Canadian lawyer plays poker for Cambodian charity

Not long ago InfoPowa highlighted the good works of American professional online poker pro Dusty 'Leatherass' Schmidt, who has riased subtantial funds playing poker for the Transition Project - a charity in Portland. Schmidt is one of a growing number of pokerheads with big hearts who raise money for the less fortunate; Don Cheadle and Annie Duke with their Ante Up for Africa campaign is another great example of what the game can achieve in helping others.

This week we focus on a talented woman player from Toronto who donates a portion of her winnings in major tournaments to charity. Elizabeth Bennett-Martin's latest project is to play in the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure, winning enough to donate a significant amount to the Cambodian Legal Education for Women project started by the Toronto law firm Bennett Gastle P.C in which she is a partner.

The focus of the charity is to provide educational assistance and living expenses to help young women in Cambodia attend law school, and escape a life of poverty. The charity helps women who live in extremely deprived, cramped conditions, sleeping on mats on a bare floor, and will assist in improving dormitory conditions - the accommodation has no furniture or cooking facilities, other than hot plates.

The project aims to improve the possibilities for these woman by helping them to become lawyers in a country where legal help is extremely rare (in 2009 there were only 538 lawyers for a population of over 14 million people).

Last year Bennett-Martin was one of only 14 women in the entire PCA tournament and one of a mere seven female online qualifiers. She won a $24 satellite to compete against a field of 1,347 players and picked up $40,000 for a 25th place finish. This year she plans to improve on her performance and raise more cash, and has again secured a place through an online satellite.

In addition to earmarking a portion of any winnings in the PCA main event for charity, Bennett-Martin intends to compete in the inaugural PCA Ladies Event, and will donate all winnings to the charity if she is successful.

Source: InfoPowa News