Every poker star seems to have a cause they want to support. And this month it’s Jennifer Harman’s turn to raise some funds for her charity by hosting a poker tournament. On April 18th she will host the second annual Jennifer Harman Charity Poker Tournament to support the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

Jennifer has been instrumental in improving the conditions for animals in Nevada. The $130,000 raised last year opened two new wings in the center, and this year’s profits will go towards environments without cages.

The recommended donation to participate in the tournament is $300 + $30. There will be $200 re-donations for additional tournament chips for the first three 20-minute rounds, and a $200 add-on. The first-place prize is a $10,000 seat into the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event. Visit  www.nevadaspca.org to reserve your seat in the tournament.

Randy Couture, the UFC heavyweight champion (aka “The Natural”) who recently resigned from Dana White’s hugely popular MMA organization, is set to host a charity poker tournament on January 12, 2008 at The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in (where else?) Las Vegas.

Jamie Gold, the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event winner, and Dean Cain, the actor who starred as Superman in the popular television series “Lois and Clark”, have signed on to be part of the field in “Operation All In”.

With a buy-in of only $550 “Operation All-In” is a No Limit Texas Hold’em event with a guaranteed prize pool. The goal? To raise money for the Xtreme Couture GI Foundation, a non-profit founded by Randy and Kim Couture to honor the veterans of America’s armed forces. Its goal is to raise money and awareness for those wounded in action and their families.

For more information on how to participate in this charity tournament or how to donate to Couture’s non-profit, please visit his website.

Howard Lederer and Crandall Addington are taking a different approach to the current political poker situation. They recently spoke at Harvard about the situation regarding poker in America. The meetings were organized by the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (GPSTS) with the goal of promoting poker as a valuable life-skill teaching tool. The organization will address issues that concern the game, like the trade dispute between the U.S. and Antigua.

The GPSTS has branches popping up at universities all over the country including Stanford, Brown, Tufts, Boston U, UCLA and USC. The group is also looking to establish a separate status for poker online. They feel that poker should be treated as a skill game like chess, and not a game of chance like blackjack or roulette. On November 10 they will examine the “educational utility of poker” featuring poker authors Mike Sexton and Jim McManus.

On November 5th, 2007, the Detroit Red Wings are sponsoring the first Hockeytown Hold’em Tournament at Motor City Casino. The NHL team is the latest to use poker as a fun way to raise money for their charity.

The Detroit Red Wings Foundation will be the benefactor for this event, which requires a $500 donation to enter. Team members Nicklas Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg and others will be playing in the event.

First prize will be a road trip to a game where you will travel with the team on the Wings’ Red Bird II. Second prize is a posh suite to a Wings’ home game, and third place gets game tickets and a meet and greet with some of the players. There will be a cocktail reception prior to the tournament where entrants can bid on playing next to team players. The pre-tournament party starts at 4:30 pm and the action will begin at 6:00 pm.

After successful events on the ocean floor, an Arctic chill in Finland and at 15,000 feet in the air above Vegas, the latest in “Extreme Poker” was played on a metal frame that was 90 metres in the air. Six players played a game above the Pacific Ocean with the winner getting into the Extreme Poker Final at St. Kitts in the Caribbean.

The fourth edition of the annual event was played in blustery conditions extended over the cliffs of Manly’s North Head, Australia, which is situated opposite Sydney’s Harbour Bridge. The eventual winner was Hugo Asenjo and he was the only player permitted to walk off of the platform.

Celebrity players like Phil Laak played in previous events but Extreme Poker got its participants from online qualifiers this time. The creator of Extreme Poker, Peter Marcus said, “Sydney will prove the most challenging poker game ever with endurance, ability and nerves all being put to the test.”