Staples Brothers Evacuated, WCOOP Streamboat2 Cancelled

There is no arguing with Mother Nature as PokerStars pro Jaime Staples and Bill Perkins’ Streamboat 2 found out this week, their plans upended by the imminent arrival of category 5 Hurricane Irma which has already claimed 23 lives across the northern Caribbean and is now on its way to the Florida coast. 

Jaime and his brother Matt were evacuated from the Virgin Islands on Bill Perkins’ private jet, and are now sitting it out in New York for their PokerStars WCOOP grind which was supposed to have been streamed from Perkins’ luxury yacht in the Caribbean. The yacht, however, failed to even leave port as the horrendous weather front stormed its way from island to island, leaving death and misery in its wake.

Poker stories often focus on money, but this one will revolve more around ‘disaster relief funds’ than the WCOOP prizefunds, the Guardian newspaper for example reporting ‘Fema is already coping with recovery from devastating floods in Houston, after hurricane Harvey, and agencies around the country are strained, especially with western wildfires’, with head of Homeland Security Tom Bossert claiming that:

"the president, Donald Trump, will sign approval for relief funds as soon as Congress brings such a measure to his desk."

Back in the usually unconcerned poker world, six PokerStars qualifiers were also expected on board the Streamboat 2, chosen by video submissions from among ‘home game’ qualifiers, but all plans have been shelved until next year according to CalvinAyre.com, all thoughts now on those affected by the natural disaster.

Meanwhile, fellow streamer Jeff Gross has decided to hold a charity stream to help victims of the devastation Hurricane Irma has wreaked, tweeting his plans…

The sheer extent of Irma has shocked everyone, CalvinAyre reminding us that: ‘Hurricane Irma is one of only two storms that has recorded speeds more than 185 mph for a 24-hour period. Let’s hope this one doesn’t do as much damage as the last that killed 6,000 people in the Philippines (Typhoon Haiyan, 2013).’

Bill Perkins himself retweeted one of the scariest-seen satellite images of the storm:

According to the New York Times, ‘Officials are cautioning Florida residents steeled by prior hurricanes to not underestimate the power of Irma, which Gov. Rick Scott said would be “way bigger than Andrew,” referring to the 1992 storm that at the moment remains the most destructive hurricane to hit the state.’