Last Thursday November 14th, roughly 500 people gathered at City Winery New York to invest in mentorship and spend a night playing poker at our 15th annual Raising the Ante charity poker tournament. The tournament generated excitement and the competitive spirit of players, donors, supporters, and sponsors. We raised a record $811,000 including sponsorships, donations, rebuys, and silent auction bidding for the tournament. Thank you to everyone who came, played, donated, bid on the silent auction, and sponsored this year’s tournament.

Congratulations to Mark Roman, our Grand Prize winner who is on their way to the World Poker Tour Championship in Las Vegas, NV next month.

Rounding out the top 5 were:

2nd - Todd Greenbarg

3rd - Barry Reichgott

4th - Alex Randi

5th - Sara Casey

We’re grateful for the tireless work of our co-chairs Brian Beideman, Managing Director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Brian Foster, Partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, the Poker Committee and the StreetWise Board of Directors. It takes commitment and leadership to bring this tournament together and we're deeply grateful for the many years Todd Greenbarg has contributed both to StreetWise and this tournament. Thank you for putting on a phenomenal event and securing outstanding silent auction items such as a Taylor Swift autographed guitar, an incredible trip to the Master’s Golf Tournament in Augusta, GA, a Sea Island, Georgia getaway and the beautiful Rolex Submariner watch which was raffled and won by Hilary Gosher.

We thank our generous and committed sponsors, who are the strongest financial backers of the tournament, continually raising the ante year over year.

See you next year, when we‘ll aim even higher to support our vision to create the most diverse, empowered and capable workforce for today and tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy our new impact reel and more photos of the event in the gallery below.