GGPoker Creates Charity Tournament After Drea Renee Family Tragedy

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Sep 22, 2021 2 min read

GGPoker is to host a special charity tournament on September 23 to raise money for the family of poker reporter and host Drea Renee.

Renee’s 35-year-old sister, Audrey Gray, passed away on September 10 following COVID-19-related complications, according to the GoFundMe page set up in her name. The family has been left with medical bills, and funeral costs during what is an extremely difficult time.

Furthermore, the GoFundMe page revealed the heartbreaking news that Gray leaves behind four young children: Nijeria (7 years old), Vincent Jr. (9), Zyaire (10), and Kenya (14).

The GoFundMe page had a $25,000 target, with plans to use the money for the bills mentioned above, with the remainder being used to help Gray’s four children. It took less than 16 hours to reach the target thanks to generous donations from prominent poker players including Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Maria Ho, Vanessa Kade, Jason Koon, and Erik Seidel.

The page is no longer accepting donations; it closed having raised $35,364.

Seidel sent a tweet asking if it was possible for GGPoker, PokerStars or partypoker to host a tournament that would give support to the bereaved family.

GGPoker has stepped in and created a Beat the Pros Charity Special tournament, scheduled to shuffle up and deals at 8:00 p.m. CET on September 23. The charity tournament costs $50 to buy into and has unlimited re-entries for the first 14 levels, which each last ten minutes.

Several members of TeamGG along with scores of prominent poker players are expected to hit the GGPoker tables and help raise money for this very worthy cause. GGPoker is donating 25% of the overall prize pool to Renee’s family, so expect fast and loose action and, hopefully, plenty of re-entries.

PokerNews sends its sincere condolences to Renee and her family at this extremely upsetting time.

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.

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