Inside Last Night's Massive Poker Tournament With Hedge Funders, Poker Pros, And Legendary NYC Athletes

Hundreds of hedge fund professionals filled Gotham Hall in Midtown Manhattan last night for the 4th annual "Take 'Em To School" charity poker tournament.

This year's event raised funds for Education Reform Now, an advocacy organization that's committed to making sure all kids can access high-quality public education.

The event was co-chaired by Michael Sabat, who works in equity derivatives sales and trading at Sanford Bernstein, and Whitney Tilson, who runs Kase Capital. Tilson is a leader in the education reform space.

Those in attendance included David Einhorn, who runs Greenlight Capital, and pro-poker players Olivier Busquet, Andy Frankenberger and Erik Seidel. Former NBA shooting guard John Starks played poker, and former baseball pitcher Dwight Gooden played casino games and signed autographs.

It cost $1,000 for a poker seat and $250 for a cocktails/casino games ticket.

Prizes for the tournament winners included a seat at the 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event, vacations, golf outings, and power lunches with Einhorn, Seth Klarman, Leon Cooperman and Bill Ackman.

The tournament began around 7:15 p.m. ET and lasted until around 1 a.m. ET.

In case you missed it, we've included photo highlights in the slides that follow.

* Steven Perlberg contributed to this report.