let's hear the other side of the story shall we....
First off, United Cancer Alliance, which is the company that runs these events, has offices in 5 states, including North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, and Colorado and has been around for 3 years and has raised over $400,000 in that span. They are on many charity navigators including two of the largest in the world, Guidestar.org and Justgive.org and they are considered a Guidestar valued partner.
Second, they have been doing charity poker events for over a year and have partners such as Deepstacks, Bustout Poker, Neighborhood Poker Tour, ProPokerGear, BlueShark Optics, OffTilt Poker, and more. If the company was a scam in any way, they would not have such huge names sponsoring them, as they each did background checks before deciding to partner.
Third, in the past year, UCARE has hosted 6 different poker events, each growing bigger over time, and have brought on pros such as Michael Mizrachi, Chino Rheem, Jason Lee, Jennifer Leigh, Cris Belkewitch, and more as well as Radio shows, TV stations, and other celebs from MMA and TV. With this growth, many of the players that come to the events continue to come because they have won seats and prizes, such as our Durham Main Event winner Milan Dragic who won and played in the 2011 WSOP Main Event, and one of our Charlotte winners John Gonzalez, who took his $235 Circuit event seat win and cashed 12th in Biloxi for $2212. Every prize that we give away is donated to us and we have given away WSOP seats, Poker cruises from Ante Up, concert tickets from Live Nation, and more.
What happened here was that Live Nation gave us season tickets to give away to Verizon Wireless Ampiteatre in Charlotte, NC. We had tickets on hand for 7 of the concerts and were told by Live Nation that we would receive the remainder later in the season. He had his choice of concerts to go to, and he chose Kid Rock, which was one of the three tickets that we had not yet received. Live Nation never sent us the remaining tickets and we have been working to try to get reimbursed ourselves from them to reimburse the players that had not received them. One of those players played in our Richmond event for free to cover the tickets, another told us not to worry about it, and the last, Shaun, I told we would reimburse the ticket value if needed. It took us along time to work on the situation with Live Nation, and with everything else going on, I actually forgot about Shaun at one point, by accident. Since then, our accounting department assured me they would send Shaun a check to reimburse him, and I expressed to him that I was sorry for the long wait and to let me know when he received it. This morning, I received an email from him about this post.
United Cancer Alliance does everything it can to help those with cancer, my father is currently diagnosed with cancer as well, so I know the hardships firsthand that it causes, and we try to do everything we can to help those that need it. This company was built for all the right reasons, and I personally take offense to anyone calling it a scam, as I am sure the thousands of people we have helped would feel the same way.
Also, going on the point of bragging about the $42,000 raised in Richmond, not one time did I ever brag about that. If you check and see it is Short Stacked Radio, NPTN, Off-Tilt, Holiday inn, and others that posted and bragged about the money raised. I do not feel the need to brag about the money given out, and actually, as you can see through our 1099's I have taken less than $10k in the past 3 years to run this organization.
I run this charity, and these poker events, because of the difference we are able to make in the lives of those with cancer that need it, and will fight for this organization and those we help every hour of everyday if I have too.
Shaun, your reimbursement should have came, and if not, I will personally make sure it comes, and I understand your frustration, but I must honestly say, to post something like this and to try to hurt an organization that has done so much, because of a small prize that you haven't received, when I have responded to each and every email you have ever sent me, is upsetting to not only myself, but I am sure, those with cancer, to say the least.
These tournaments are put on so that people in the areas can have fun, win prizes, and help those in need, and nothing more. There is no private agenda to screw you or anyone out of the posted prizes, and as with anything, sometimes mistakes are made. We will correct yours and I do hope and pray that you can understand and more fully respect the big picture of what we do!!!