For the third year in a row Silicon Valley “Tech Titans” took on poker pros and came away victorious at the WPT Foundation SVEN Silicon Valley Poker Charity Challenge. This year it was Google/YouTube Executive Shishir Mehrotra who faced down an impressive field of well-known names from the poker world and a heads-up battle with Nancy Albertini, President of Albertini Group, to claim the title. No winnings were paid out as all funds collected – estimated to be about $35,000 – are donated to a worthy cause, with this year’s recipient being the Computer History Museum, who also hosted the event.
The list of participants at last night’s event read like a who’s who of some of Silicon Valley’s largest companies, including Cisco, Google, M3 Automation, IVP, Box, Saunders Holdings, Intel, SpreeCast, Appensure, Square, Sutter Hill Ventures, Optimal, Inc., WilmerHale and Crossview. The list of poker pros was no less impressive – with poker pro Dan O’Brien reaching the final table – and included Joe Serock, WPT Season XI Ones to Watch Jason Sommerville and Amanda Musumeci, Alex Phahurat, Noah Schwartz, WSOP Main Event Champion Jonathan Duhamel, Byron Kaverman, Jonathan Little, Shannon Shorr, Tommy Vedes, Faraz Jaka and Dan Fleyshman.
WPT Host Mike Sexton served as emcee for the evening with the WPT Royal Flush Girls also in attendance. World Poker Tour cameras were on hand to capture the action for the upcoming Season XI WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star episodes that will air starting June 30 at 8pm and 11pm local time on Sunday nights on FSN.
