Anatoly Filatov is on quite a run over the last couple of months. The Russian pro finished in fourth place in the GGPoker $25,000 Super High Roller Championship last month to earn a $555,720 payday. On September 21, Filatov won the $10,300 Super MILLION$ Main Event on GGPoker for the biggest online cash of his career of $1,193,332 and a WSOP circuit ring. His recent success has pushed him over $12.5 million in career online tournament earnings.
Filatov’s hot streak continued when he won the GGPoker Beat the Pros charity tournament that was held on September 23 to raise money for the Audrey Gray Memorial. Audrey Gray passed away earlier this month due to COVID-19 complications. Her sister, Drea Renee, is a well-respected poker reporter and personality in the poker world. The poker community raised $35,364 for Renee’s family in a GoFundMe campaign, and helped to make this charity tournament a reality.
GGPoker set a guaranteed prize pool of $20,000 for the event. The $50 buy-in tournament put aside 25% ($12.50) of each entry to donate to the Audrey Gray Memorial. With 536 total entries, the tournament exceeded its guarantee and generated a total prize pool of $26,800. This translated to a $6,700 donation to the funds that will go towards Renee’s family and specifically to Gray’s four young children.
This would have been considered a successful fundraising effort based solely on the money raised from the prize pool. But it became even more successful when Anatoly Filatov donated his entire first place prize of $3,312.49 to the cause as well. Filatov’s generous donation brought the total amount raised up to $10,012.49.
Drea Renee once again expressed her gratitude to the poker community in a tweet sent on September 25. “I’m in such gratitude to everyone in the poker community who came together to support my family,” Renee said. “Thank you so so much! I know my sister Audrey is smiling from above.”
In combination with the $35,364 raised in the initial GoFundMe campaign, this donation from GGPoker and Anatoly Filatov brings the total amount raised up to $45,376.49. Major props go to Filatov for playing in this event with the sole purpose of donating his winnings just two days after his huge seven-figure score in the Super MILLION$ Main Event. The tournament may have been called “Beat the Pros”, but Filatov was one pro that the rest of the field could not beat.
Featured Image Credit: Twitter - GGPoker
