Legendary tournament director Christian Scalzi has seen virtually everything in poker. No-one, however, saw the Coronavirus coming, and the popular Italian personality went from running the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Main Event in Punta Dele Este in Uruguay to suddenly being in lockdown during one of the most tragic episodes in Italian and world history.

We spoke to Scalzi to understand his personal experiences on living through a defining period of human history whilst maintaining his position in the poker industry to help others.

“Today is the first day in Italy that we can go to a bar or restaurant as normal,” says Scalzi. “We could go a week ago, but only for takeaway. We will try now – if the numbers are OK – to have a normal life, hopefully.”

“Now the problem is the economy because everything was shut down.”