Aruba moments
Thursday, August 6, 2009 - Debo34
With Aruba less than 2 months away I figured I would write once a week about my favorite Aruba moments. I should be able to get 8 or so of them in before Aruba sneaks up on us. So here goes… These will be in no particular order.
Aruba moment # 1 - It was February 2003 and I had been playing on Ultimate Bet for the better part of 6 weeks so of course I thought I was a pro. I logged in to play on a Saturday morning and decided to try a satellite for entry into the $109 Aruba tournament that was taking place later that afternoon. I ended up getting into the $109 Aruba and what happened after I believe changed my life forever. 52 people signed up that day for what was a winner take all trip to Aruba to play in the Aruba poker classic. The crazy thing about this tournament was that I never really had any chips until the end. When we hit the final table I was 9th out of 10 in chips. When we were 5 handed I was 5th in chips. There was a player controlling all the action, his screen name was Stoner. What I later found out was that stoner, was David Plastic, a well established poker pro. David continued knocking everyone else out until he ended up heads up with me. He had around a 88k to 12k chip advantage on me. I remember being pretty nervous that I was so close to winning this, yet 2nd place was 0. In the middle of David running me over like he did everyone else that day, something crazy happened, I started making hands.
I started to get back into it, when I turned a flush against top pair top kicker and doubled up. I now had the chip lead!! I still remember to this day the butterflies I had. I had never played in a poker tournament higher that 20$ and now I’m heads up with a chance to go to Aruba and play in a 5k event. I believe it was 2 hands later that I found myself flopping bottom 2 pair vs. a flush draw. I remember when the chips went in telling my wife that if my hand holds we go to Aruba. David had a flush draw and when the river was dealt I opened my eyes to see the pot going to me. I couldn’t believe it.
I really believe that had I not won that trip and tasted success I may not be writing this today. It’s funny how certain moments can change big parts of our lives.
In kind of a funny side note to this story. During the opening party I was standing there when a guy came up to me and looked at my nametag and said.. ” oh you’re debo34. I’m Stoner and you’re the reason I am buying into this tournament.” He then told me how lucky I had gotten in which I couldn’t disagree at all. Everything that had to go right for me to win, went right on that day. David and I are good friends now and still joke about that moment.
I really hope to see you all in Aruba
Good Luck,
Debo
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Tags: Aruba, Debo34, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, ub
August 7th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Great story, Debo. Hope I can make it. You really are a great story and a good guy at the tables. Take care, and God Bless.