On May 30^th at Nancy’s home, those most famous words that are music to a poker player’s ear were uttered once again to kick off our 10^th annual Happy House Fundraiser. “Shuffle Up and Deal!” Nancy called out…and the big tournament with nearly 200 players began!

This year was the same in many ways: cards, good friends, good food and great fun, but it was very different in many key ways from years past.

First, we focused this year entirely on the tournament and we didn’t do the parallel family fair. This simplified matters greatly and kept our attention on the fundraising aspects of the tourney. Probably not a surprise that this was our biggest poker tournament to date!

The differences didn’t stop there. We welcomed Budweiser are our first official beer sponsor and Rosie’s Barbeque brought in the most delicious roasted chicken, burgers and dogs! Man, was that delish!

LA Racing outdid itself with fantastic racing packages for everyone and Fox also stepped up as in year’s past. We had so many great sponsors – Jakks Pacific, the LAPD Air Support Division and the LA Clippers Foundation, Dave Meltzer and Affliction Watches just to name a few – and we encourage you to look over the information on our site and support these businesses large and small.

The biggest change was that we joined forces with LAPD Lt Mike Burditt and combined two tournaments into one. He was able to benefit his Relay for Life, American Cancer Society and we were able to help Happy House.

The big winner this year was Jay Powers who did a masterful job at the final table just edging out Bill Dederick and John Groce. The top three picked from a The Simpsons prize that included a Table Read, a Goodyear Blimp ride–courtesy of Daniel’s Tires–and a giant racing package from our friends at LA Racing.

But the real winners were the kids who will benefit from these funds and those facing the hard road of cancer.

Thank you one and all for your contributions and for having such a fun time.