European Poker Lifetime Achievement Award

Dear Liam, Bruno, and Thomas....

First of all, congratulations to the
three of you for being shortlisted for the Lifetime Achievement Award of
the European Poker Awards. You must all be chuffed at being honored
thusly, and I believe it is not only well deserved, but also inevitable
that all three of you will eventually see your place on that roster.

I am writing you because it has come to my attention that despite the
best efforts on your part to see Rob Gardner also honored this way, he
was inexplicably left off of the final shortlist, even though he had
your full support.

A lot of people can't understand how this could have happened, and
quite frankly this startling omission would appear to have devalued the
award. I'm sure none of you would want to win it under these
circumstances. I know that each of you was personally touched and assisted by Rob
in the early days of televised poker, and I feel you would agree that
whether or not Rob should win the award this year, he certainly deserves
to be shortlisted. All of you have given much to the poker world and
gotten even more in return, but Rob is one of the few people who gave
everything over the last eight years and got little in return only to
have his life tragically taken away at an early age. He was first and
foremost an unabashed supporter of the poker community, it's future, and
it's personalities, as I know you can all attest.

In order to prevent the inevitable backlash that will come from many
corners of the poker community when it transpires that Rob was not even
shortlisted this year, I would like to suggest that it would be a
wonderful gesture that you all agree to add Rob's name to the shortlist in
order that a revote may be taken. I'm sure none of you would want to win
the award any other way, and the poker community will be assuaged that
no politics have tainted the honor.

Thanks very much for your consideration. I know Rob would have been
too humble to put himself forward, but I along with many people who knew
Rob and many others in the poker world who were touched by him, feel
that this is fair. Considering his long dedication to poker and
bearing in mind that his family and young children are still going through
the grieving process, I hope you'll agree that a gesture such as this
can only strengthen the standing of the award and the poker community as
a whole for the future.

Sincerely, Jesse May