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888poker ambassador Ian Simpson won the final edition of the Kav Cup during the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) Blackpool festival this past weekend, but chose not to keep his £4,950 prize. Instead, he donated the winnings to charity, helping the event reach a long-standing fundraising target.

The Kav Cup was founded in 2015 by Rick Gilby as a one-off tournament to support Derek “Kav” Kavanagh, a well-known figure in the poker community who was battling terminal cancer at the time. The inaugural event sold out and raised more than £7,000, prompting organizers to make it an annual tradition.

Kavanagh passed away in 2017, but the Kav Cup continued in his honor, with all registration fees going directly to charitable causes each year. Before this weekend’s finale, the event had generated £86,648.42 across nine editions, with £12,951 raised in its best single year.

For the tenth and final Kav Cup, organizers set a goal of surpassing £100,000 in total donations. With 250 entrants and Simpson’s donated winnings, the event raised £20,100.25, pushing the overall total to £104,748.67.

Simpson praised Gilby and everyone involved with the charity event, encouraging the poker community to continue supporting worthy causes even though the Kav Cup has ended.

Across all ten editions, 2,277 entries were recorded, generating £194,930 in prize money, of which champions collectively won £46,078.