A No-win Game of Poker

I already posted the beginning of this story on Pokertips, but I wanted to provide a little closure as well. Here is an e-mail that I sent to Phil this morning:

Phil,

This is XA_kid with whom you played heads up for about 40 hands at
30/60 on Full Tilt Poker on 4/6. I also met you before at the Howard
Lederer Poker Camp a year earlier. I was the guy who won the WSOP
entry tournament and had the shorter speech at the dinner.

I wanted to apologize for leaving but I couldn't in good conscience
play against a guy who was donating his winnings to charity. While
you might have the overall edge, I had developed a game plan at that
point which combined with the swings of heads up Limit play had at
least a decent chance of winning. I had toyed with the idea of
donating what I won to the same charity, but the real winner would be
Full Tilt through the rake and I would much rather donate in person,
which I plan to do.

As I said when we played, I do appreciate the charity work you do
(and all of the poker pros who do it). How much did you end up for
the night in you don't mind me asking? If you were to play a
short-handed table, I would join you in donating at least some of my
winnings to charity. Then I could avoid the conscience issue and it
would be less volatile.

Sincerely,

My Name Withheld

I just got a response from him:

I won $2000 last night. Thanks for your contribution
to a very worthwhile cause. I could tell that you knew
what you were doing, and as you know heads up is an
extremely volatile game with big swings. To me, it is
the purest form of poker.

It is really amazing the "bad" players that sit down to
play against me heads up... in the last month, I'm up
nearly $20k in 30-60 heads up for the charity... Definitely
looking forward to making a very sizable donation!

Best of luck and see you at the WSOP.

Phil Gordon

I think that sums it up quite nicely.