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Poker pro Dan Smith has achieved a lot as a player, accumulating more than $26 million in live tournament earnings over the past decade.
The 29-year-old has won major titles on the World Poker Tour and in super high roller events, but his greatest accomplishment might very well be the charity drive he founded in 2014. What started out as a personal commitment from Smith to match donations up to $25,000 in donations to the Humane League has grown to the point where the 2017 drive saw Smith, his growing list of collaborators and over 700 donors raise more than $4.5 million dollars for charity.
The fifth annual Double Up Drive is running from Nov. 27 through Dec. 29, and Smith and a group of poker and daily fantasy sports professionals have teamed up to match up to $1.29 million in donations to a group of 10 charities.
The organizations on the list were selected from a range of important issues with an emphasis on finding the most effective charities in order to maximize the impact of the money raised. Anyone interested in donating to any of the selected charities can send their receipt by email to receipts@doubleupdrive.com in order to have their donation matched.
In 2018 the 10 charities are:
- Malaria Consortium’s seasonal malaria chemoprevention program
- GiveDirectly
- Hellen Keller International’s Vitamin A Supplementation Program
- Grants to recommended charities at GiveWell’s discretion
- StrongMinds.org
- Massachusetts Bail Fund
- The Good Food Institute
- Animal Charity Evaluator Effective Animal Advocacy Fund
- Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI)
- REG Fund
More information on participating in the drive can be found at the Double Up Drive website or on Smith’s personal blog.
How The Double Up Drive Got Started
Smith came to the decision to do a charity matching drive while dealing with anxiety and depression, which arose despite Smith coming off of some of his most successful years as a professional poker player at the time.
“I just generally felt very disconnected and alone,” Smith told Card Player. “It is easy, in those dark times, to get caught up in negative patterns of thought. At that moment I was looking for a way to feel better, and while doing some reading on the subject I learned that the act of donating to charity is wonderful for your brain chemistry.”
'Having overcome some of these mental health issues, seeing the stark difference that I felt after receiving help with my problems, I was inspired to assist other people in need… to help them feel better.”
The first drive ended up raising $125,000. By the third year, Smith had decided to personally select the list of 10 charities for the matching drive, which raised more than $1.7 million. The fourth-year saw a total of 714 donors raise more than $4.5 million. This year Smith is hoping to grow that number even further, saying, “I’m hoping to hit 1,000 unique donors.”
Smith says his charity drive has helped him come to terms with his profession as a poker player. He felt that he might not be contributing much to society by trying to win money at a card game, until he realized all of the positive change he could bring about with the cash he won.
“When I was 18, I took my father with me to the Bahamas for my first big live tournament. While there, he had a heart attack and he passed away. As a result, I decided not to go back to that tournament series. So it was six or seven years later that I felt like I had really overcome my mental health issues and was no longer depressed.”
“At this time I noticed that every year the tournament schedule for the Bahamas series got better and better, to the point that I estimated that my expected value for playing the series would be around $40,000. In my research about charitable giving, I read a statistic that essentially estimates the cost of saving someone’s life to be around $3,000. If you follow that line of reasoning, I found myself thinking, ‘Of course I should put myself through some mild mental anguish so that 13 people will literally not die.’ It’s some pretty heavy stuff. I’ve gotten a little more comfortable prioritizing my own health and well being since then, but I believe, that as of right now, playing poker and doing this drive is the most impactful thing I could be doing for the world. That is a large motivator for me to keep going.”
Choosing The Charities
“It is no longer just a project I do on my own,” Smith notes. “The first two people that I teamed up with were the daily fantasy sports professional brothers, Tom and Martin Crowley. They are remarkably enthusiastic and big-hearted effective altruists. I believe that they think the way they can make the most impact on the world is by kicking butt at fantasy sports and using their winnings to donate to effective causes.”
Other participants in the matching of donations include Stephen Chidwick, Matt Ashton, daily fantasy sports pro Aaron Merchak and another poker pro who would prefer to remain anonymous. The matching group was looking to find effective organizations in a number of fields of need that they deemed particularly important.
“The best charities seem to be more impactful and better run,' said Smith. “So to me, choosing wisely with where I give may dramatically increase the effectiveness – it can make 5x or up to maybe even 20x the difference in the world per dollar.”
In order to help guide them in their decision making Smith turned to Give Well, a non-profit whose mission is to rate the efficiency of various charities and make it as easy as possible for people to donate confidently.
“Anyone who wants to get involved in this space and is worried about making poor decisions, if you were to blindly follow Give Well’s recommendations I feel that you can’t go wrong. It’s a wonderful and easy way to get involved,” said Smith. “Currently, most or perhaps all of Give Well’s top recommendations for charitable giving are in places like Uganda, Kenya or Rwanda. For instance, Give Directly gives money to literally the poorest people on the planet who are living off of about 65 cents a day. That just makes your donation just so much more impactful than if you were to give the same 65 cents to a person begging on the street in San Francisco, who wouldn’t be able to buy much of anything with that.”
Smith and his collaborators all agreed to include a few of the top-rated charities according to Give Well. Some of the contributors believe strongly in the importance of artificial intelligence safety, so two organizations having to do with that issue were included.
In the end, all it took for the matching group to come to an agreement on the final list of ten charities was a few discussions. “As far as divvying up more than a million dollars among ten charitable organizations goes, I think it all went pretty smoothly.”
Smith had been hoping for years to find a mental health charity that met his standards for efficiency, and this year he came across an organization called Strong Minds that organizes group therapy for depressed women in Uganda. After communicating directly with some of the founders of the organization, Smith pushed for it to be included in the list of ten charities. This campaign resulted in large part from Smith dealing with his own mental health issues, which is why finding an organization like Strong Minds meant so much to him.
“I think it is easy to think that mental health issues are a sign of weakness and that something is wrong with you. I kind of thought I was broken and doomed to be like that forever. I think that my issues weren’t nearly as rare as I thought they were. Two months ago I wrote a blog post about my issues with mental health. I believe that I come across as a very happy and successful person with everything going right, but I was hoping that people might see that even if things are going so well professionally, that it’s still possible for someone to have issues that they are working with on a daily basis.”
How You Can Help
The poker and daily fantasy sports communities have come together in recent years to help grow the Double Up Drive into what it is today. If you are interested in participating in 2018, remember that you have until Dec. 29 to do so.
Smith also had some final words for those who want to help but might be concerned that the amount they can feel comfortable contributing won’t make much difference in such a big drive.
“I want to clarify that any contribution is totally relevant. Since you can support somebody for as little as 65 cents a day, there really is no amount too small,” said Smith. “In a non-financial way, helping to spread the news is greatly appreciated. If every person who reads this article forwards the blog to somebody who might be a good fit, I think the chances of me meeting the person who helps me take the project to the next level go up exponentially.”
You can find more information about donating on the Double Up Drive website.
Freeroll tournaments are very popular amongst online players who do not want to make a deposit into their poker accounts. If you play well, it is indeed very possible to start a successful poker bankroll through simply playing in freerolls
All you have to do is place in a few of these freeroll tournaments, build up a small sum of money and head to the cash tables.
If you invest time and effort with good bankroll management skills, there is no reason why you cannot set yourself up with a decent online bankroll to play with.
Freeroll tournaments can be tricky.
Due to the popularity of freerolls, you will often find yourself sitting in a tournament with thousands of players hoping to get a slice of the prize pool to add to their own accounts.
A large number of these players will be there to see how far they can ride their luck; pushing in on any random hands without even attempting to play some 'real poker'. Initiating an online bankroll through freerolls can be a tedious affair, therefore I have compiled these top 5 tips for winning money from online poker freerolls.
Freeroll tournament tips.
1] Be prepared to accept losses.
As negative as it sounds, you really have to be prepared to lose when playing in freerolls. The best player in the world will have trouble placing well in any of these freerolls because luck plays so much more of a factor than in any other tournament. If you focus too much on expecting to win, you will only be more disappointed and frustrated when you end up getting sucked out on for all your chips.
The best formula for online, freerolls is to play well, and get lucky. You can't control luck, but you can improve your chances of winning by playing lots of freeroll tournaments.
2] Play a lot of freerolls and play them well.
As mentioned above, we cannot expect to place well in all of the freerolls that we play in. By playing in more freerolls we are giving ourselves a better chance to finish in the money.
You can increase the number of freerolls available to you by signing up at a number of different poker rooms. Almost all rooms offer freerolls, and they are happy for you to sign up just to play in them. So now not only do we have to play well and be lucky, but we also have to play often.
3] Sit tight at the start.
The start of an online, freeroll is always a bit of a frenzy. The luck riders will be straight into action, pushing all their chips in the middle with any two cards hoping for the quick double up at the start. This usually results in a rapid decrease in the number of players and you will find a few players sitting with monster stack sizes compared to the rest of the field.
This is only natural, so don't think that you should have a large stack size like theirs to stand a chance of winning. Just sit tight wait for the good hands, and wait for your turn to double up. Do not be phased if you end up busting out early, just forget about it and head onto the next one, it's probably only around the corner.
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4] Look out for the players sitting out.
If you look around the table at a freeroll, you should notice that some of the players are sitting out and not playing in any of the hands. This is because they have signed up for the tournament, but have not turned up to play in it. This means that their blinds will be up for grabs for anyone who decides to raise pre-flop and doesn't come up against an opponent that is actually playing in the tournament.
Keep your eye out for the players who are sitting out, so that you can raise and take their blinds when you feel that you will not come up against any resistance from an actual player. Make sure that you pick your spots carefully, and try not to get into any heavy contests with any of your opponents for these free blinds.
5] Be aware of when the dynamics change.
As already mentioned, the start of a freeroll will be a complete frenzy. Players will be dropping out at a rapid rate and it seems like you will be in the money in no time. But you should realize that this pace will not be sustained throughout the tournament, and as the numbers decrease, the skill will increase.
Great tournament players are able to quickly identify and adapt to changes in the game.
As the luck riders drop out you will be left with opponents that have more of an idea of what they are doing, and they will now have their eyes on the money positions. This means you can play more tactically, and use a few more plays that you couldn't have used at the start, because these players will now actually be able to fold their hands. So be aware of when the transition from luck to poker starts to take place, because it will be time to change gears.
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Freeroll tournament tips evaluation.
These tips should prove useful for when you decide to play in your next freeroll. One key point that I feel I should highlight once more is the fact that you are going to lose far more of the freerolls you play in than win. Do not be disappointed if you have a long run of losses and come close to winning but fall at the final hurdle.
Try to have as much fun as you can playing in these freerolls and one day you will end up walking away with that initial sum of money in your account. After all, what have you got to lose?
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