Aruba, Aruba, Aruba

After resting up from my last stop on the tournament trail at Hollywood Park Casino, I flew to almost indescribably beautiful Aruba. The first annual Caribbean Poker Classic was held at the Excelsior Casino, located at the Holiday Inn. Casino owner Mike Posner, an American who still lives in Chicago, and tournament host and organizer Bonnie Damiano were on hand to greet players and make everyone feel welcome. Tournament legend Jack McClelland was also present to make sure things ran smoothly. Two tournaments each day were on the menu, with the bigger buy-in event starting at 3 p.m. and the evening tournament starting at 8 p.m. Some extra pot-limit Omaha tournaments were thrown into the mix, so we had three tournaments from which to choose on some days. Noted pot-limit Omaha players such as David "Devilfish" Ulliott from England were in attendance, as well as Layne Flack, Fred Sigur, Don Barton, Tom Dye, Butch Wade, and former world champions Russ Hamilton, Mansour Matloubi, and yours truly.

Devilfish is quite an entertainer, and sang and played his guitar in the casino lounge when the mood struck him. I was amazed at how good he is. He said he was in a band about 20 years ago. His professionalism showed, and he put on an outstanding performance.

In addition to the beautiful beaches right outside the hotel room, many group activities were planned, including two ATV (all-terrain vehicle) trips. On the first one, I bumped into both Jan Fisher and Jody Ivenor, somehow just missing Linda Johnson, and was immediately labeled the worst driver just because I went off the road once and barely missed a cactus. Yes, I said cactus, as part of Aruba is desert terrain. However, I lost my status as the worst driver when current and two-time ladies world champion Nani Dollison drove off the road on a downhill turn and fell. She stunned herself, but fortunately was not hurt too badly; she was just shaken up and had a few scrapes. Everyone was very concerned about her, but she was OK.

Nani is a very worthy world champion, and is a lot of fun to play with. Unfortunately for her, she didn't hold very many good cards and couldn't win any of the tournaments. Even world champions must hold some good cards in order to win.

Russ Hamilton had the most tournament wins with three. He showed his versatility by winning in three different games – limit hold'em, no-limit hold'em, and pot-limit Omaha. Way to go, Russ! Mansour Matloubi had one win and two second-place finishes. I managed to win the seven-card stud event, and finished second to Chris Bigler in the $2,000 buy-in championship event. That meant that all three World Series champs won at least one event. Other players who won at least one event were Fred Sigur, Butch Wade, F.C. Douglas, and Chris Bigler – who won twice. The tag-team event was captured by Cathy and John Sloan. Cathy is the sister of tournament organizer Bonnie Damiano, and this was her and husband John's first tournament win. The tag-team event was half stud and half hold'em. Also, Linda Johnson won two of the evening tournaments.

The championship event, a $2,000 no-limit hold'em contest, featured 10 players. The 10th player to enter the tournament turned out to be me. I failed to win a satellite and was not going to enter the event, but as I sat pouting in a corner, Russ Hamilton generously offered to take half of my action, and I quickly accepted.

We all started with $5,000 in chips and the blinds hadn't passed by, so I wasn't penalized for being late. Casino owner Mike Posner took the early lead, and "Devilfish" got into chip trouble early after losing a big pot to him. The first casualty was Fred Sigur, however, who went all in with pocket nines. Since he was short-stacked, I called with A-9 suited and got lucky against him. "Devilfish" couldn't hang on and was the next to go.

After we got down to six players, nobody went broke for a long time. I was knocked down to $2,000 in chips and Mansour Matloubi wasn't much better off, but we grimly hung in there, picking up just enough blinds to stay alive. Chris Bigler, who earlier had made a great call against Mike Posner, had a commanding lead, and then as the blinds increased to $300-$600, he quickly knocked out both Russ Hamilton and Mansour Matloubi, leaving him with more than half the chips. Don Barton, Tom Dye, and I had between $4,000 and $5,000 each.

It was a desperate battle to see who could survive and get heads up with Chris. Finally, I was dealt pocket kings and raised the pot. Chris, who was in the big blind, decided to take me out with his A-9. When he failed to catch an ace, I had doubled through. Next, Don Barton took an all-in stand with the A 8. I had pocket nines and called him. The nines held up and we were finally down to the three in-the-money players. Tom Dye became the next casualty when he fired all of his chips in with bottom pair. I, in the blind, hit two pair and sent Tom out in third place.

I now had almost as many chips as Chris, so we decided to save $1,500 and play for the rest. The winner then would get $8,500 and the runner-up would get $7,200. The fatal final hand, with 90 percent of the chips in the pot, soon came down. Chris limped in on the button and I decided to raise $3,000 with pocket sevens out of the big blind. Chris quickly said, "I will put you all in." Since this was an oversized bet, I was convinced that he didn't have a big pocket pair. I figured that he would raise less or even slow-play with only a call. His all-in move indicated to me that he probably had either a small pair, A-K, or A-Q. I decided to call. I hate being right on my read and still losing the hand, but that is what happened. He turned over A-K, got no help on the flop, and then spiked an ace on the turn.

Oh well, there is always next year. Chris was very deserving of the win, because he made lots of good plays to get there. Everyone who wins also needs a little luck, which he got on the last hand. Congratulations to Chris Bigler, the Aruba Caribbean Poker Classic champ.