around children in the New England area. It goes to show how a player can use their name and celebrity to rally for a good cause in the community.
Masashi Oya Wins Mid-States Poker Tour Main Event
The Mid-States Poker Tour Main Event came and went, and Masashi Oya has claimed the title. The poker pro entered the event at the Venetian on New Year’s Eve, which had $1,100 buy-in. The no-limit hold’em main event saw a field of 851 entries, which helped push the prize pool from $500,000 to $821,215.
Along with the title for winning the event, Oya picked up the largest chunk of the prize pool with a payday of $161,780. He earned 912 Card Player Player of the Year points for the 2021 race, moving him up into 378th.
Oya walked into the final day with 102 other players remaining in the tournament. The top 90 finishers were able to walk away with some type of earnings as well. Oya overcame a lot of common names in the poker community, saving Jerry Payne for last as he was the runner-up.
Dimov Dominates Super MILLION$ at GGPoker
Ognyan Dimov couldn’t be stopped at the Super Million$ GGPoker event. The Russian native started off the final table fourth in chips but fought his way back up to the top and came away with the top prize of $508,891 for the first-place finish. Dimov had participated in the exact same event the week before this win and despite making his way to the final table, he ended up finishing in fourth place.
Dimov met up with Joshua McCully at the very end. Dimov held a substantial chip lead, with 16,162,268 compared to the 9,937,732 that was in McCully’s possession. The chip lead didn’t mean that the winner was determined quickly though, it took nearly a half-hour for Dimov to get the job done. Despite losing in the final stages, McCully walked out of the building with significant winnings. He was still awarded the second-biggest payday, earning $392,409.