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.
Our playground: Banco Casino in the heart of beautiful Bratislava by the Danube
Our headquarters: a spacious three-bedroom apartment in one of the finest areas of Bratislava a 10-minute walk from the casino and the center 
Support for LUkraine.lu
Our first spontaneous response to the war with the likes of fellow photographers David Pichler & Lars Hermes or Christophe Mendes, Ali Sahib & Tun Marques, was to travel to Ukraine ourselves in order to provide food and med deliveries for vulnerable humans and abandoned animals. We also took part in multiple evacuation operations and documented what we could with our cameras and drones gathering media for us to share online in an attempt to motivate people to donate and to provide documentation material to local and European authorities.
Link to demo shots in images.
When the dust started to settle a little bit a few weeks into the war, we quickly found ourselves facing very annoying administration problems concerning transfer fees, blocked cards because we had been using them at Ukrainian ATMs and, generally speaking, legal aspects of us moving donated money and material in and out of Ukraine as private individuals. The question arose whether to create an independent legal structure but the burden of administration aspects made me chose another option when it comes to where I want to invest my energy: on the field, not in an office.
10 million Euro for 112 rescue vehicles !
Since I was born and grew up in Luxembourg, I naturally and quickly got in touch with an association of Ukrainians there. They rapidly got involved in multiple ambitious projects right after the start of the war ranging from moral support over professional training or integration programs for refugees to humanitarian aid in and outside Ukraine.
​One of the latest and most likely most ambitious projects emerging from their Luxembourg offices, is a global fundraising campaign called 'UKRAINE IS CALLING' aiming to raise 10 million Eur to buy and restore 112 rescue vehicles in order to bring them to Ukraine for the renewal of the decaying local fleet of ambulances and firetrucks.
The aim of all our actions is to actively save lives or to help others in doing so. This is the organisation we will be supporting with this #allin4ukraine Bratislava Boot Camp project.
We, Poker players, spend a lot on stupid stuff :-) We buy overpriced delivery food at night, we book classy hotel rooms but spend the whole time at the tables, we sometimes pay insane amounts just to see if there is a spade ... and then that stupid rake too ... :D
Simply put, we: - reduce living expenses - create a great living and working environment - donate a portion of the generated surplus value Participate to the project - donate directly to LUkraine mentioning #allin4ukraine to show the support of our Poker community.#allin4ukraine Boot Camp in Bratislava
I will share the flat with occasional visitors, players who want to make a generous and active contribution to the project. I don't want to set too many rules except some house rules. The general idea is not to have a party grind house but rather a comfortable place to rest and work before and after the games. Boooring, I know :-)
I am merely providing an opportunity of deep immersion in a Poker grind rhythm at relatively low costs and with the will to work together on reviews and strategies. I am not selling any kind of coaching session here, right! I hope to be able to constructively exchange ideas and processes about Poker, mental health, communication and any other skill that might come in handy to keep building ourselves and the project. General Info
Every player participating should play the game he is best at. Therefore, I will not be imposing any kind of schedule.
The room costs will be 25 Eur/night. For every night spent at the apartment, 5 Eur will be donated to LUkraine. Available games at Banco Casino: - daily NLH & PLO cash games starting from 1/2 & 2/2 - weekly MTTs 50-100 Eur one-day events mostly - monthly MTT festivals with Main Events of 150-500 Eur 
Everybody plays with her/his own bankroll. I don't lend, I don't borrow and I don't stake. No fixed or imposed schedule as mentioned before but the goal, though, is to generate money for donations so depending on each participant's readiness to put in volume, we will determine together what goals we will be setting ourselves for the duration of the boot camp. I expect every boot camp to be custom so I am ready to invest some planning time with serious candidates.
Durations will be flexible and depending on the availability of the rooms. That said, I'm not aiming to get weekend visitors following an Airbnb kinda business model where I would spend my time washing sheets and cleaning bedrooms. It's not about the money. The idea is to live and perform well together. Also, I will keep traveling quite a bit for my games and new #allineverywhere photo reports with PokerFirma, so it's all an organisation thing. Players get 2 Eur of rakeback per cash game hour. When participating to this project, other Banco Casino rakeback deals are not applicable during that period. All soft drinks & food are included at the casino. 
Donations
Since the beginning of November 2022, I am donating 1 Eur per hour of cash game anywhere I play. I'm adding 5% of my tournament winnings to this.
I'm basically asking the same contribution to the Bratislava boot camp participants: - 5 Eur per night spent at the Bratislava apartment - 50% of the Banco Casino cash game rakeback during the stay (1 Eur donated/hour) - 5% of all ITM result (winnings) in any MTT played during the stay At the end of the stay, we will make a detailed breakdown of what we've achieved and we will make an #allin4ukraine donation together to the LUkraine association. I will also be donating for my cash hours and tournaments played outside Banco so if someone wants to join the ride and participate to the project elsewhere than in Bratislava, hop onboard! The POKER TRIPS section is your friend! I am also thinking about some potential events. There's more coming soon ... Stay tuned in the SOLIDARITY tag in the BLOG. All additional help and other way you think you can support us is welcome and useful. Donate too!
This project was initiated with the generous help of POKER BELGIQUE & BANCO CASINO.
HOME
BLOG PHOTOS & COVERAGES POKER TRIPS ART & PRINTS CONTACT & INFO You can also get in touch or just stay tuned under the following social media links: Facebook - Instagram - Twitter - TikTok THE-ROUNDER.NET gets great support from POKERFIRMA.COM & ALEXANDRE ROTENBERG photography. If you enjoy what you see and read, go get more! I curate all recent relevant #allineverywhere content of the BLOG and occasionally from other sources via my Scoop.it account. A photo archive is available via the PHOTOS & COVERAGES section and you might also be interested in checking the social media updates via the links above. There's an ART & PRINTS section too and you can plan your next winning streak via the POKER TRIPS page. For those who care, I use #pokersolidarity and #allin4ukraine on social media platforms and there is a SOLIDARITY section regrouping my blog posts about how the community following this website tries to be useful for those in need. Wish to support us by assisting us to build our network, by helping to spread the word, by donating equipment, time or some spare money? Then beam yourself to the CONTACT & INFO section. Damiano Nigro
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