Lee Davy gives you a short update on the important milestones of 2014 for Raising for Effective Giving, a community of poker players interested in making an impact in the world.

As I write this, Steve O’ Dwyer, Bryn Kenney and Roger Sippl are locked in a battle to win the $1.8m first prize at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) $100,000 Super High Roller. Three men have each paid $100,000 for the privilege of playing cards and the winner will win $1.8m.

I think it was the great Winston Churchill who said, ‘We make a living by what we get.” And whoever gets that $1.8m will be making a quite wonderful living. But there was a second part to that Churchill quote. One that deserves a line all on its own.

“We make a life by what we give.”

The poker community generates a lot of money, and thanks to the likes of Philipp Gruissem, Igor Kurganov and Liv Boeree there is a way to turn a fantastic living, into a great life.

A year ago, that trio, helped create Raising for Effective Giving (REG). The beginning of a movement of poker players all sharing the same goal: to hand a percentage of their poker winnings to those less fortunate, and therefore make a positive change in the world.

Great men and women in the world don’t look for opportunities – they make them. It was T. Boone Pickens who said that all too often people tend to ‘Ready! Aim! Aim! – Nobody likes to fire!’ Well, Gruissem and the gang took action. They fired. And they have hit the jackpot.