2015 Calgary Flames Poker Tournament

To be a great personal injury lawyer, you have to be a great negotiator. And everyone knows that to be a great negotiator, you have to have a good poker face. That’s how our own L.D. Todd Litwiniuk was able to place 6th out of over 350 players in the 2015 Calgary Flames Ambassadors’ Celebrity Poker Tournament.
Todd survived through multiple rounds and table changes over 8 hours of play, and made it to the final table with 9 other players including Flames’ star winger Jiri Hudler. On his final hand, Todd had the option to limp through and let the blind take out 2 other players to put him into 4th place, but he was in it to play. He pushed all in on a 2 and 3 of diamonds, hoping to double up for a shot at the title. Unfortunately it was not to be, but Todd will return next year as he has every year since the inaugural tournament in 2005.
“I’m happy to have placed 6th, although I really wanted to win,” said Todd with a grin. “I’ve played in this tournament every year since it started 10 years ago, and Steve Major and Dave Lush always do such a great job of putting it on.”
“But the real winners are the charities that this tournament benefits, and that’s why we love to support it.”
When asked to comment, tournament Co-chair Steve Major of Bennett Jones LLP said “[The Litwiniuk] family has been very generous to this tourney over the years, so I was glad to see Todd come out so high in the standings. The one thing that kept coming back to me as I saw him wrestling with whether to go all-in or not through different stages of the night was ‘Todd-O: I’ve seen you do dumber things for less money!’ Just kidding – he is a pretty prudent guy.”
All proceeds of the tournament go to local charities, and in 2014 it raised over $420,000 for local charities to be delivered through the Flames Foundation for Life, including Jamie’s Preschool for children with life threatening illnesses, the Children’s Health Foundation and Camp Kindle through the Kids Cancer Care Foundation.
“It’s a great way to have fun and do some good in our community at the same time,” said Todd.
This year’s tournament was generously hosted by the Deerfoot Inn and Casino on February 21, 2015. The annual event provides an opportunity for sponsors and supporters of the event to play Texas Hold ‘Em with their favourite Flames players, coaches, and alumni. In attendance from Litco Law were firm co-founder Marianne Litwiniuk and Director of Business development and Marketing, Fred Litwiniuk. They stayed until the end to cheer on Todd at the final table, after both suffering elimination in earlier rounds.
“It’s such a fantastic event,” said Fred. “This is my first year playing, and it was so exciting to see Todd make it to the end. We’ll definitely be back next year.”