The atmosphere at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure became rife with tension the moment news about Haiti began to circulate. After all, when an earthquake hits just 500 miles away, the best place to be certainly isn’t on a small island in the Caribbean. The possibility of a Tsunami was all that anyone could think about for a while, even making half-hearted jokes to stave away the fear. But as the day dragged on and more information about the disaster began to circulate, the true extent of the damage finally started to sink in.

Bodog Poker Lends its Aid

The first in the poker community to heed Haiti’s call for Aid was Bodog Poker’s founder, Calvin Ayre. Ayre made a donation of £10,000 to Oxfam, a charitable organization in the UK that focuses on giving aid to those ravaged by natural disasters. Ayre also issued a challenge to the whole poker community to step up, follow his lead, and to help. He also announced that he will match any amount donated by the players in Bodog Poker up to $1 million – a truly sizeable amount that will surely be of much help to the victims at Haiti. The members of team Bodog, Evelyn Ng and David Williams, have already begun to respond by spreading the news through their own networks and spreading the word through Twitter. Hopefully, word of this effort will reach as many people as possible. Any donation – no matter how small or how big – will certainly help.

PokerStars Reaches Out

Meanwhile, PokerStars has already begun its own charity drive by making changes to its online poker client. According to Pokerstars, they will be matching each dollar donated by their members and all of this money will go directly to the Red Cross. They have set up two ways by which you can help. One would be to go to the client menu and look for the option that allows you to transfer funds to a user account named ‘Haiti Fund’. The second way is to join a place-holder tournament called ‘Haiti Earthquake Relief’. These aren’t really tournaments; they’re just lobbies which you can enter in order to show your support for the victims at Haiti. You can choose the amount you want to donate by choosing the buy-in that you’re going to pay. Prices for the buy-ins range from a modest $1 to a sizeable $1,000. Pros John Duthie and Gavin Griffith have already given big contributions. Also, there are already many people who have contributed to this effort, and the number is growing by the minute. When signing up to PokerStars, remember to use the PokerStars Marketing Code: PokerBonus.org