Jerry Yang has sunshine on his face as he drives his car up I-80 into Reno to play in the World Poker Tour World Poker Challenge. Everyone in the poker worlds knows, or at least could imagine, how his life has changed since winning $8.2 million and the World Series of Poker main event bracelet last July, and it’s as good as it gets.
Yang and his wife no longer work and are able to spend days at home with their children. Yang has played in the occasional big buy-in tourney and has spent a good portion of his time keeping the promise he made to both God and the people of America through the cameras of ESPN when he pledged to donate 10 percent of his winnings to charitable causes. That goes for all his future poker winnings.
On Saturday, March 29, Yang will be in Long Beach to help distribute 10 truckloads of food, hygiene products, toys, and dry goods to Southern California families in need. Yang is working with the international hunger relief organization Feed the Children to make this happen. It’s costing him $72,000. Washington Redskins safety Omar Stoutmire and Founder and President of Feed the Children Larry Jones will also be there helping distribute the products that will aid about 4,000 families.
“It’s going to be a great honor and a great privilege to be walking hand in hand with them and Feed the Children. I just can’t wait,” said Yang.
Yang first gave money to Feed the Children after seeing a TV commercial featuring Jones while in graduate school. Here’s how Yang described it:
“In about 1991 or 1992, I saw Feed the Children on TV. I was only a graduate student then. I didn’t have much money, but I sent $30 to Larry Jones and I wrote a note to him and said ‘I’m only a graduate student, I don’t have a lot of money, but this is all I can afford at this time. Hopefully, in the future, I can help for more. He was very gracious and he wrote back to me. It said, ‘Jerry, it is because of people like you that we can help some of the poorest kids in America.’ So, that has stuck in my mind all of these years.”
So, Yang again contacted Feed the Children (he’s donated to them a few times after his initial gift) and told them he wanted to do something a bit more substantial than the $30 sent years ago. He told Feed the Children to decide what to do with the donation, and they said there’s a great need in Yang’s home state of California, and they made it happen.
Yang has already given more than $1 million of his WSOP payday away. Both the Make-a-Wish Foundation and the Ronald McDonald House have received checks for $275,000, and he said he’s given money to his church, the social agency that he used to work for, as well as family members still in Laos where he grew up poor. The Make-a-Wish Foundation will also benefit from a poker tournament Yang is headlining in Fresno, California, next month.
Besides his strong faith in God, his upbringing has a lot to do with why Yang believes in being charitable so much.
“I know what it’s like to be poor. I remember that, as a young boy, I would try to be the first in to get ahold of that pig’s bladder to blow into a soccer ball and play with my buddies. My life has changed tremendously. I won more than $8 million. I don’t need all of that $8 million,” Yang says. “Even after taxes, I have enough to help my family. But at the same time, I want be able to give something back to the community, and there are a lot of people out there that need more than me. To be able to give back, it’s actually a great honor and a great privilege.”
Yang, of course, isn’t the first poker player to give large amounts to charity. Barry Greenstein donates a large portion of his tournament poker winnings, sometimes even giving up the entire purse. Phil Ivey recently donated $50,000 to the local Las Vegas Christian academy Empowered 2 Excel after winning the L.A. Poker Classic. He also recently announced the formation of The Budding Ivey Foundation, a non-profit organization that will be used to collect and distribute funds to charities and schools.
Tuan Lam, the 2007 WSOP main event runner-up to Yang, is helping build a temple in Vietnam, joining Men Nguyen and many other Vietnamese players who send money back to their homeland on a regular basis.
Jennifer Harman works closely with the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Phil Hellmuth has helped raise money for fallen police officers, joining a long list of professional players who help promote, show up, sponsor, and play in charity poker tournaments across the country. These are just a few examples of many.
Yes, Yang knows how fortunate he is to have won all of the money and popularity that comes with a WSOP main-event title. His life is fantastic. You could hear it in his voice when he talks about how good it makes him feel inside to be able to give on such a larger scale than in the past. It’s his absolute pleasure.
Yang will be at the Foodbank of Southern California, located at 1444 San Fransico Ave. in Long Beach, California, at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 29.
