Online poker isn’t just profitable for skilled poker players and the online poker rooms; online poker has more heart than just the ones on the cards.

The heart we’re talking about comes from the numerous online poker charity tournaments. All you have to do is enter those four words into any Internet search engine to find many examples. It’s not just a couple of poker rooms, either. Almost every online poker room is getting into the charity poker business, with just a few examples being Bodog, PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Ultimate Bet.

The causes benefiting from all of these charity poker tournaments popping up online range in size from very personal to global. On any given day you might find a small charity tournament helping a specific person, or bigger tournaments with all the benefits and profits heading to a charity that helps out with everything from cancer to homelessness to drunk driving.

The most famous online poker charity tournaments exploded online a few years ago after two highly publicized natural disasters. These were, of course, the Asian Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. Dozens of online poker rooms held charity tournaments with all the cash going to aid the victims of those disasters.

The charity association with poker doesn’t just exist online, though. For large and small charitable organizations, poker tournaments have become very profitable ways to raise much-needed funds. Many professional poker players are getting in on the act as well by hosting online and real-world charity tournaments. One of the most famous poker charity pioneers is Barry Greenstein. Dubbed “the Robin Hood of Poker” because he donates his winnings to charitable organizations, Greenstein has set the standard for poker charity and the rest of the poker world is trying to live up to his example.