Satellites for $2000 GTD Independence Day Tournament Start Today

Intertops Poker and Juicy Stakes Casino are hosting a $2000 GTD Independence Day poker tournament. $3 satellites for the final on July 4th begin today.

Plenty of fireworks are expected in the $2000 GTD Independence Day satellite events which run from June 26 to July 4 at 7:05am, 2:05pm and 7:05pm EDT.

Buy-in for just $3, plus an entry fee of 30¢ and you could win a place in the grand final on July 4.

If you don't qualify through the first parade of events you can try your luck in two $2000 GTD Independence Day LAST CHANCE events on July 4. These events will take place at 11:10am and 3:10pm EDT, with buy-ins priced at 90¢ plus an entry fee of 9¢.

If you're confident enough to head straight to where the main action is, buy a ticket directly for the FINAL at 7pm EDT on July 4th.  Final tickets cost $35 plus and entry fee of $3.50, with the overall winner set to experience an Independence Day they will never forget by taking away the grand prize of $2,000.

Sonesta Maho is Helping Resort Employees Following Hurrican Irma

The Sonesta Maho Resort, which normally hosts the TK Poker Tour events in St Maarten, is doing its best to help its employees in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma.  We received this message from them today, letting us know what we can do to help:

"Our beloved island has been devastated and, although we will rebuild in the future, our primary focus now is on relief efforts providing the basic living essentials like clean drinking water, food, clothes and cleaning supplies. There is much to do and compassion must be paramount.

As you know, our Sonesta St. Maarten team and staff and the people of Sint Maarten are the soul of our hotels and our destination. It is the people that make the experience exceptional – they are the ones that make St. Maarten “The Friendly Island" and they cannot be forgotten in their time of need. So now, please help us help them.

We are working directly with the relief organization Samaritan’s Purse that has been instrumental as the first responders to the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, and they are currently stationed at Sonesta Maho Beach Resort supplying humanitarian relief efforts to the island.

We have also set up an official fundraising page for the employees and staff of Sonesta Resorts Sint Maarten and The Maho Group. This fund will collect money to provide new clothing, supplies and household items; it will also help support aid to the employees and staff and offset medical and travel expenses.

We kindly ask for your support and donations today as timing is critical. We assure you that your donation is legitimate and legal, and that it will be closely monitored.

Donate through our dedicated Sonesta St. Maarten GoFundMe page providing direct relief to our cherished resort staff at: www.gofundme.com/sonestasxmstaff.

Or visit the Samaritan’s Purse website to donate to general St. Maarten island relief efforts at: www.samaritanspurse.org.

We cannot let Irma’s victims in the Caribbean be forgotten. The real work is just beginning."

The People of St Maarten Need Our Help

The St Maarten resorts we know and love are in shambles following Hurricane Irma.

Last week one of our favorite poker destinations was flattened by Hurricane Irma. The category 5+ storm tore into several islands in the Caribbean with 185 mile per hour winds, ripping roofs off buildings, flattening homes and filling streets with trees and debris. The Sonesta Maho Resort which was to host the WSOPC St Maarten in November has had to close.  The badly damaged hotel has had to cancel all reservations.  The casino across the street was also badly damaged and is closed.  So the WSOPC has been officially cancelled.

Sad news for us -- but even sadder for the locals.  Not only is their island and home destroyed but now the resort they worked in is closed.  Tough times  :(

The island has started the long process of re-building after the storm, but they need help. Water, food and medicine and rebuilding infrastructure all cost money. We're told that the best thing we can do to help St Maarten is to send financial aid.

The Netherlands has been offering a lot of aid on the island and the Dutch Red Cross has opened a special account to raise funds for further aid.  If you can handle the Dutch website you can donate here.

Globalgiving.org’s Hurricane Irma Relief Fund accepts online donations and their website is in English.

Severe Hurricane Irma Damage in St Maarten Forces Cancellation of WSOPC

Wow. It's worse than we thought -- and we knew it was going to be pretty bad. Hurricane Irma hit the West Indies this week and there has been catastrophic damage to some of our favourite Caribbean islands.  All of the resorts in Punta Cana, and St Maarten that we've been to for poker tournaments have sustained heavy damage.

St Maarten was hit so hard that the organizers of the WSOPC tournament that we planned to attend in November have no choice but to cancel the event.  No one knows when the airport will re-open and the host hotel is cancelling all reservations for the remainder of 2017.

HURRICANE IRMA: Devastation in St Martin #Caribbean #HurricaneIrma https://t.co/onFPE52a0X pic.twitter.com/1sd89vurgZ

— WIC News (@WIC_News) September 6, 2017

"Because of the circumstances the WSOPC Caribbean Poker Festival, November 1-15, 2017, is officially cancelled. All prepaid reservations will be refunded," read a statement from the organizers, TK Poker.

Official Statement of Sonesta Maho Resort & Casino where the WSOPC was to have taken place:

"All guests and staff of Sonesta Maho Beach Resort & Royal Casino are safe and unharmed.

The damages to Sonesta Maho Beach Resort & Royal Casino are severe, as is widespread damage and destruction on our beloved island of Sint Maarten. Severe damage has also occurred at Princess Juliana International Airport, and we do not have news as to when the airport will resume operations.

The Sonesta St. Maarten executive team and management are doing their best to assist guests who are at the resorts to remain safe, secure, and as comfortable as possible until they are able to depart Sint Maarten—this is our primary concern. Guests are currently in on-property safe areas at the resorts.

Due to the damages the resorts suffered, all further reservations from now through the end of 2017 will be cancelled."

Our thoughts are with the wonderful people of St Maarten and the Dominican Republic. We'll let you know when we hear of ways we can help them through this.

We'll also be thinking about our friends in Florida where Irma is headed this weekend.

Intertops Players Reflect on Poker EM 2017

Derek Nakafuji from Los Angeles managed to take down one of the Poker EM Velden packages online at Intertops. He could bring a friend, which was included in the package on Intertops. When two friends, Gary and Paul, said they wanted to make it an extended European vacation -- including Velden, Munich, Paris, Lille and Vienna -- Derek brought both of them along. Derek played the Poker EM Main Event and unfortunately was knocked out late on day 2, but it seems the three friends made the most of their Velden visit!



Hjalmar Lethin talks about the satisfaction of yet another sucessful live event with online qualifiers from Intertops. Hjalmar talks about what the players were up to outside the poker room, the greatness of Velden and of course Casino Velden with their great staff lead by poker managers Gerald Golker, Dieter Printschler and Niklas Sattler. He also talks about the things to come for online qualifiers in the future including available packages for St Maarten with sub satellites starting already on August 2.

Simon Boss Wins Poker EM European Poker Championship

Simon Boss from Switzerland really loves the Poker EM in Velden. Two years ago he managed to win the main event and this year he became the first player to ever win this event for the second time. Simon is a successful entrepreneur in his home country with a company with 120 employees and he has poker as his favourite hobby. The win, which was made possible thanks to Simon’s ‘Velden Final Table Shirt’, was worth €142,000. Simon talks some about the decisive hands of the tournament, the online poker ban in Switzerland, his plans in poker for the coming months and that he will for sure come back next year to Velden to defend his title.

Friends Take Each Other to Tournaments

Péter Gál is a big fan of Velden -- this year was the first year that he won his way to the European Poker Championship in an online poker tournament, but it wasn't the first time he's played the Poker EM European Poker Championship. Last year his friend Daniel won a satellite tournament at Intertops Poker that awarded an all expense paid trip to the Austrian spa/casino resort.  Since Intertops qualifiers can always bring a friend to the live events, Péter tagged along.

Last year Daniel won an online satellite tournament at Intertops for the Punta Cana Poker Classic and they went to the Caribbean together. To even things out, Péter thought it was time to level the score and managed to win a satellite to Velden this year.

Peter talks to Rikard about being an online pro for nine years, his education, and his plan to win another satellite on Intertops and bring his friend Daniel to St Maarten in November.