On Wednesday, July 6, Georgetown resident Pamela Cooksey fulfilled a lifelong dream thanks to her friends in the Georgetown and poker community.
Cooksey, who is battling cancer for the second time, is an avid poker player and also works for Kontenders Poker League of Texas and the Georgetown Poker Club. During this difficult time and following some discouraging news from doctors, John Montgomery and his business partners at the Georgetown Poker Club and Kontenders Poker League of Texas, decided to do something to help uplift and encourage her.
“Pam is just a really good person, a really good friend,” John Montgomery, owner of Georgetown Poker Club and the Kontenders Poker League of Texas, told Hello Georgetown. “Pam is the first person to step up and do a benefit if somebody needs help, and so obviously she wouldn’t do it for herself, and so I was like, ‘Why don’t we do a poker benefit?'”
While planning the benefit, Montgomery and his friends had an additional idea.
“I was talking to one of the other co-owners, Jen and Drew, and I [said] ‘You know what would be really cool, if we could send Pam to the Main Event to go play,’ because that’s every poker player’s dream, is to go play in the World Series of Poker Main Event, and so, [Jen] said, ‘Well, maybe we can.'”
The Main Event at the World Series of Poker is considered to be the holy grail of the industry, Montgomery said. With a buy-in of $10,000, the friends knew it would take a community to raise the funds, but within literal hours, fellow poker players came together and raised enough for the buy-in and travel expenses.
“John gave me a call and he said he had to talk to me immediately, it was time sensitive,” Pamela Cooksey told Hello Georgetown. “He said, ‘Go ahead and put this on speaker,’ and John says, ‘Pam, we love you, and on behalf of the Georgetown Poker Club, RGS United and Poker Bros, we got together and we’re sending you to play in the Main Event for the World Series of Poker…I was sobbing.”
They also booked a coaching session with pro poker player Farid Jattin, who has won over 6 million dollars playing poker.
“One of the things that [Jattin] stressed to me twice that I kind of took to heart…was, he told me not to play to not lose, to play to win,” Cooksey said. ” I was not there to just fold cards, I was there to play poker, not to see how long I could go, just folding hand after hand, and that made me not as timid as normally I would.”
Overall, Cooksey said, the experience was incredible to be one of over 8,000 people competing in the World Series of Poker, sitting amongst poker legends and celebrities, playing a game that means so much to her.
“Poker’s kind of my world,” Cooksey said. “It is the game that I love, that I respect, that I think anybody can play and enjoy at any skill level… as far as my poker family, they’re my world. These people have done so much for me, just in being my friends, and being people that I can look up to and admire. They’re amazing. I would be nowhere without these people and my poker family. They have been with me on this journey and they have been there from the sidelines to encourage me to keep going, and I love them for everything.”
The experience has inspired her friends to make this an annual tradition named in Cooksey’s honor, helping deserving individuals get to the Main Event each year.
“It is just the most fulfilling thing that we can do, just giving back.,” Andrew Abad, co-owner of Georgetown Poker Club, told Hello Georgetown. “Making someone’s life a little bit better in what aspects you can. So, we’re definitely looking forward to doing more and more of this, and make it a tradition.”
The World Series of Poker may be over, but Cooksey’s friends say they aren’t done supporting her. Even before they hatched a plan to get her in the Main Event, they’d planned a benefit tournament for July 16th that they will still be holding to help support Cooksey’s life expenses and medical bills as she continues to battle cancer.
“The benefit we’re doing is going to be a poker tournament where half the money goes to the prize pool, half the money goes to her benefit,” Montgomery said. “We have t-shirts for sale, there’s gonna be a silent auction, we’re gonna have barbecue plates for sale, and we’re gonna have a pit out there cooking barbecue as well as a lot of people bringing sides and desserts, and stuff like that.”
Montgomery said they are still accepting items for the silent auction. Donations for the silent auction and for the benefit can be dropped off at the Georgetown Poker Club during business hours.
“I just want to thank everybody, that was part of the raising aspect of it, everybody who donated towards the cause and thank everyone in advance that is gonna participate in the event we have coming up on July 16th,” Abad said. “Thank you so much for all the support and we appreciate it.”
The poker benefit will take place on Saturday, July 16th at the Georgetown Poker Club starting at 2 PM. Learn more about the event by clicking here.
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