Tournaments a World Apart

In the month of October while serving as ambassador for the Bellagio poker room, I was privileged to direct two new and very unique poker tournaments: the Ultimate Poker Classic in Aruba and the European Nations Poker Challenge in St. Petersburg, Russia. These were two very different events in locations truly a world apart. Some of the contrasts were as follows:

In Aruba at the Excelsior Casino, the UltimateBet.com Internet poker site held the inaugural Ultimate Poker Classic. Nearly 100 Internet players received a vacation to Aruba to compete for gold bracelets and more than $425,000 in prize money.

Russ Hamilton, UltimateBet host and master of ceremonies, worked tirelessly and almost sleeplessly the entire week. Russ hosted the opening pool party dinner, the beach Olympics, his golf tournament, and the awards ceremony dinner, and helped orchestrate the three TV final tables that were held in one day.

Along the way, he found time to win two events in Bonnie Damiano's Caribbean Poker Classic, directed by Tom McEvoy and held also at Mike Posner's Excelsior Casino.

On the tripleheader day of TV finals, the first event was won by Finland's Juha Helppi. He defeated fellow Finlander Anssi Tuulivirta for the title and the $50,000 first prize. Kathy Liebert and Woody Moore from the United States finished third and fourth, respectively.

In the pro event, Phil Gordon won a gold bracelet by defeating Jennifer Harman Traniello. Scotty Nguyen finished third and Phil Hellmuth completed the final four. Other pros competing were John Bonetti, David "Devilfish" Ulliott, Annie Duke, and Russ Hamilton. First place paid $250,000.

The final event was the David (Juha Helppi) vs. Goliath (Phil Gordon) heads-up match for a $25,000 entry into the inaugural World Poker Tour championship to be held at Bellagio in Las Vegas, April 14-18, 2003. The very aggressive Helppi (David) slew Goliath (Phil Gordon), and now has a chance to make history next spring.

The setting for the finals was breathtaking, with a view of the ocean and beach in the background. Steve Lipscomb's World Poker Tour crew, including announcers Linda Johnson, Mike Sexton, and Vince Van Patten, did a great job, and the TV show should be magnificent. I'd like to thank my wife, Elizabeth, for assisting me in completing 13 Ultimate Poker Classic events in five days, and Susie Isaacs for her nice job of reporting all of the events on the Internet. UltimateBet.com is already busy making plans for next year's event.

A week later, Elizabeth and I were on our way to St. Petersburg, Russia, for the inaugural European Nations Poker Challenge, the brainchild of English tournament organizer Murray Brown. The elegant Taleon Club played host to teams from England, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Scotland, the Ukraine, and Russia. General Manager Paul Edwards and his fine staff did a wonderful job of making all of the players feel at home. Gourmet food, snacks of caviar, and snifters of cognac were abundant.

However, the most pleasant surprise for me was Poker Room Manager Vlad Besnozov's dealing staff. Since Russia has had poker for only a couple of years, I arrived early to help train the dealers for the tournaments. After observing them for a short time, I was able to expand my plans for touring the city. This was the finest dealing staff I have ever worked with. There was not one dealing mistake in four days. The dealers were fast, efficient, immaculate, and courteous. And the enthusiasm from team members rooting from the sidelines created an electric atmosphere. The competition went down to the final six players before the Finnish team, captained by Aki Pyysing, won the title. Aki made three final tables and teammate Jari Salonen won the opening event. The Finns were very patient and deserved to take the trophy and gold medals back to Casino Ray in Helsinki. The English team, captained by Murray Brown, finished strongly with Julian Gardner and Murray winning the final two events and the silver medals. Teammate Ram Vaswani had three final-table finishes.

The host Russian team ended up third. Captain Kirill Gerasimov came back from having one chip with six players left to win an event. Remember that name, because in the years to come, Kirill is destined to win lots of trophies, jewelry, and titles. The Russians are very passionate about their poker, and were fine competitors. The Dutch team, captained by Marcel Luske and sponsored by Holland Casinos, finished just out of the money in fourth place. However, they were the most fashionable team, sporting blazers and ties nearly every day.

Special thanks go to Dhirij Pratphap, who made arrangements for everyone's travel, visas, accommodations, and entertainment.

The museums, cathedrals, and musicals were great, as were the phenomenal mosaics. The small, hand-painted tiles cemented individually to create huge murals covering the ceilings and walls were very beautiful. The Russian ballet that we attended on our final evening lived up to its reputation as one of the finest in the world. Thanks go to Robert and Olga Varkonyi for their advice on what to see and where to visit.

St. Petersburg is preparing for the city's 300th anniversary next May. There is a massive rejuvenation effort going on to beautify and modernize the city. At the Taleon Club alone, there are 80-man crews working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to enlarge the casino and create a beautiful new set of suites. Russia has been a mysterious place for most of the people in the world until recently, but is surely emerging as a must-see destination.

In the end, both tournaments were very successful. The countries of Aruba and Russia will receive vast amounts of positive publicity. The tournament sponsors, UltimateBet.com and the Taleon Club, should benefit from the TV exposure, and the players in both locations were very appreciative. Each trip was an exciting new experience that I would recommend for all poker enthusiasts.

As a final note, if you are planning a poker vacation in Finland, you would be well-advised to take lots of money - they are tough.

Shuffle up and deal.