Cancer and poker:
Not exactly two words you'd expect to find in the same sentence. But in this month's Cancer Connection we introduce you to a national poker celebrity, who's willing to bet the game he loves, will play a role in winning the cancer battle.

When you're playing poker and you get a handful of cards known as a bad beat, it's like it sounds: not good news. It means all of a sudden you go from doing really well, to being really far behind.

Well poker celebrity, Phil Gordon, uses it to put poker fans in the mindset that, just like coming back from a really bad hand, they can be just as excited about beating a disease that's left so many of us, including Gordon himself, feeling hopeless.

"...you name it. We played it. And she never let me win," said Gordon.

It makes Gordon, who by the way is one of the best professional poker players in the world, laugh to think of how his aunt Lib always beat him.

"She was better for most of my life," said Gordon.

Lib was the lady who taught him how to play. She never let him win. Even during one of the final times he visited her in the hospital, she showed no mercy.

"We played for our standard two or three bucks. And she busted me. And howled at all the nurses how this champion poker player comes in. Can't even beat an 80-year-old woman on her death bed," said Gordon.

A week later liver cancer took Gordon's aunt. That's when, as suddenly as those great card moves just come to him, so did a cause.

"When she died of cancer the day I won my first World Poker Tournament, I said this has got to be it," said Gordon.

"About 90-95 percent of this room knows someone in their family or friend that's been affected by cancer," said Gordon to a conference room full of people.

It's not exactly what you'd expect to hear at a poker seminar.

But six years later, as Gordon teaches how to play a better game, he's also the Prevent Cancer Foundation's national spokesperson.

"In order to get to the poker part of the seminar, you've got to hear a little cancer messaging first," said Gordon.

Once the playing begins, Gordon goes beyond his message.

Instead of asking for cash donations, he only asks the players who win to pledge one percent of that money toward cancer research.

"A lot of the poker players who have pledged call it buying Karma. If they pledge one percent they think they'll get a little more lucky," said Gordon.

With the help of fellow Poker World Star and best buddy Rafe Furst, Aunt Lib is living on.

"It's a win, win. If I win and I'm pledging one percent, we all win," said Furst.

"You know, I think the number one quality I think you have to have to

be a great player is be aggressive. And we're certainly being aggressive in our approach to prevention and treatment of cancer," said Gordon.

This story did not happen in Las Vegas.
The seminar and tournament were held right here in Anchorage, during Fur Rondy, thanks to the Alaska Poker Association's Dixie Haas.

Her own cancer connections--cancer taking her father and niece--made her push these guys for the last three years to bring their program up here.

CBS 11 News is happy to report the event raised more than their 25,000-dollar goal. All the money goes to cancer research.

To contact Matthew, call 907-273-3186.