Over $20K in prizes for One VI Poker Run

The One Virgin Islands Poker Run returns this year with a number of cash prizes up for grabs, amounting to some $23,000 when taken altogether.

“One Virgin Islands Poker Run leads with the heart, meaning that we start off and we do this to help the schools within our Virgin Islands,” founder and chairperson of the event, Dr Michael Turnbull, said.

Turnbull said the initiative was able to donate more than $20,000 back to the Enid Scatliffe Pre-Primary School and the Ivan Dawson Primary School last year and paid the tuition for someone to attend school this year.

“We are going to ensure that we give $20,000 or more back to our schools because this is not a for-profit organisation,” he said.

The event kicks off this year on Sunday, July 2 at the Paradise Club in Cane Garden Bay from 10:45 am and Dr Turnbull said this year, the event plans to be bigger and better than the previous staging.

Registration for the event will be at the Cyril B Romney Tortola Pier Park on June 30, ahead of the planned non-stop concert that day.

Peter Island stop 

After leaving Paradise Club, boaters will next head to Ocean Seven over at Peter Island before moving to the Pier Park on Tortola where they are expected to remain for some fun.

Participants will then move to Blunder Bay in Virgin Gorda, which Turnbull said will be the lunch stop for the event. “There, we’ll have games or what we call our half-time show. We’re gonna have special guest artistes performing. We’re gonna have judging for best dressed crew and other fun games that families and friends could take fun in,” he added.

Great Habour stop

Turnbull said this year’s event will take its next stop at Great Harbour in Jost Van Dyke instead. He said although Foxy’s will remain at the core of the card exchange, there are other restaurants on the island that will be able to benefit from the traffic and economic influx that is expected. 

After this stop, participants have 10 minutes to come back to Cane Garden Bay where there will be additional entertainment activities.

First prize in the event this year is $10,000, up from $8,000 last year. Second prize will be $4,000 while the third prize is $2,000 and fourth prize is $500.

Prioritise safety

One VI Poker Run committee member, Akeem Pickering, reminded persons that last year’s event was incident-free and accident-free. He further urged participants to ensure they prioritise safety as they enter the event.

“At the end of the day, while we are having fun, nothing kills the buzz of fun more than an incident or an accident,” Pickering stated. “We know that we say run wild, run free, but also run responsibly.”