Thanks for making Aruba a great success!
Posted: 2007-10-28 22:33:10
By: Shawn Rice
This was my favorite Aruba trip so far of the five years I have gone down to play this event. I got there a few day early to enjoy the calm before the madness and it's like true paradise for those of you who have not been before. I have a driver I use every year named Henry who picked me and Lynn (SassyTexan) up at the airport. I ran into Phil who was very friendly as usual along with Melisa who did a super job of making this all happen. The next day the boys came in Mark "Poker Ho" Kroon along with his wonderful mom and Debo and his wife Erin. We all made plans to meet at the poker room about 9pm. We started our own private table and we had a total blast with tons of drinking and lots of chips flying. I did pretty well as Ho tried to bluff me 4 times with no pair and no draw for monster pots. Ho's mom was running over the game up several thousand which was great for a 5 5 no limit game. Then Phil showed up, Seen all the money on the table and said he was playing $10,000 back allowing him to cover all bets. He warned Ho that he was going to bust his mom if she didn't stop playing pots with him. She must of beat him 5 big hands in a row. The key hand I remember was a raised pot by Phil in early position and Ho's mom calling from the blind. The flop was K63 and Ho's mom lead out for about a pot size bet, Phil raised and gave another speech to Ho saying if she does not cool it he will bust her, It came back around to mom and she reraises and goes all in for about $4000 and Phil is now in shock, Ho's face is white like a ghost and she said "All In". Phil takes a while to finally make the call with K6 for top to pair and mom turns over pocket 3's as a big crowd has now surrounded the table. Now, everyone is cheering for mom to win what seems to be about a $12,000 pot. The turn brought out a 6 and everyone screemed with shock as Phil made a bigger full house and river was not the remaining 3 mom needed to win. Phil was a true gentleman and gave mom back a super big portion of the money he won in the pot. The game shortly broke up and a golf match was made. We must of had 6 or 7 different bets for the following day. The highlights of the day was when Ho was shooting out of the bunker with thousands on the line and he way overshoots the green and on top of the bunker. Annette laughs at Ho and calls him a donkey, It was funny as hell watching Ho getting so mad at himself for a bad shot and seeing the look in his eys as he was called a donkey, was priceless. Annette is on my team along with Phil and WiscoMurry and Annette makes a $3000 putt, not bad for a lady who has never played golf before. On the 18th hole Wisco's friend from Wisconsin was last to shoot in their foursome and made about a 25 foot putt to par the hole and we were 20 feet away and we miss our first 2 shots to birdy the hole and Phil gets up there , gives us all a speech and tells everyone how bad he has been putting and feels he needs to try this putt one handed, we all kinds laugh, he gets up there and knocks it in from atleast 20 feet out, saving us $6000 on the final hole and could not of been happier. This would of been super to have a film crew as there were many funny moments and great memories.
The opening party was aweome meeting many people who you play with all year long and don't get to see as often as you would like.
I played day 1b of the event and it was not very eventful for me but I did end the day with 30,000 chips with average around 20,000. The next day I show up a lil late missing a few hands and wake up with QQ 3 seats off the button, I raise, get reraised by the button and I ask him a few questions and feel he is not on AA or KK so I push all in, he waits for a while and makes the call with AK and he must know I didn't have AQ or worse and at best he was a flip, he took the gamble and gets rewarded with a river ace for a little over a 20,000 chip pot. The very next hand I pick up 88, raise it, the big blind calls me. Flop come A42 and a player I know leads out at the flop, I am thinking if he really likes his hand he would check it to me and let me bet the hand as I was the prefop raiser. So i smooth call and will try and take it away from him on the turn, The turn card was a 6, he bets weak, the same bet as the flop bet, I push him all in for his last remaining 8,000 in chips and he calls with Ace of spade 4 of clubs for 2 pair and I am now down to little less than 10,000 chips. The very next hand I get dealt the Ace of spades and 4 of clubs the same 2 cards that beat me, I folded them face up saying "I guess I am suppose to play these 2 cards", I get my first penalty ever playing poker as I did wrong in folding face up with players to act behind me, I needed the short break anyway. I return a few hands after my penalty and pick up 5c6c in the big blind and the same player who rivered the ace raised it preflop with QQ, flop brought out the 3c4cTd. I know I didnt have enough chips to make him fold to a check raise so I push just over a pot size bet on the fop, he called, I missed and I was off to enjoy Aruba within about 15 minutes of day 2.
Phil had his annual private party in his hotel suite as the end of day 3 was winding down. This was the best party I have ever attended. Scott Ian from Anthrax and his girlfriend Pearl Aday (daughter of Meatloaf) jammed for a few songs. She is also a super talent. Check out her site at mother-pearl.com,she is amazing to watch. We are trying to commit them to Aruba next year and have Scott bring down more of his rock star poker playing friends. Also in the works is doing something for the Bellagio 5 Diamond UB Party. We hope to send many to the satalites for this event along with the time of your life.
We were lucky to have Nick and his crew from Bluff Radio down there doing commentating the event along with Annie, Ho, Debo and myself. Nick is a class act and makes doing radio a total blast. I can't wait to do this again soon for the UBOC 2 in December. Other things are in the works right now like a UB Reality TV show, Phil vs Annie, both will gather online players from UB and some celebrities and have them compete for a prize to be awarded on The Best Damn Sports Show. I have been asked to be Annie's coach and Poker Ho will be Phil's, This should be exciting to do and exciting to watch.
I am personally excited about working with the new management of UB as them seem to show lots of passion about making UB be one of the top poker sites in the world to play. The meetings have been wonderful and they show a true caring for helping make UB the best site possible.
Thanks everyone for making the Aruba Classic an awesome event
Shawn Rice
