Month: September 2016

The €1 Million Buy-in Monte-Carlo One Drop Extravaganza confirmed its first 35 players this week.
Kicking off on October 13, some of the world’s richest individuals will sit down to play the Big One for One Drop, the charity poker tournament, at the Casino de Monte-Carlo, according to pokernewsreport.com.
The One Drop Extravaganza will likely go down in history as the most expensive tournament series ever. It will certainly be the first to feature a poker tournament with a €1 million buy-in and, with seven other events scheduled (excluding satellites) with buy-ins from €10,000 to €100,000, players attending the Extravaganza are going to have to dig deep into their piggy banks.
Unlike in 2012 and 2014, when the Big One for One Drop formed part of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) schedule, entry to this year’s event is by invitation only. Guy Laliberté, the founder of One Drop, a non-profit organisation whose mission is to help improve access to safe water, said he initiated the change to bring “fun and innovation to charitable giving”. Even the live satellites on the day preceding the €1 million buy-in event are invitation-only – with Laliberté expecting a large number of businessmen, philanthropic, and celebrity recreational players to attend in order to “enjoy the game, the networking opportunities and the incredible VIP experiences”.
The One Drop tournament itself will be played over three days. Day 1 gets underway at 2:00pm (CET) on Friday October 14 with players each having a starting stack of 5 million chips and blinds starting at 6,000/12,000 (ante 1,000). Unlimited re-entries are allowed until the start of Day 2 (Saturday October 15 at noon), and the tournament will conclude on Sunday October 16 – with the winner likely to eclipse the prizes won in 2012 by Antonio Esfandiari ($18,346,673) and in 2014 by Dan Colman ($15,306,668).
In addition to the tournament action, high-stakes cash games will be running eighteen hours a day with limits ranging from €25/€25 up to €1,000/€2,000. The cash games on offer will include the standard fare of NL Hold´em and PL Omaha, with Open-Faced Chinese Poker available for those who like to gamble. Just in case the stakes are not high enough for some players, there will also be a €1 million buy-in cash game on the last day of the event.
Prince Albert has given his backing to the event. In a statement released to the media, His Serene Highness – who has his own charitable foundation to address environmental change – said: “I am pleased that Monaco has been chosen to host the 2016 edition of The Big One for One Drop, one of the most innovative charity events. After only two editions, The Big One for One Drop has raised more than $10 million for water, a cause that I hold particularly dear. I wish an even greater success to the third edition of The Big One,” Prince Albert said.

A major row has broken out after top local officials issued a joint communiqué lamenting the fact that they learned from the press about planned terror attacks foiled by the police rather than from original sources.
Christian Estrosi, president of the Nice metropolitan area, and Philippe Pradal, mayor of Nice, praised law enforcement services but deplored the lack of communication. Referring to the recent arrest of two young women, aged 17 and 19, who are alleged to have been in the last stages of preparing an attack, they asked: “How is it possible that these arrests took place without us being informed?” before adding that the lack of direct information was ‘illegal.’
According to article L.2211-3 of the local government code, local officials should be informed of major crimes committed on their territories. New arrangements must be made, the two officials said, because at present “no information is shared.”
Meanwhile hoteliers on the Côte d’Azur are up in arms over the cancellation of many major events in the wake of the Bastille Day atrocity in Nice earlier this year. The Nice triathlon that should have taken place this coming weekend in Nice has been cancelled (it also suffered the same fate last year due to the heavy flooding the day before), as has a European cycling championship, in both cases because of security concerns.
While Nice-Cannes marathon, due to take place on November 13, seemed to be the next event to fall victim to the axe, after it suspended inscriptions last week, an official press release Thursday confirmed the popular event, that draws thousands of visitors to the Riviera, will go ahead? although the start will be moved from Jardin Albert 1er to Allianz Riviera Stadium.
Tourist numbers in the region are down considerably on last year following the July 14 terror attack that took the lives of 86 people, many of them visitors, on the Promenade des Anglais. A national tribute to the victims has been set for October 14.
 

The University of Lapland has received a substantial donation as part of its fundraising campaign from the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation. The donation is one of the largest single donations of the current campaign, and is targeted towards Arctic education and research.
Prince Albert has promoted environmental protection and climate change research for over a decade through the foundation that he established in 2006. The foundation places special emphasis on sustainable development and supports innovative and ethical solutions related to climate change, biodiversity and water resources.
For several years now the foundation has provided support to the environment and people of the North through education and research projects on reindeer husbandry and science communication on Arctic environmental change, just to give a few examples. The foundation also has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UArctic. The work related to the MoU is coordinated by the UArctic International Secretariat which is located at and hosted by the University of Lapland. HSH Prince Albert has also participated in several UArctic events.
“The donation to the University of Lapland is a clear sign of Prince Albert’s commitment to Arctic research and education. It also emphasises the important role of the University of Lapland in coordinating Arctic higher education cooperation,” said Lars Kullerud, President of UArctic.
“The aim of the University of Lapland is to raise funds especially for Arctic research and education. The donation from HSH Prince Albert II supports us in reaching this goal,” added Mauri Ylä-Kotola, Rector of the University of Lapland.