Alecko Eskandarian in charity poker tournament Friday night!

Chivas USA forward Alecko Eskandarian will be putting his poker skills to the test on Friday night at the Torrance Marriott South Bay in Torrance in a charity tournament to benefit the Children's Miracle Network and the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.

Follow this link to see the flyer for the tournament - there are still spots left (it costs $100 to participate) and all of the proceeds go directly to the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.

If you would like to participate, you can call Pam Ryan at the Torrance Marriott at 310-543-6018. The event starts on Friday night at 7:00 p.m.

Alecko is excited to play in the tournament (his style: "I'm aggressive. I'll bluff more than I'll fold. I don't fold easy, ever."), and also to donate to such a worthy cause.

Here are his quotes on how he got involved in the event, and what it means to him:

"The Children's Miracle Network is the charity, and actually my roommate introduced me to it. My roommate works at the Torrance Marriott, and I know last year they had an event and she came home and she was talking about it and how there's a miracle child that comes and talks to them, and she said she had tears in her eyes.... So that got my attention."

"When I was in D.C. I did a lot of work with the children's hospital out there, and I just love working with kids, especially the kids that are unfortunate to have these illnesses or these bad breaks in their life. I think they just have so much courage."

"I used to love going and working with the children's hospital because I think I got more out of it than the kids did. For me it was just amazing to visit these kids, hear their stories, find out what they're dealing with on a day-to-day basis and it really put life in perspective for me. So that's why I try to work with them as much as possible.

"When my roommate told me about this event coming up with the Children's Miracle Network, I jumped on it. Obviously, I love poker as well, so it just made perfect sense to donate to a good cause, and play some poker, and hopefully impact some kids' lives."