Former poker pro Liv Boeree is rightfully hogging the limelight after she broke the tournament record for the largest tournament cash by a woman, locking up $2.8 million in December. Now, more than $500,000 going straight to piggy welfare!
The generous donation comes after Boeree read a story about the cruel conditions of factory-farmed pigs in the US. She chanced upon it just days before she entered the WSOP Paradise $25,000 buy-in Super Main Event, which boasted a record-breaking $50 million guarantee.
On Day 1, she made a pinky (or should we say, piggy) promise that she’d donate 20% of any winnings to her porky pals – then secured the biggest tournament score of any woman, ever.
Previously, the highest tournament cash from a female was Wenling Gao’s second-place finish at the 2020 GGPoker WSOP Online Main Event for $2,748,605.
Boeree considers herself a “former” pro, and only plays the odd tournament here and there. In this case, she was convinced to join the inaugural WSOP Paradise Super Main Event by an old friend. What a shout.
Previous Charity Work
Boeree has a history of making big and continuous donations to charitable events. She and her husband, fellow pro Igor Kurganov, founded their own charity called Raising for Effective Giving – or REG, a reference to poker pros.
In contrast to the emotional appeal of most charities, REG aims to be rational and objective, using donations as practically as possible. For instance, by comparing the cost of saving a life in the US versus one in a country afflicted by life-threatening malaria. Their goal is to appeal to poker minds.
Her latest donation will focus specifically on the conditions of factory-farmed pigs. These animals are kept in confined spaces and often spend their entire lives without the freedom to move around and interact with other swine.
This clearly struck a cord with Boeree, who visited Pig Island in the Bahamas in 2019 after having it on her bucket list for nearly a decade. So, after racking up such a significant win for our four-legged friends, will we be seeing Boeree playing at real-money online poker sites in the near future?
Boeree to Go Pro Again?
In Liv Boeree’s blog, she spoke openly and honestly about how she fell out of love with the game.
“Modern poker is far harder than it used to be.” she wrote. “Not a bad thing per se, but the long hours of dry clinical study didn’t exactly suit someone already on the verge of burn-out. Plus, these solvers democratized the strategies that had once set pros from the amateurs, taking away more and more of my edge.
“I was so in need of being seen as a ‘pro’ to other people, to be respected and feared as a player, that identity had become like a black hole that consumed any playfulness I had once felt when sitting down at a table. By the end, a mere mention of poker would create a negative visceral reaction in my body.”
She then speaks about how much fun she had at the Super Main Event, and the power of manifesting a win – before answering the question on everyone’s lips.
“As for poker, I’m not going back to being a pro any time soon, at least not in the old sense. But I’m [sic] definitely got a new love for the game again, and would like to gather some more data points, so I’ll probably play a few more tournaments this coming year.”