Inspired by the graciousness of a US military veteran that just got knocked out of a poker tournament, Angela Jordison and Jacki Burkhart announced they will work to send vets to the World Series of Poker this summer.
Details about how to apply and what tournaments the vets will be playing in are coming Friday, but at least five people who served in the US military will get airfare, hotel stay, and a buy-in. CardsChat will update this story when those details are released.
Poker has been good to me so it’s time to give back! @jackiburkhart81 and I are going to be putting together free pkgs (buyin, hotel, airfare) for several veterans to play the Salute to Warriors tourney at the WSOP.
Our goal is to give out 5 packages.
More info coming soon.
— Angela Jordison (@Angelajordison) March 21, 2023
The lightbulb went off for Jordison while at the Mid-Stakes Poker Tour’s stop at Riverside Casino in Iowa earlier this week while playing with Ryan Mitchell, a veteran from Waterloo, Iowa. After hearing he served in the military, she offered to put him in the $500 Salute to Warriors event at the WSOP that takes place Sunday, June 25.
Burkhart heard about it and decided she wanted to help, so the two agreed to work with each other to send vets to this year’s WSOP. It’s not the first time the two sent vets to the WSOP. In 2019, they did a similar campaign and was able to send three vets to chase dreams at the WSOP in Las Vegas.
Jordison’s fantastic performance on the tournament trail last year won her the Global Poker Index Award for Breakout Player of the Year. She’s been playing mid-stakes tournaments for years, and spoke to CardsChat about wining three tourneys back-to-back-to-back in 2015.
Please share with any veterans who love poker and could use this opportunity https://t.co/8rRRHmgGUS
— Jacki Burkhart (@jackiburkhart81) March 22, 2023
Go Fund Me
After Jordinson posted her intentions on Twitter, she said she was flooded with messages asking how they can donate and help out. So Burkhart set up a Go Fund Me page with the initial goal of $10,000 and the two women seeded the pot with $1,500 each. It hit the stack of high society in a half-day, so the goal was increased to $15,000. It’s already approaching $14,000 thanks to more than 50 contributors.
To drop some money into this bucket, visit the page and click “donate now.”
The WSOP has held the $500 Salute to Warriors events since 2019, where $40 of every buy-in is donated to the United Service Organizations (USO) and other military charities. Since it started, $266,800 has been generated by players through 6,670 entries in three events (2020 was cancelled). Last year was the most successful one, with 3,209 entries collected.
The defending champion of this event, James Todd, won his first bracelet and $161,000 for taking it down last year.
