What started out as an idea to have a bunch of people from Blogs with Balls and Blog World network over the felt, turned into one of the best charity events any of us could have imagined.

Annie Duke was gracious enough to let a bunch of bloggers use her name to promote a poker game we decided to run in Vegas -- and of course, turn the event into the Blogs with Balls Charity Poker Shootout where we raised $10,000 for Ante Up for Africa.

It would not have been possible without Annie’s help -- and name -- but what I come to find out in this interview is that when I pitched the original idea for the tournament to her, she chuckled at the hard sell I put on to run the event in conjunction with her charity. See, I thought a company that has raised more than 3 million dollars in the last few years might scoff at five grand (that were were able to double through wonderful efforts of our sponsors, organizers and players). But Annie wasn’t as interested in the money as she was in something else we could offer: Awareness.

This show is a follow-up to the charity event run in conjunction with Blogs with Balls and Blog World. Annie and I discuss the Charity Shootout and how, it turns out, it wasn’t just a great event for the bloggers to hang out and play cards with more than a dozen of the top names in poker. It was a great night for the pros too.  What better way to raise money, as Annie puts it, than to have fun? Charity shouldn’t be “rubber chicken” and listening to a speaker drone on about the need for donations. If you’re giving your money to charity, you should have some fun along the way. It was so awesome that Annie and the other pros -- including Jennifer Harman, Gavin Smith, Jeff Madsen, Chip Jett, Adam Schoenfeld, Andy Bloch and a ton more -- realize that and not only helped the conference-goers in attendance have a blast, but really seemed to enjoy themselves as well.

That said, the point of this interview was not to tell each other how great the night was. Mutual admiration is great, but we wanted to bring it back to awareness. A room full of 100 bloggers and social media elite can do a lot of good. In this case, it’s to spread awareness for Ante Up for Africa. Per the organization’s website:

The dire crisis in Darfur is entering its sixth year. The conflict has killed 400,000 people and forced more than 3 million Darfuris to flee their homes. The recent expulsion of key international humanitarian groups by the government of Sudan in response to the International Criminal Court's issuance of an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir has placed hundreds of thousands of the most needy at even greater risk and without access to medical care or reliable food supplies. President Bashir continues to utilize starvation as a weapon of war to silence his opponents and to distract the world from the key issues in Darfur. Now more than ever, there needs to be a dynamic international effort to move beyond simply treating the symptoms of Sudan's crisis and focuses on ENDING it by forging a lasting and equitable peace for all of Sudan. If you want to learn more about the crisis in Sudan and what you can do to make a difference, visit www.enoughproject.org.

There are a lot of people who question Americans donating money to non-American charities. Jingoism at its finest, I suppose. But what people don’t realize is that rich people -- heck, any people -- should be able to donate their money to anything they like. And the more private money that’s donated to a cause, in theory, the less government money that will be needed. Annie points out that the US Government has paid, and continues to pay, into the billions to aid those in Sudan and that region of Africa. If that region crumbles and genocide continues and refugees are spread throughout the world -- including America -- it will cost our country far more than it is now.

And besides, as Annie points out, borders are man-made. They’re political boundaries that shouldn’t stop people from caring about human rights. She references the fact that she lives in California yet donated to Katrina relief. Should she have kept that money in her state? On her street?

Any time you talk about a cause it’s going to get political. But enough political stuff for a minute. How great was that poker event! The most rewarding part for me was that the pros were accessible. I would lose (or win) a hand and then discuss the hand theory and my play with the likes of Brian Devonshire, Smith or Madsen. I tried to bluff Annie in the second hand I played and learned a valuable lesson: don’t be a moron.

That knowledge you can’t get anywhere else (except maybe the moron stuff). Phil Mickelson isn’t sitting with me on the driving range after a Pro-Am and helping me work on my game. It turns out, poker players are happy to give us their knowledge. We talk quite a bit about the ‘cut-throat’ nature of poker and how players are far more benevolent than people give them credit. Annie breaks poker down like a business -- would you spend a few hundred bucks on a nice dinner and a show? Well, people spend that money playing cards with pros. It’s entertainment for most. And you rarely leave a dinner table with more money than when you got there, but in poker, you get the entertainment and if you catch a few breaks, could leave with the talent’s money! It’s a far different mindset than the typical American athlete.

We’ll be doing this again, hopefully if the people at Blog World and Blogs with Balls let us, we’ll be there with an even bigger event next year.

For more information on Ante Up For Africa, visit their website. For more information on the crisis in Darfur and other places in just as dire straits, visit Refugees International.

And if you’re in the Los Angeles area and want to play in Annie’s event at the Commerce to benefit Decision Education Foundation on November 19th, check out their tournament. Talk about star studded.