Winding down after a busy Christmas day, I watched TV last night and saw an interesting story on Poker2Nite. The story revolved around 23 year old Thuy Doan, an up-and-coming cash poker player. Thuy announced in September that she had cancer. Since then she has lost her hair as a result of the treatment.
The story was about the Poker Pros and other well-known poker-world-related figures (like poker tournament reporter/photographer BJ Nemeth) who stepped forward to show solidarity by shaving their heads. December 15, 2009, supporters met at Phil Ivey’s home. In all, 16 shaved their heads. Among them Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, Doyle Brunson, Eli Elezra, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Joe Sebok, and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier.
How it went down…
To add some “gamble” and fun to the event, they decided to split into two teams; the Red team and the Black team. Then Thuy drew a card from a deck. The team whose color was on the card had to get their heads shaved and the other team’s members did not.
So what happened?
Poker Pros have big hearts…In the end, they all shaved their heads.
Thuy wrote about the head-shaving event in her blog on PokerRoad:
“It started a few weeks ago when Barry Greenstein called and asked me to come to Vegas. He was holding a head shaving as a show of support for my battle against cancer and resulting baldness. It sounded like a fun event, which it was, but I didn’t know what to expect. Never did I imagine the incredible turnout, outpouring of love, and level of compassion displayed by everyone there. It was a truly memorable night. A huge thank you goes out to Barry for organizing the event, Phil for letting us use his palace, the barbers from Presidential Shave, everyone who showed up, and all the positive messages in the forums.”
Watch the Thuy Doan Story on Poker2Nite. (On left, choose Episode 6, Part 3. It is the last story in that snippet.)
Watch Barry Greenstein being interviewed about the head-shaving event on CardPlayer.
- Follow Thuy Doan on Twitter @RealThuyDoan
- Follow Thuy’s progress on her blog
- Poker2Nite can be seen Wednesday nights on FSN
- Follow Poker2Nite on Twitter @Poker2Nite