As the year ends, here at the IPC it marked a sort of anniversary. While our birthday is officially in March, since that is when we hosted our first event back in 2010, December is our unofficial birthday since that is really when the seeds of what we intended to do in poker were sprinkled.

Our first birthday came and went by in a haze of post-event euphoria and pre-event prep. This time around we figured that we needed to do something different, something special to mark our second anniversary. And that’s when the idea of Poker for a Cause came up.

Let’s face it - we live in harsh times. For every one of us fortunate ones, there are plenty of others who barely get by. And so we thought of doing something to help out. Just a little bit. Without meaning to come off as contestants at a beauty pageant, we believe that the next generation, the younger generation, our children are the future. So IPC’s Poker for a Cause looks at providing a chance at bettering the lives of the not-so-fortunate kids.

The idea was to shoot a poker-themed calendar and sell them at our events. All proceeds would then be donated to worthy causes which focused on children and education. The proceeds amounted to Rs. 70,000 and was given to Childline 1098 and M.A.D.

Childline 1098 is the country's first toll-free tele-helpline for street children in distress. Its efforts are focused on the protection, rehabilitation and development of street children.

Make a Difference or M.A.D is an organization of young people working amongst orphans and other underprivileged kids to provide them with quality education.

When we decided to work on this idea, many people raised their hands to help out and we are extremely grateful to them for their generosity. These include the people who helped out with the calendar shoot and of course, our players, many of whom, bought multiple copies in order to contribute to our little cause.

A gigantic, huge, massive Thank You to all you folks from all of us here at the IPC.