Cheyenne Woods And Danielle Kang Among Golfers In Charity Poker Tournament

With bleachers gathering dust and tumbleweeds blowing through stadiums, sports channels have taken to broadcasting an endless cycle of games of yore.  But halted seasons have also inspired the major sports leagues to get more creative. 

We have NASCAR drivers burning virtual rubber and competing on the iRacing Pro Invitational Series, NBA and WNBA players video-conferencing each other to wage televised H-O-R-S-E battles while thousands of miles apart, and tennis stars and fans batting balls back and forth in backyards for the  #100VolleyChallenge. Meanwhile golfers have been keeping fit waging Peleton metric battles against each other. But tomorrow golf fans will be able to catch a full tournament field worth of golfers keeping their wits sharp in a game of Texas Hold’em.

Dozens of tour pros will play their cards close to their vest in the “Chipping All-In” charity poker tournament presented by MGM Resorts, Loaded, and the World Poker Tour. It will be broadcast on Twitch and YouTube tomorrow at 3 p.m. ET. The event benefits the MGM Resorts Foundation’s Employee Emergency Grant Fund which provides short-term financial relief to resort employees impacted by COVID-19.

The event features a stacked deck of dozens of golf stars including Michelle Wie, John Daly, Kevin Na, Jimmy Walker and Lydia Ko.  Viewers can make real-time donations during the card flipping action and the players will acknowledge fans who donate with shout-outs. To make the streamed proceedings more engaging, mics and cameras will be on so the players can interact while the cards fly.

When Cheyenne Woods, Tiger’s 29-year-old niece, first heard of the concept for the tournament, she knew she wanted in right away. “I did. I thought number one, it’s for a great cause. I’ve done a lot of events with MGM and I love their resorts, and being able to visit their hotels and golf courses.”

“I’m not a poker player but I’m more than willing to learn and I think it’s a fun type of event to interact with other golfers and play a fun game,” she adds.

Golf fans, who have been pretty starved for fresh tournament coverage of late, will be excited to see their favorites in action and while they won’t be on grass, at least the virtual felt will presumably be green.

“We are all having a little bit of withdrawal and missing sports right now.  To see some of your favorite golfers interacting and competing, maybe not on the golf course, but in a different way is exciting. Anything that can get us all together to give the fans something to watch and be entertained with I think is a good thing,” says Woods.

In the last few days she has been picking up the game and practicing in order to get ready for a tourney that she thinks could be anyone’s to win. As part of her training regiment Woods has been fine tuning her poker face. “You know what, there will be video streaming, so I think I’ll be bluffing a lot—but don’t tell anyone.”

Also in the mix will be Danielle Kang, a three-time LPGA Tour winner and Las Vegas resident, who sees many parallels between golf and poker.

“The gambling side of golf co-relates to poker in that you have to take chances. Sometimes when pins are tough you have to think of the probability of a missed shot, and what kind of shot you’re going to have to produce depending on the yardage,” explains Kang.

“In poker you have to think about what card is going to come up next, depending on what kind of hand you already have, and you don’t know what opponent is going to do. I don’t think it is mostly skill, I think it’s mostly about understanding the unknown.”

Kang’s no poker pro, but she did play quite a bit growing up with her brother Alex Kang, who is also playing in the tournament, and his buddies. Her boyfriend Maverick McNealy is also in the field but he shouldn’t present much of a challenge, as according to Kang he has never played poker.