Unforgettable Final-Table Drama on the Beach

by John “Johnny Quads” Wenzel

Sun! Sand! Surf! Tiki huts on the beach. Moonlit nights, bikinis and pina coladas. Ocean waves gently dappling crystal-clear water over coral reefs. Palm trees and gentle breezes. Good food. Water-falls and tropical birds at your hotel. The laid-back, relaxed atmosphere of one of the Caribbean’s friendliest islands.

     And, oh yeah – poker!

    Now we’re talking.

     UltimateBet.com’s Aruba Poker Classic was a delight for the senses, and with many of the best online players in the world on hand – as well as some big-name live pros – the hold’em was pretty good too.

    The 2007 Classic proved two things: First, a tropical island just 12 degrees north of the equator is a great place to play poker. And second, online poker is alive and very, very well.

     The Aruba Classic, UltimateBet’s signature event, drew a hefty 548 players. That’s four times the number of players who made the trip to the World Poker Tour’s Turks & Caicos event held just a week prior to the Classic.

    “The 2007 Aruba Poker Classic was one of our most successful events ever,” said UltimateBet spokesperson George MacLean. “The fact that this year’s tournament featured more players and a  bigger prize pool than in 2006 speaks volumes about the state of the online poker industry and the success of the UltimateBet site.”

    The main event prize pool in Aruba was $2.74 million, compared to less than a million in the WPT tourney. The first prize of $800,000 was about double the WPT payoff too, a fact not lost on the hordes of hopefuls who provided a very young, hip feel to the Radisson Aruba Resort & Casino, not to mention a very youthful final table (gambling age is 18) and a surprise winner after a gut-wrenching final hand played under the lights on the beach. 

Youth Rules the Day

UltimateBet now boasts more than 2 million registered users, and at times it seemed like most of them were in Aruba, if not in the main event, then in the cash games, sit-n-gos, second-chance tournaments and tiki bars. Many of the main event players won their way into the five-day marathon through UB satellites, others paid the $5,500.

    For many, this was their first big-money “live” event, and there were some very jittery players waiting for the opening bell (many lined up outside the room long before it even opened), but that didn’t make the competition any less tough. Under the watchful eyes of one of the best tournament directors in the business, Matt Savage, many of the “name” pros busted early, including Phil Hellmuth. Others who didn’t cash were Freddy Deeb, Annie Duke, Russ Hamilton, Mark Seif, David Singer, John Cernuto, Gary (Debo34) DeBernardi, Mark Kroon (P0ker H0), Shawn Rice, James (KrazyKanuck) Worth, Joe Sebok, David Williams, Mike Gracz, Evelyn Ng and Johan Storakers.

     Mike Matusow – who seems to go deep in every event he plays lately – left in 41st with $10,630. Robert Williamson finished 43rd for the same amount. The last well-known pro to bite the dust was J.J. Liu, last year’s WPT Ladies champ, who went out 31st for $13,290 when her A-J lost to A-K.

    A travel brochure advised: “If renting an off-road vehicle, it’s not uncommon to meet two or three wild donkeys out for a stroll – these are not streetwise.” The pros had to be wishing that some of these “non-streetwise” donkeys were playing in the APC, then perhaps they would have lasted a little longer.

    But you can’t say Hellmuth (who along with Duke is one of UB’s original pros) didn’t make good use of his down time. One thing about Aruba, there is always the beach (and cash games) to console you, or, in Phil’s case, a posh penthouse suite with hot tub, lots of Dom and endless parties.

    “First four in the pool get $500,” he shouted poolside, and in they went, clothes and all. Hey, money’s money.

     Like the Aruba license plate says, it’s “One Happy Island”, and some of the pros who busted didn’t seem to mind too much. Seif was spotted at the Grey Goose Bar, Duke tried the spa and Sebok worked on his tan. A free sushi bar, free martini bar, free champagne bar and even free massages one evening didn’t hurt either, and you couldn’t turn around without glimpsing Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian. But if you were really lucky you would spot model Serinda Swan (the “face” of UB’s sister site, AbsolutePoker) instead.

    “Hey, there’s P0ker H0 drinking with Mark Seif!”

    “Which one is P0ker H0?”

    “The guy with the bright yellow shirt with ‘HO’ written on it in giant letters.”

    “Oh. Thanks.”

    Players also were treated to seminars and Q&A sessions with pros Duke, Seif, P0ker H0, Shawn Rice, Krazy Kanuck, Gary “Debo34” DeBernardi and others. This certainly didn’t hurt come crunch time in the main event.

    There were even reports of a couple players having a drinking contest at one of the tournament tables – guess it helps the nerves. Not sure if they were among the 247 players who survived the two “first days”.

    And there was free crab – just grab the one that wandered through the tournament room! It temporarily grabbed folks’ attention away from the colourful lizards that were everywhere.

Longest Lasting

At the start of Day 2, the three “longest lasting” pros – Liu, Matusow and Williamson – all had short stacks, but that would change. WSOP Europe winner Annette Obrestad was one of the early leaders, but busted out late in the day. The day’s work ended after the money bubble broke (54 players) with Jonathan Little (Mirage Poker Showdown WPT champ) in the chip lead. Little is having a terrific 2007, but would fade and wind up 25th.

     Matusow and Gracz also had healthy stacks, but at the start of Day 3 Gracz would take a bad beat after his K-J was beaten by his opponent’s K-10 after a  K-Q-9 flop when the latter made a straight on the turn. Matusow would exit quickly too.

    Once it got down to 35 players, they redrew for seats and went six-handed until just the final six were left. Those six would have to sleep on it until final table action began the following afternoon. Or not sleep – sleep sometimes being a difficult commodity to come by the night before a final table. And a thunderstorm didn’t help. Not only did it cause the final tablists’ sleep to be even more fitful, but it damaged some equipment, delaying the start of the final table the following afternoon.

     Nothing like waiting to rev up the nerves and panic to a fever pitch.

    The final table couldn’t have been held in a more gorgeous setting: right by the beach on a bright, sunny, steamy day. You would expect it to be hot – after all, the small Dutch island is only about 30 kilometres from Venezuela – but add TV lights and final table action, and you have recipe for sweat. But if any of the players were bothered, they didn’t let on.  

Final Table Chip Counts: 

Travis Rice    1,549,000

Brad Smithson    1,495,000

James Mordue    997,000

Nick Blackburn    949,000

Jordan Rich    700,000

Jason Gray    247,000 

Who’s Who

Travis Rice, 25, is a pro from Fort Worth, Texas, is a well-known Internet player whose user name on UB (where he won his buy-in) is Travestyfund. He has cashed six times in live events, all this year, and has been on a roll of late. He won a NLH event at the L.A. Poker Classic for $161,000. He cashed in a second event at the LAPC, made two WSOP final tables and a final table at the Bellagio Cup.

    Brad Smithson, 29, is from the Madison, Wisconsin, area (same as Hellmuth and Kroon and where this writer went to college) and was playing in only his second live event. He works in sales and won his entry online on UB (screen name is TheBlackHat) while playing at P0ker H0’s Wisconsin bar. Rumour had it that Ho has 50 percent of his action.

    James Mordue, 42, a pro cash-game player from Beverly Hills, California, has 21 cashes over the past three years, the biggest being a $62,000 win at the National Championships of Poker. He said he’s been coming to the island since 1994. He won his buy-in in a single-table satellite. His user name is GiantJ in case you run across him online.

    Nick Blackburn, 47, is a streaky player from Long Bottom, Ohio, who previously had never cashed “live” anywhere outside of Aruba except in Tunica, Mississippi, at the World Poker Open, where he cashed twice in 2006 and three times this year. The oldest player at the final table, he lists his occupation as “none”. He won his entry in a $120 satellite on UB using the screen name laughatthis.

    Two players at the final table –  Jordan “OctavianC” Rich and Jason “OnlineProNGP” Gray – flew down together from Portland, Oregon, and actually shared a room in Aruba. What are the odds of roommates ending up at the final table? Well, you do the math! I’ll round it off and say…slim to none. (OK, I’ll do the math – it’s about 10,000-to-1 if all 548 players are of equal ability. But I digress.)

    Both have a string of live cashes in smaller events. Rich, 25, is a pro who bought in. That’s right – he paid full price! Gray, who lists poker as both his occupation and his hobby, won his entry on UB. 

Final Table – Here We Go

In early action, Blackburn doubled through the least experienced player at the table, Brad Smithson, with a set of fives over the latter’s A-Q, but it was Smithson who would be the most active early on. Undeterred by shirtless fat guys in the lawn chairs surrounding the final table, the Wisconsin native didn’t let anyone see him sweat.

     Doing a lot of the heavy lifting, he eliminated both Rich and Gray. Rich just never got going and went down with pocket sevens vs. A-K. Flop came A-A-K. ’Nuff said.

    Gray played pocket aces gracefully, eventually check-raising all-in after a 9-8-6 flop. Smithson called with pocket sevens and made a set on the river, and that was that. A rough final for the Portland contingent.

    Down to four, it was time for Rice – who was picked by many observers as the player to beat – to start his stretch drive.

    In a crucial hand, Smithson slow-played pocket aces, and Rice was able to see a flop with J-8. Bad move – for Smithson. The flop came a sick J-8-8 – a full boat for Rice. He called Smithson’s bets on the flop and the turn, then, after Smithson bet 600k on the river, Rice set the hook and check-raised all-in.

     Smithson called, saw the full house, and, very upset, jumped up from the table. “What can I do, I had pocket aces!” he lamented.

    He was crippled and Rice took a big lead. 

We Hardly Knew Ye…

Short stack Blackburn now pushed all in with K-Q and Rice, feeling it, called with pocket fours. Meanwhile, Mordue laid down pocket sixes in the face of the all-in and the call. Bad timing. The flop came 9-6-4 and Blackburn was gone, and Mordue was left shaking his head as Rice’s stacks grew even larger. Rice now had about 4 million to Mordue’s 1 million and Smithson’s 400k.

    Rice, aggressive for hours, now became even more so, wielding his big stack like Lucifer’s hammer. It was after dark now, but still hot, especially under the TV lights.

     Thousands of gnats and assorted bugs flew around the players’ heads, a crab sauntered up on the table and a persistent dragonfly was pestering Rice. But the players didn’t seem to notice. There was a lot of money at stake, and the world beyond the felt was far, far away.

    Smithson doubled up when his K-9 beat Mordue’s pocket sevens, but his elation was short-lived. He and Mordue clashed again in a battle of wills preflop, and this time his A-J was a big underdog to A-K after all the chips went in. When a jack hit the flop, the Madison boys let out a cheer, but a king was right behind, and the Cinderella story from America’s Dairyland was out in third. Not bad.

    Eight hours after play began, the most aggressive players at the table were left to fight for the title, with Rice leading, 3.5 million to 1.9 million. Mordue was down but far from out of it. One double-up and he would have the lead.

    But Rice had other plans. In a beautiful play, he set Mordue up for a fall. Mordue had raised preflop, and Rice came over the top with a big reraise. Mordue thoughtfully laid his hand down, and Rice showed garbage: J-3 offsuit. Rice gave notice that he could play any hand aggressively and that a raise from him could mean anything.

     Soon after, Mordue appeared to try the same over-the-top tactic. He raised to 85k, same as before. Rice raised to 235k, same as before, but this time Mordue was ready – he stood up, shot Rice a look, then said flatly, “I’m all-in” – and his last 1.3 million was committed. 

Into the Tank…

With all the Beverly Hills pro’s chips in the pot, Rice had some thinking to do. This was not an insta-call on the Internet. This was for the whole enchilada – a big title and 800,000 clams. He had to ask himself: Did Mordue think he was raising with less-than-premium hands again, so decided to put him to the test? That would be the expected play. After all, sooner or later you have to take a stand against an ultra-aggressive preflop player, especially heads-up. If you don’t, play becomes untenable.

    The question is: Did Mordue wait for a premium hand to fire back, or did he fire back thinking that Rice had another borderline hand that could not stand the heat of an all-in bet where there was no chance for post-flop play?

     The tournament is on the line here. Right here. This one decision. Choose wrong and despite all the aggressive play, all the traps, the races won, the bad beats dodged, the tough pros in the field – both online and live, unknown and celebrity – who are long gone, the other 546 players so many days ago, now disappeared or reduced to watching in irrelevancy…it would all mean nothing.

    Rice had to ask himself: Is this hand good enough to call this all-in bet with, a bet that could leave me scrapping and clawing in desperation instead of wielding that big stack and being master of my own destiny?

    He would no longer have the power to destroy, only the power to scratch and claw, and hope – against an older, seasoned pro.

    Thinking…for what seemed such a long, long time. The beach, the world, fading away...

    Just the chips, the felt, two cards – and a foe who wants what’s mine. If he gets away with it this time, he’ll try it again…

    Suddenly, there it is. “I call.”

     He’ll do it, but not with joy.

     But he’s been right all tournament long, why not now?

    The gods wouldn’t desert him now, at the crucial moment, when he needs them most? Would they?

    His decisions have been right all event long. This one will be right, too. It has to be. 

Turn Them Over

The 25-year-old Texan turns his hand over. It’s a king. And a ten. A king of spades and ten of hearts.

    Then the bad news. The really bad news. Mordue shows ace-king, both clubs. Big slick. A real hand. He had it the whole time, and didn’t give it away.

    Or maybe he did. He would have been happy to take the pot uncontested, or do battle. Either way. So sometimes it’s hard to put players on A-K. They know when they’re facing A-A or K-K, and if they’re not facing those monsters, they know they’re no worse than a coin-flip, but often a lot better.

     For example, when they are facing K-10.

    Rice is horribly dominated. He’s more than a 2-to-1 underdog. He at least wanted two live cards. Now he’s dead to a freakin’ ten! Three outs…

    Rice is quiet. Mordue is nervous, clutching a towel. As anyone who has played tournament poker knows, this is no sure thing. But he got all his chips in with clearly the best hand. That’s all he could possible hope for.

    The dealer is taking her time. The tourney director (the actor William Devane; no wait, that’s Matt Savage) nods as the crowd stands and thousands online hold their breaths. The players look down in silence, neither believing it has finally come to this.

    The cards appear as if in a dream – or nightmare – spread out in some kind of bizarre slow-motion, the lights reflecting off the plastic coating and giving them an air of unreality.

    But it is all too real.

     8-4-Q rainbow. No help for Rice. Which means lots of help for Mordue. If that ten was going to spike, you have to figure it to spike on the flop, right? To appear on the turn or – God– the river, well…that would just be too unfair. Could all that is right in the universe allow such a travesty to happen? 

Triumph and Tragedy

Rice’s chances are now down to 13 percent, almost a 7-to-1 dog. He’ll win just one time out of eight tries with this scenario. All those long, long days at the table…

    A warm wind riffles the canopy covering the final table, the flying insects seem to hover motionless like microscopic hummingbirds and the lizards raise their heads and look expectantly as if hearing the distant rumble of an earthquake far off the beach.

    The director nods, the crowd moves closer as if sensing it too, craning to see. The dealer slowly burns a card, then sweeps the next card across the felt, into the “turn” position, right next to the queen – lady luck.

     The crowd erupts with a roar, but for James Mordue, it is far away, and unreal: Was it a cheer of elation, or a groan for the bad beat of a lifetime?

    The card is a ten.

     Rice has a pair, one measly pair, but a pair that leaves Mordue with just hopes and dreams, ephemeral wisps of air that once were rods of power. His Big Slick is big no more, not even enough to beat lowly deuces – certainly not enough to beat tens.

     The king is dead. Especially the one that came on the river.

    Long live the king.

    The miracle ace or jack never arrived, sidetracked from their rightful mission somewhere in the cold, unfeeling deck.

    Lightning doesn’t strike twice, and Mordue’s miracle will have to wait for another day, or night. But he doesn’t have a meltdown or throw a hissy fit. He takes his beat like a pro, so you know he’ll be back.

    Later, as he’s taking a victory jump in the pool in front of photographers, Travis Rice says his “favourite hand” is king-jack.

    Not king-ten. King-jack.

    Perhaps K-10 will be his new favourite hand.

     It certainly should be.