The second annual Maho Beach Poker Classic
Card Player Cruises and Card Player Poker Tour are in the midst of our second annual Maho Beach Poker Classic at the beautiful Sonesta Maho in lovely St. Maarten. We are now winding down our 31 events in 10 days and heading into our $100,000 guaranteed main event. While the poker is great, it’s the awesome island life that makes this destination one of my personal favorites. The water sports are amazing and the beaches are as pretty as any I’ve ever seen. Jan has been in heaven with the scuba diving (including a shark dive) and I’ve enjoyed the cabanas by the pools behind our hotel tower. It seems a bit of a mystery that no one has discovered this pool yet! But I digress.
Six days have passed since we arrived on the island, and I feel as though I won’t get in nearly as many touristy things as I’d hoped. A couple of days ago,
Jan Fisher and I hosted a “poker widow/ladies excursion” around the island in a comfortable taxi van. We circled the entire island, seeing both the Dutch
and French sides. We agreed to a minimum amount of shopping and opted instead to see the sights. We visited some of the larger and prettier all-inclusive
properties and enjoyed some time on some beautiful, white sandy beaches. We started out with lunch at the reciprocal Sonesta Great Bay (we are staying at
the Sonesta Maho, by the scariest airport in the world!) and being all-inclusive resorts, our wrist straps entitled us to food and drink at both
properties. 
Following lunch, we stopped to check out the beach and amenities at the Westin Resort in Dawn Beach. Next, we drove around Orient Beach (a
“clothing optional” beach dotted with lots of beach clubs and restaurants), and then passed by the downtown areas of Grand Case and Marigot before
returning to our lovely beachside hotel. It was a nice and relaxing day with staff and customers, players and tourists alike. Once back to Maho, we
couldn’t wait to get in the poker action!
My business partner Jan Fisher has been like a kid in a candy store going scuba diving nearly every day. She and four of our staff members have enjoyed
what she says is some of the best diving ever. “I had never been a big fan of diving in St. Maarten until now” she said. Having only dived near the cruise
ship terminal, she never got amazing dives in as she has since going with a local non tourist company. Her crowning jewel was just yesterday when she went
diving with sharks. 
Each day the Sonesta Maho Resort has a theme and activities to go along with the theme. Tonight was a BBQ on the beach and some of the best food I’ve eaten on the island was served. Not only did they have the spicy jerk style of cooking they are known for, but they also had the toned down version for those of us who like the sweeter type. There also was a dance party in the sand and lots of the guests got up and danced along with the DJ to the usual dance club songs like the Charlie Brown, Mambo #9, Electric Slide (hard to do on sand) and so forth. There also are daily games like trivia, ping pong, pool games, etc., all announced in the daily program, much like on a cruise!
I’ve saved the best for last…the poker action. We’ve been playing $1-$3 and $2-$5 no-limit hold’em, $1-$2 and $5-$5 PLO and lots of megasatellites and tournaments. We even had a fun All-in or Fold tournament last night. The $100,000 guaranteed main event with two day ones starting on Friday, May 13 looks like a possible overlay for the players so get yourselves down here to grab your share of the booty!
Linda Johnson