Brooks shows charitable side at WSOP
June 11, 2008
In a week of poker which has seen well over a dozen bracelets handed out largely to some of the world’s best professional players, it’s refreshing that an amateur has made his mark on the World Series of Poker for more than just the usual reasons.
Eric Brooks, a 48 year old unknown from Pennsylvania, was just one of 158 players who entered event number 14, the Seven-Card Stud World Championship in Vegas. He had never cashed in any poker tour but found himself beating the entire field which consisted of Erik Seidel, Alexander Kostritsyn and Minh Ly.
He then donated his first prize of $415,856 to the Decision Education Foundation of which he is a board member.
“We’ve had a lot of success with it so far,” Brooks said after his stunning victory. “Being able to add another $400,000 to it and what they’re doing is going to be pretty big.”
“Essentially what we do is we take the science of decision making, which is something that’s university level, college course work, and (teach the basic principles to grades) K-12 around the country” he explained. “It’s an organization that I really believe in,”
Brooks had initially sat down at the final table in sixth place and didn’t particularly like his chances of success:
“I guess all of us went home last night and thought about winning,” he admiited. “But realistically, these are all really good players. You have to get lucky three days in the row, for sure, to win.”
Call it luck or call it ability, but Brooks was able to build his stack as more and more of his illustrious opponents went to the rail.
He ended up facing Fu Wong in the heads up play with a slight chip lead but managed to wipe him out when his flush rolled over Wong’s two pair in what proved to be the final hand of the tournament. Wong finished in second place and took home a cheque for $259,910.
While Brooks was happy to give up his cheque for charity, he was more than glad to get his hands on the first gold bracelet of his career.
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