For the second straight year, mixed martial arts star Randy Couture will be holding a charity poker tournament to help U.S. military veterans.  The tournament is called “Operation All In” and it will be held on August 22nd at the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas.

Operation All In, which is staged by Couture’s Xtreme Couture G.I. foundation, will feature celebrity players and allow the public to join in on the action too.  Some of the celebrities involved include poker players Todd Brunson, Lee Watkinson, David Williams, Adam Schoenfeld, Chip Jett, and Robert Williamson III as well as MMA stars Dan Henderson, Frank Trigg, Phil Baroni, and Stephan Bonnar.

Those who wish to participate in Operation All In can buy into the tournament for $330 with $100 rebuys being offered too.  The first place prize in this tourney will be a $10,000 Main Event seat in the PokerNews Sports Legends Challenge which is held at Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

Randy Couture is extremely excited about the second annual Operation All In tournament and said, “We’re thrilled to welcome everyone back for our second annual charity event.  It’s sure to be an amazing time, while raising awareness and a lot of money for an unbelievable cause.”  The cause that Couture is referring will be helping wounded U.S. military veterans as well as their families.

Couture, who is a U.S. army veteran himself, expanded on the charitable cause of Operation All In by saying, “Having spent time in a uniform it became a personal goal of mine to find a way to give back to the brave men and women of our Armed Forces for the sacrifices they make defending our freedoms.  The Xtreme Couture G.I. Foundation was born out of that desire.  We hope you’ll come join us for a great night and rub elbows with some of the best fighters and poker players on the planet all in the name of our troops.”

Asian Poker Tour officials have invited Olympic record-breaking swimmer Michael Phelps to their APT Macau event for the second straight year.  Phelps, who recently won 5 gold medals and 1 silver medal at the World Championships, has yet to respond to the APT’s open letter.

An excerpt of the open letter that was sent to Phelps read, “Last year you were in Beijing for the Olympics and we encouraged you to head down to the Asian Poker Tour Macau event at the StarWorld.  We heard positive noises, but there was no sign of the human dolphin when they called ‘shuffle up and deal.’  We would like to extend this invite once again for you to come, all expenses paid, and take part in this showpiece poker event.”

APT Macau is a 12 day-long poker event held at the StarWorld Hotel and Casino in Macau, and is complete with festivities and poker tournaments.  The Main Event, which Michael Phelps is invited to, takes place on August 20th and runs until August 23rd.  Yevgeniy Timoshenko was the champion of the Main Event last year and he won the $500,000 first place prize.  Timoshenko had to outlast a stacked field of pros before going against Steve Yea in the heads-up final.

In addition to the returning champion Timoshenko, the APT Macau field will also included noted players like Steve Sung, J.C. Tran, Nam Le, David “Chino” Rheem, Quinn Do, Kwang Soo Lee, and Johnny Chan who holds 10 WSOP gold bracelets.  The participation of Michael Phelps would add one more star to the mix.

Phelps first achieved world-wide fame after winning 6 gold medals and 2 bronze medals in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.  Phelps followed that performance up with a record 8 gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.