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[ #allin4ukraine ] Ukraine is (still) calling

1/16/2023

The new year started with a bang in Ukraine - literally - unfortunately making our initiatives still very much necessary. UKRAINE IS CALLING is a worldwide fundraising campaign launched by Luxembourg-based nonprofit organisation LUkraine together with various partners.

Our goal is straight-forward: save human lives and help those who are doing so. Roughly 2500 rescue vehicles have been destroyed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began and counts keep rising. This makes emergency responses to repeated and ongoing crisis situations very complicated.

We are raising 10 million Eur to buy 112 rescue vehicles for Ukraine.

Count as of 16JAN2023 - thank you !

[ #allin4ukraine ] Thank you, Poker Belgique!

12/20/2022

ENGLISH

On 16th December, I traveled from Slovakia to Belgium for an #allin4ukraine charity Poker event we put in place together with Poker Belgique's Leandro Gaone and it's time to say a big thank you to the Soignies Poker community.

103 entries came together for a prize pool of more than 4k Eur and nice night of playing cards. 400 Eur have been donated by Poker Belgique and an additional 177 Eur have been collected among the players who attended.

This is awesome!

count on 17DEC2022

[ Beat the Rake ] Join for The Festival Series in Nottingham

12/10/2022

Dusk Till Dawn opened in 2007 and has been one of the European Poker hotspots ever since. From cheap entires to crazy expensive games, the Poker room is home to both, prestigious tournament series and daily cash games.

The Festival Series and Dusk Till Down matched hard on the dating app of Poker promoters and the next stop will be Nottingham for the fun casino game festival.

Poker Solidarity HQ in Bratislava

12/8/2022

The original idea was to count all my cash game hours anywhere I play and to encourage fellow players to join me on the road to make donations for my #allin4ukraine solidarity actions but then came the opportunity to set up a grind house in the Slovak capital.

front door view

[ #allin4ukraine ] First Boot Camp in the Books

12/4/2022

It's been a rough Poker grind in Madrid and Bratislava over the last weeks! Matija Sinković from Croatia was the first player to join me for this #pokersolidarity idea. He's one of the most hardcore grinders of the Banco Poker room and and great company with a big heart on top of it, so it was a pleasure to have him on board for this first boot camp in the Slovak capital.

11 Nov - 3 Dec 2022

171.5 hours of cash games & 15 tournaments

[ Bratislava ] Poker and Solidarity in December & January

12/4/2022

Once the enormous Polish Poker Championship has passed, Banco Casino still have a bunch of one-day events up their sleeve for the end of the year. The GRAND WEEK x-mas edition is coming up!

[ #allin4ukraine ] January Boot Camp Dates in Bratislava

11/29/2022

Since November 2022, I set up a charity grind house in the Slovak capital. The project was initiated with the precious help of Banco Casino together with Poker Belgique and is called ' #allin4ukraine Bratislava Poker Boot Camp '.

It aims to regroup players willing to make a generous contribution to our global fundraising project targeting to raise 10 million Euro in order to buy and restore 112 rescue vehicles for Ukraine.

Details about it are available in a recent post.

count on 28NOV2022

[ Bratislava Promos ] Play the Banco Masters Main Event Rake-Free & More

11/27/2022

The Banco Masters will soon be back in town with a huge new-year guarantee for a low buy-in and it's possible to skip the rake on the first bullet of the Main Event.

[ Bratislava ] The January Poker Highlights at Banco Casino

11/27/2022

2023 will start with a bang for the Slovakia MTT Poker scene. Banco Casino will waste no time and put on big guarantee events from the very beginning of the year.

#allin4ukraine gets headquarters in Bratislava

11/21/2022

I've always liked Bratislava. No specific reason. For plenty of reasons. It is like falling in love or finding a new friend. I've simply liked it here from the beginning.

Also, since I was in Slovakia when the Russians made their move on Ukraine, Banco Casino was one of my very first partners for the #allin4ukraine campaign providing job opportunities and accommodation solutions at both their Kosice and Bratislava casinos for example.

Link to some of our Ukraine pics in image.

Poker Boot Camps for Ukraine

It basically is what it sounds like. The idea is to regroup players for a kind of high-intensity interval Poker project and to donate a part of the winnings.

[ #allin4ukraine ] Ukraine is calling

11/8/2022

A lot has happened since our chaotic first spontaneous responses days after the Russian invasion started in Ukraine. Today, shattered emotional individual actions have grown together as a network of way more rational plans executed by numerous devoted volunteers and administrators putting together support project after support project.

One of these organisations is LUkraine based inn the country I was born: Luxembourg. In late October, they launched a very ambitious global fundraising campaign aiming to buy rescue vehicles and send them to Ukraine.

Ukraine is calling !

[ #allin4ukraine ] Peace Demo in Luxembourg - Again and Again

10/20/2022

I'm taking advantage of a stop in Luxembourg to get back in touch with the LUkraine association . A demo for peace in Ukraine was planned for this Saturday but had to be postponed to next week, the 29th October 2022. The meeting is set on the Clairefontaine square from 2pm. To be confirmed though since big fundraising actions are ongoing and the organisation is understaffed.

[ #allin4ukraine ] Summer plans

5/27/2022

I've taken a bit of a backseat regarding on-field trips to Ukraine and its border regions to switch to a position that is more remote friendly over the coming weeks. The consequence is that the stuff I am taking care of is a lot less spectacular in terms of imagery and I've been posting less these weeks but there is still a lot going on in the #pokersolidarity back office.

[ Solidarity ] What would you plan as your last trip?

5/10/2022

I don't know David apart from a few lines exchanged online.

'This might be my last trip.' With these words, David Hendrix is making a strong statement and sets the tone. David has a rare neuromuscular disorder that affects his ability to control voluntary movements. He wasn't supposed to live past two years yet here were are: David is 31, which is probably more rare than his spinal muscular atrophy type 1 but his condition is getting worse.

[ #allin4ukraine ] Animal Rescue in Medyka

5/10/2022

Recently, fellow photographer, Christophe Mendes, from Luxembourg left to Medyka (Poland) again. This time, with Morpheus. The mission was to fill two cars with animal food and care products for humans and to drive to the Poland/Ukraine border town. From there, they evacuated some pets out of Ukraine and helped giving the animals they were taking care of some care and affection.

© Christophe Mendes

#allin4ukraine - Live & Work in Slovakia

4/25/2022

A few weeks ago, pretty quickly after the beginning of the war in Ukraine, we planted the seed of the idea of training and relocation Ukrainian exiled women in order to give them the opportunity to build a new existence in Slovakia - not as refugees, not in shelters but as casino workers to build a new future.

[ Aerial Photography ] The art of navigating... regulations

4/11/2022

Flying drones is a lot of fun and I am really glad I went through the legal and administration hassle in order to become a legal drone pilot. Flying as such is not that difficult - at least not for me because I have had flight training and experience as a glider pilot since I was a young adult. What is a bit more tricky, is understanding where how and when you are allowed to fly your UAV or UAS. Over late 2021 and the beginning of 2022, I went through the processes of studying and passing aviation exams in order to get both my international drone pilot and drone operator licenses.

Las Vegas 2021 - thx to Sven Rahmsdorf for lending me his drone

[ #allin4ukraine ] Animal Rescue - You Can Help

4/11/2022

I’ve been a Christophe Mendes follower for a while. For those who don’t know, I was born in Luxembourg and Christophe’s street photography allowed me to follow the evolution of things back in the Grand-Duchy while I am away since I am on the move so much. Turns out, his heart is at least as big as his photo talent and skill.

Christophe shooting a dog at an LUkraine demo in Luxembourg

[ #allin4ukraine ] Civilians' Ordeal in Ukraine

4/7/2022

© David Pichler

I am spending my past days in Luxembourg while David is still in Ukraine. I'm going to be heading back to Slovakia on Monday. No idea when I will be able to meet again with David who is relentlessly covering the dramatic situation of many civilians in Ukraine. We knew we would come across tough stuff after the Russian retreat. Yet, it's hard to be prepared for these kinds of things.

Lately from Borodvanka, a small town in the Kyiv suburbs:

'Borodyanka is a site of unbelievable destruction brought by the Russians onto a town which was not a military base but a civilian living area.'
…
'There is rubble which has not been cleared and it’s almost certainly bodies underneath, Ukrainian bodies, civilian bodies.'
…
'We had a team of professional deminers with us, who were photographing evidence that Russia is breaking Geneva convention.'

Quotes by Sviatoslav Yurash, Borodyanka April 5th 2022

[ #allin4ukraine ] After the war comes more sorrow... and solidarity

4/4/2022

The Russian retreat from the Kyiv suburbs is leaving Ukrainians with the horrific acknowledgement of what looks like a series of war crimes similar to the ones discovered in Bujah.

Ewa Ernst-Dziedzic, member of the parliament and spokesperson for foreign policy, migration, human rights and LGBTIQ+ for the Austrian Green party, is working on the matter and is in touch with David Pichler in Ukraine.

[ #allin4ukraine ] Postcards from Ukraine

3/31/2022

sunset & bombs over Kyiv © David Pichler

David is still in Ukraine, still delivering meds, still hardly sleeping, still shooting ... awesome pics. It's hard to tell whether the war will still worsen or if we are on the path to peace these days so while the white males on a power trip with their disproportionate egos are still looking for a way to talk to each other like civilised monkeys, we remain alert and cautious.

[ #allin4ukraine ] BANCO CASINO TRAIN FIRST UKRAINIANS

3/25/2022

This is it! The perfect illustration of the direct actions we've been working on with one of my favourite humans on the block, David Pichler, who is still in Ukraine.

Earlier this week, before leaving Slovakia, I got notified that nine Ukrainians from the Kharkiv and Odesa regions were about to start their training in the Kosice and Bratislava casinos and that they were being assisted to find decent homes in order to start a new peaceful and independent life. GG and thank you again, Jan Packa at Banco Casino, for your open mind.

[ Slovakia ] The March Photos

3/25/2022

The original plan was to spend 10 days or so in Bratislava ... then shit got really weird in Ukraine so I decided to stay closer to where the action is and I spent almost the whole month in Slovakia to play Poker and to help getting humanitarian projects going.

#allin4ukraine - a network of people with time, resources and energy to spare

3/21/2022

Over the past weeks, our tightly knitted network of independent reporters and activists wasted no time and resources to enter Ukraine days after the Russian invasion and offer direct help to the most vulnerable while being backed by a series of additional private individuals on the outside that were taking care of communication and logistics support. We are friends, old travel partners and like-minded media buddies believing in quick direct action leaving slow bureaucracy in the hands of bureaucrats.

© David Pichler

Stay safe: be aware of Trafficking on the Border

3/20/2022

It has been repeatedly reported that human filth is at work on the Ukrainian borders. Honestly, I'm speechless ... but being speechless is not what is going to keep people safe.

Thank you David Pichler for the photo.