The Tides Are Changing — A Maiden Trip to the Caribbean
By 2012 and 2013, my own live reporting work had picked up but the most exotic places I traveled to in order to cover poker tournaments were perhaps Tangier in Morocco (small events hosted by the local casino), Las Vegas (for the World Series of Poker), the Irish Open in Dublin and Loutraki in Greece (for the first-ever and to-date only EPT on Greek soil). Regular trips within central Europe to countries such as Austria, Spain and Montenegro were accompanied by a handful of live events in Germany whereas long distance flights were not part of my work schedule just yet.
That would all but change in November 2013 thanks to contacts at the casinos I had already worked yet, as they were helping to organize a poker festival in the Caribbean hosted by former EPT tournament director Thomas Kremser, among others.
The prospect of escaping from rainy and cold Europe to spend more than two weeks in the Caribbean, taking advantage of the all-inclusive buffets on the resort and finally getting some tan on the chicken-like skin was an alluring one. Just like me, most of the staff was flying in from Europe and several online qualifiers through various partners also made the trip.
After the touchdown in Punta Cana, the first surprise awaited as the international airport had none of the usual massive buildings and instead consisted of small open-air terminals with their roofs covered in palm fronds. A bus took all of us to a nearby resort where we had our own small bungalows for two people and the beach was only five minutes away, a jump into the outdoor pool was nearly possible from the balcony.
You can hear the birds chirping and the waves are splashing onto the beach. Laughter is coming from the pool as some of our poker dealers are throwing a beach volleyball from one side to the other. And the pool bar serves fresh drinks while the sun is burning down on the back, guaranteed to result in a surprise the next morning if you forget to use sun lotion in advance.
The resort was not far away from the casino where the first part of the “Caribbean Poker Tour” was hosted and we were supposed to have a shuttle service to the venue. “It will be here in five minutes” was the standard reply and since the time in the Caribbean runs significantly slower, you can safely multiply it by four to figure out how long it would take to show up.
Several other popular tourist destinations are in somewhat close proximity to Punta Cana and the chosen destination for the second part of the festival was Sint Maarten, also known as “the friendly island”. There was only one blatant problem. No direct flights are available from Punta Cana to the Princess Juliana Airport and going through the US to then fly back in the same direction seemed silly.
Instead, the hosts chartered a private plane for the flight of roughly an hour with own branding on top of the seats. Not a fancy private plane for millionaires with champagne bottle service on board but certainly unusual for someone like me. And that wasn’t the only unique thing about the remainder of the trip.
All those that have seen pictures and videos of the Princess Juliana Airport before are usually left somewhat surprised about how close the planes fly in right above the beach. It is one of the major tourist attractions of the island and to me it never gets old to watch the arrivals and departures right next to Maho beach. If the pilots go full throttle when taking off, the engine blast will blow people from the sand into the ocean. Low-and-behold, the entire scenery is one that you will never forget.
It usually seems rather innocent when some of the spectators point towards the sky. There is a small black dot, nearly invisible. But every few seconds that dot is getting bigger and eventually turns into a passenger plane. Left and right the cameras and smartphones magically appear as everyone prepares for the arrival.
I am one of them and can’t decide if I should record it as video or snap as many pictures and hope one of them turns out to be decent. Frantic pushing back and forth on the button, and a sudden roar emerges on the final approach as some people jump up to get an incredible memory shot. It feels as if you can almost touch the plane when you raise the hands.
And a few seconds later … the spectacle is over. Everyone quickly glances at their tiny screens, blended by the sunlight and unable to guess if the pictures are any good. The roaring gets louder once again as the plane slows down towards the end of the runway, almost out of sight. I just stand there with a big smile on the face, and have done so ever since as it simply doesn’t lose any of the fascination.
The Sonesta Maho Beach Resort is right next to Maho beach and while people enjoy the all-inclusive buffets during breakfast, lunch or dinner, they can also have a prime view on incoming planes. It isn’t as loud as many would expect despite the close proximity to the airport, and I caught myself jumping up to snap a picture dozens of times on the first trip there.
As you leave the resort and cross the main street, the Casino Royale awaits and back in the days it used to have a small plane inside hanging right above the main tournament area. Which other casino can boast such a view? It certainly amplified the different Caribbean vibe to me when I stumbled over it for the first time.
The second part of the festival was also held in cooperation with the World Poker Tour who brought their own staff along for the championship event. Thanks to that and another major tournament taking place on Punta Cana at the same time, several well-known American poker pros made the short trip over to Sint Maarten to take a shot at the WPT Champions Club trophy. Nerdy me could not resist to ask for a picture with the two WPT Royal Flush girls Tugba Ercan and Ivy Teves but I honestly don’t remember where my left hand was when the below picture was taken.
Flagship tournament of the festival was the $3,500 Main Event and Tony Dunst defeated WPT champions Giacomo Fundaro and Marvin Rettenmaier on a final table that was played outdoors at the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort and overlooked the ocean and beach. Dunst later on became a host for the WPT, finished second in the 2016 Aussie Millions Main Event and earned a WSOP bracelet in the same year.
Several then unknown European poker players also made the trip to the Caribbean and the $7,000 Lucky Number 7 High Roller attracted all but seven entries who purchased 13 rebuys. Two spots were paid and Igor Kurganov defeated Fedor Holz in heads-up to claim the title.
Back in late 2013, Kurganov already had plenty of seven and six-figure cashes to his name whereas Holz recorded his second-best score of $35,000. In the years following that, Holz took the live poker circuit by storm to cash for more than $32.5 million and has become one of the most-successful poker players in history despite being only 26 years old at the time of writing in June 2020.
It seems somewhat surreal to look back at that first trip to the Caribbean and despite it being only six and a half years ago, it certainly feels like a different century as the world of poker has evolved. For me personally, late 2013 and especially 2014 were a turning point in my current profession.
The memories from back then were as sweet as the Mango smoothie served at the Sonesta on all the following trips. One thing is for sure: „The friendly island“ is certainly among my favorite travel destinations and each time I have had to leave, it was a sad day and the return trip back home felt like a stitch in the heart.