The Downs, The Ups

Friday, October 9, 2009 - Gene Bromberg

The eliminations keep on coming. We’ve been playing a bit over 90 minutes and the field has decreased from 36 to 22. As you might expect playing six-handed is creating more confrontations and that’s driving the pace of eliminations. Here’s who’s been eliminated in the last half-hour or so:

James Czarnecki was eliminated when James Mordue turned the nut straight and Czarnecki check-raised holding a pair of Queens. Not the best timing. Victor Ng was knocked out when, holding Ad-5h and the board reading 5d-4d-3d, got all the money in against Brent Roberts and his 2d-4h. The turn was the 9c, fine, but the river was the 4c, and that brutal beat sent Ng out of the Classic. Jon Favaloro went out when he was racing with K-Q to Ty Reiman’s pocket sixes…and a six hit on the flop.

The other big news so far today has been the resurgence of Brock Parker. Parker has doubled up twice, once with pocket Aces to Eric Baldwin’s Ace-King, and he now has over 300,000 chips. Tournament Director Matt Savage reminded the crowd that Parker won two WSOP bracelets this year, one in six-handed Limit Hold-Em, one in six-handed No-Limit Hold-Em. Need I remind you we’re playing six-handed the rest of the way?

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Day 3 Chip Counts

Thursday, October 8, 2009 - Gene Bromberg

We’re about 15 minutes away from the start of Day 3 of the 2009 Aruba Poker Classic and 86 players will drag themselves off the beach and take their seats in the Radisson ballroom. Robert Mizrachi returns to play today as the chip leader, boasting a monster 353,000 stack. Jon Favaloro came into play yesterday as the chip leader and continued his strong play, as he now sits second with 255,000. Defending champion Matt Brady is still in the hunt, as is 2007 winner Travis Rice, and players such as Phil Hellmuth, Shawn Rice, Scott Ian, Matt Vengrin, Gavin Smith, Eric Baldwin, James Mordue, Zachary Clark and Johan Storakers will take their seats at noon.

Here are the complete chip counts, and when play resumes the blinds will be 800-1600 with a 200 ante We’re going to play today until the field has been reduced to 36 players.

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Day 2 Chip Counts

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - Gene Bromberg

Day 2 of the Aruba Poker Classic has begun and 263 players braved the rain to return to the Radisson tournament room. Among those who are still in the hunt for the title are several members of Team UB, including Phil Hellmuth, Adam Levy, Michael Binger, Brandon Cantu, Bryan Devonshire, Shawn Rice, Gary DiBernardi, and Tiffany Michelle. We’ll play five 90-minute levels today, the same as we did during the opening days of the tournament. And here’s where the chip counts stood at the start of play today:

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In the Field

Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - Gene Bromberg

Can’t be sure if this’ll actually post what with our ‘net issues, but let’s be optimistic!! Here are some of the players who are/were in the field today.

Defending champion Matt Brady:

Last year’s runner-up Johan Storakers:

And last year’s 4th-place finisher, Allie Prescott:

James Van Alstyne, who won a HORSE bracelet at this year’s World Series and came in 2nd in another HORSE event, is sticking with just one game here in Aruba:

Jean-Robert Bellande, like Tiffany Michelle and Annie Duke a veteran of reality television, is keeping it real here in Aruba:

As is Layne Flack:

Jeff Madsen was one of the earliest eliminations of the day, as he flopped a set of fives and then got all the money in the middle when a King fell on the turn. His opponent snap-called with pocket Kings and that sent Madsen to the beach:

Another early elimination was the newest member of Team UB, Joe Sebok, who started off well but lost two big hands holding pocket Kings–once when he ran into Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin’s Aces, another when his opponent made quads. And that was that for the PokerRoad honcho:

Still in the tournament is Joe’s PokerRoad co-host/conspirator Gavin Smith:

And Robert Mizrachi:

P0ker H0 was another early casualty, losing most of his stack before the first break and busting out when he shoved with Q-9 and got called by a player holding Ace-King. Big Slick held up and H0 would not repeat his deep run of a year ago:

Hoping to escape H0’s fate and make the money again this year is Debo34:

While Liv Boeree is out, her pocket Tens bested by pocket Queens.

Bryan Devonshire has been holding fairly steady during play today:

As has Matt Vengrin:

Tiffany Michelle saw her stacked whacked when she lost a race with QQ vs. AK, but after being down to 2,000 she ground her way back to her starting stack of 15,000:

And still in the field as the final level of the day begins are Brandon Cantu:

Michael Binger:

Billy Kopp:

Shawn Rice:

And, last but never least, Lacey Jones:

Annie Duke will not be back for Day 2. Even though she was dealt pocket Aces seven times during play today (and getting Kings and Queens to boot) Annie lost time and time again with those big hands and went out when she flopped top two to her opponent’s bottom set. Sometimes it’s just one of those days, and now Annie gets to spend the rest of her trip enjoying Aruba…which is doubtless not what she wanted.

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Tweet or Death

Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - Gene Bromberg

In case you weren’t aware we’re having serious Internet issues here and I’ve been reduced to printing out my posts and sending them via carrier pigeon to the mainland. Now, that’s a lie, but it’s an option I’ve been exploring if we can’t get a nice reliable connection.

However we are still able to connect to Twitter and that’s where you can find pics and updates and info from the tournament. My big priority is still to get stuff posted here in quantity as soon as possible, but truth be told you should be following UltimateBet on Twitter–the URL is twitter.com/ultimate_bet. I’d put in a link for you to click but the doggone Internet won’t let me do that either. This is definitely making me appreciate the magic that is WiFi, believe me.

Anyway, to get the instant, inside scoop about what’s happening here in Aruba check us out on Twitter and keep checking back here on the blog for a landslide of posts and pics once we get back on the grid.

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Working (Very) Blue

Monday, October 5, 2009 - Gene Bromberg

Last week I mentioned that a lot of the action at the Aruba Poker Classic takes place around the Radisson Pool, and that after missing last year’s Welcome Banquet Phil Hellmuth would probably be in the mood to entice people to jump in the pool by promising them with piles of cash.

Uh, I had no idea how right I’d prove to be.

The UB Blog is (mostly) PG-13 and so I can’t really describe in detail much of Vinnie Favorito’s comedy routine that kicked off last night’s party. Chances are if you were within 50 feet of the stage Vinnie insulted either your race, religion, creed, gender, or face. All in good fun, of course, and especially so when the target is Phil Hellmuth.

And then after Vinnie wrapped up…well, that’s when the fun started. And it started with a group of synchronized swimmers in brilliant multi-colored swimsuits entertaining the crowd:

And then that’s when the real mayhem started. Just about every member of Team UB (including many of those who work behind the scenes) ended up in the pool. It started with Tiffany Michelle and Liv Boeree and Matt Graham and Bryan Devonshire and then before too long just about everyone wearing a logo was in the pool to stay. Some went in voluntarily, some less so, as you’ll see.

That should give you just a little idea about what the party was like. It was WAY more crowded that in years past, and the pool action was freakin’ nuts. Phil offered $500 for the first two women to jump in the pool naked and it took about 17 seconds for him to hand out a grand (as I said, this is a PG blog, so no pics. Unless someone offers me $500…).

I literally have 500 pics to sort through and develop and post, but it’s late, the tournament starts at high noon, and I promise to post lots, lots, lots more stuff about last night’s insane bash. But this should give you some idea of what was like, and if my pics and words don’t do the job then listen to what Scott Ian tweeted about the party–”It was (deleted) nuts”. Yes, PG blog, sorry, but I think you can fill in that particular blank yourself.

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Run Good, No Good

Thursday, October 1, 2009 - Gene Bromberg

I’m not breaking news when I say that to win a poker tournament, especially one with more than a thousand players, you have to run good. You have to run really good. You have to avoid the obvious coolers (my Kings, your Aces) as well as the trappy hands that would lure even Stu Ungar to his demise. Situations like set under set, flopped straight to top pair/nut flush draw, etc. Of course one of the ways truly skilled players avoid these nightmare scenarios is by never getting involved in them in the first place. If you’re holding Ace-Queen and an Ace flops and you get your 300BB stack in the middle and find you’re dominated by Ace-King, maybe that’s a bit of bad luck but possibly it’s more bad play.

In a freeroll tournament (like, say, our Pocket Card Challenge Freeroll last night) folks are bound to play a bit more loosey-goosey. Especially early on players are more likely to gamble it up, try to accumulate a big stack early on or just be done with it. Kinda like Phil Ivey in a $10,000 event. And at my starting table last night there was a player named HANKSKY who was doing just that–gambling it up. He was raising just about every pot, not letting the limpers and callers see a cheap flop, and splashing chips all over the place. What he didn’t know was that there was a new sheriff in town–me. Because I too was willing to mix it up, put my chips in the middle, come home with my shield or borne upon it. HANKSKY was sitting to my right and when he made his usual raise I re-popped it with A-Q. The flop came Q-6-4 and fast as you could mouse-click our chips were in the middle. My top-top had his mighty deuce-four in big trouble and for once the better hand held.

My stack took a hit a few hands later when I flopped top two pair holding Ace-Queen. That’s good. What’s not good, what’s bad even, is that UNIQUELADY flopped Broadway holding K-10. All the chips went in and when I didn’t boat up my mighty stack was dented. “Nice flop,” I seethed, and she said “Yup,” in agreement. But not long after that t I doubled again, this time against JHUB420 when I held Big Slick and flopped a pair to his open-ended straight draw. The draw whiffed and suddenly I had one of the top 20 stacks in the tournament. And I may have cracked the Top Ten when I took most of JHUB420’s remaining chips when I was dealt pocket Aces. “I’m going to win this (deleted) tournament,” I told myself as the first break arrived. “I’m GOING TO WIN!”

I was eliminated three minutes after we returned to play. I three-bet VEGASRIVER8 while holding Big Slick again and when he shoved I came along. He had Jacks, we raced, and I lost. Lost about 85% of my stack, too. I open-shoved with Q-J the next hand and was called down by a medium Ace. Which held. And I was out, in 235th place. Which, obviously, is a long way from first.

“Oh well,” I sighed.

“Lost a race,” I sighed.

“Sigh,” I sighed.

I’d run exceedingly good in the tournament, holding Aces, Ace-King twice, Ace-Queen twice (and hitting the flop with each of those hands). I also flopped a set and got paid off. All that, and I was out 235th. If I’d won that race with Ace-King…who knows? I might’ve finished…112th or something. “Crap,” I sighed.

So it isn’t enough to run good–you gotta play good as well. And as I watched the tournament play down to the final table (my nemesis VEGASRIVER8 finished 30th, nine off the money) it looked like the extremely short-stacked 44NIGHTMOVES would be the final-table-bubbler, as he had about a blind plus an ante left before him. But after pushing his handful of chips forward and telling the table “gl guys gg” he managed a desperation triple-up to reconnect his life-support machine. But for just a few hands, as his pocket nines were beaten by another player’s Jack-Nine when the paint card spiked on the turn. Still, he almost made the final table, because as I was watching that hand play out CUZZ59 was being bounced on the other table. But stack sizes come into play when eliminations are ranked and so CUZZ59 gets to put the Pocket Card Challenge Freeroll final table on his resume, while 44NIGHTMOVES was left to lament that blasted Jack. At any rate, here’s what last night’s final table looked like as battle was joined:

CMILLET81 had the big chip lead and he made it a lot bigger as the also-rans fell by the wayside. TOD38 was first to go, out in 8th, followed shortly thereafter by the cooly-nicknamed TANGENTMEMORY. It looked like THEMECH222 would be next to go, as he was down to just 22,000 and all-in with 2-4 against ANDYZHU888’s Ace-Queen. But where HANKSKY wasn’t able to turn the tables on me when we held those hands, THEMECH222 turned a four and doubled up. He then went on a tear, boosting his stack all the way up to 200,000 after he knocked out the aforementioned ANDYZHU888 with a straight. INDY29 was next to go when he woke up with Ace-Queen and moved his short-stack to the middle. Alas, he was dominated by LBKJOS’s Ace-King, and that was that. And then THEMECH222’s run abruptly came to an end when he bluffed with Ad-8c after a 5h-7h-4d flop and LBKJOS made a hero call holding 5s-2h. That gutsy play sent THEMECH222 to the rail in fourth place and boosted LBKJOS’s stack up over 400K.

With six players left CMILLET81 had held more than 50% of the chips in play, but LBKJOS’s reign of terror brought their stacks almost equal. SLICKWILLY14 trailed them both with around 150,000 and chose to sit back and let these two titans battle it out. And after LBKJOS took over the chip lead he and CMILLET81 played a huge hand where LBKJOS got a wee bit lucky. Well, he got a whole lotta lucky–after a 5s-10h-5d flop CMILLET81, holding Ks-10d, led out for 54,000 and LBKJOS check-raised to 124,800. CMILLET81 called and the nine of clubs on the turn probably seemed a totally innocuous card. It was not, because LBKJOS was holding 9c-10c and the turn was one of three cards that would give him the pot. LBKJOS shoved, CMILLET81 called, and when no King nor five came on the turn CMILLET81 was cruelly ejected and LBKJOS was the big chip leader going into heads-up play.

With about a 3-1 chip lead LBKJOS looked to be in good shape to take it down, and a few hands later his victory looked a lock as his Qh-Jc outflopped SLICKWILLY14’s Ad-9d. The money went in and LBKJOS needed to fade a nine or an Ace to win. I’ll let the picture tell the story:

But LBJKOS was undaunted, he pulled out his cudgel and bashed his way once more to a 3-1 lead. Once again all the money went in, this time with LBKJOS holding 7-2 (the HAMMER!) and a flopped pair of sevens to SLICKWILLY14’s Kc-Jc, which gave him two overcards and a gutshot. Those particular outs proved important as an eight on the river gave SLICKWILLY14 his straight and another lease on life. “Again on the river,” LBKJOS groused, understandably so.

The grousing no doubt increased in volume when the two again got the money in the middle after a 7s-Jh-3d flop, with LBKJOS holding 3c-6s to SLICKWILLY14’s Ac-5d. But here’s the thing about WILLY–he’s SLICK. He turned an Ace, rivered a five, and once again came from behind to frustrate LBKJOS.

Even after all this, all this, LBKJOS clawed and scratched his way back to a small chip lead. But the two played a massive pot where, with the board reading 3c-10c-10h-6c-Qh, LBKJOS bet 126,000 and SLICKWILLY14 shoved. LBKJOS made the call for almost all of his chips and saw SLICKWILLY14 turn over 4c-8c for the baby flush, one LBKJOS couldn’t beat. We never got to see LBKJOS’s cards, I can only think he had a ten, or maybe an smaller flush (tho there weren’t that many small clubs left).

But it must’ve been a bitter pill to swallow, and on the next hand swallow it LBKJOS did. His last few chips went in with him holding 5d-8c to SLICKWILLY14’s Js-9h, (and sorry to spoil the suspense, but those are the pocket cards of the final winning hand). You’d think that maybe LBKJOS might catch a break and turn the tables just this once–you must not play much poker. No, on this day the table was tilted in one direction, as both players flopped a pair but WILLY’s Jack was better than LBKJOS’s five, and when the board bricked out it was LBKJOS’s collecting $49.23 for finishing as our runner-up and SLICKWILLY14 securing a seat in our $200,000 Sunday Guaranteed Tournament. If he can keep that run good thing going…look out.

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Filter It!

Friday, September 18, 2009 - ProductMan

We’re well aware that Mac users think differently.  That’s why we created UB Mac a few weeks back.  It lets Mac users take advantage of UlimateBet’s awesome action, without having to abandon the stability, style, and performance of OS X.  Mac players can also embrace their free spirit by putting our filters to the test.  Our filters make it easy to find the games you’re after.   Now you can see only the games you want.  It’s the easiest way to create a poker room that’s all your own.

You can activate our filters from the lobby. Just click on the yellow “filter” tab to bring up a list of options.    You can filter by game type.  Hide or display games like Bad Beat Jackpot Tables, Ante Tables, 7 Duece Tables, Turbo and Normal Speed Tables with a quick click.

You can also filter games by the amount of players seeing the flop by percentages. Do you want to only view tables where 51% to 75% of the players at the table are seeing the flop? Now you can.

You can also filter games by the amount of players at the table. Want to only view tables where there are 4 or more players? No problem.

It is easy to filter the exact stakes you want to play instead of having to choose from more general stakes categories like high, medium or micro.

Omaha, Stud and Razz now all have their own filtering system.

You’ll also find even more filtering options for our tourneys and SnGs. You can filter by Game Type, Buy-in, Tourney type, Number of Players, Limit and several other criteria.

Tags: 7 Duece, Antes Tables, Bad Beat Jackpot, Filters, Hold 'em, ub, UB Mac

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Enshrine This

Sunday, September 13, 2009 - Gene Bromberg

On Friday Michael Jordan was enshrined in the NBA Hall of Fame, and most folks seem to agree that he belongs there. Of course arguing that Jordan, who won six titles and five MVPs and various other medals and trophies, DOESN’T belong in the Hall of Fame will cause people to openly question your sanity and maybe even chase you around the room with one of those oversized butterfly nets. So that you could be transported to a mental-health facility where, truth be told, some of us need to be kept.

Michael Jordan in the Hall of Fame is a no-brainer. And so is selecting John Stockton and David Robinson, who were also enshrined Friday and had the misfortune of entering the Hall when Jordan was there to (once again) overshadow them. But for those who teeter on the border of super-stardom, for those whose careers almost, but not quite, transcend the era, Hall of Fame election-time can be a torment. Boston Red Sox slugger Jim Rice had to wait until his 15th and final year on the ballot to gain admittance to Cooperstown, and Dick LeBeau, one of the great cornerbacks in NFL history and perhaps the greatest defensive coordinator of all time, may finally get his shot at Canton next year.

In case you weren’t aware, there is a Poker Hall of Fame. Benny Binion created it back in 1979 and it was a tourist attraction at the Horseshoe Casino. Harrah’s acquired the Poker Hall of Fame when it purchased the World Series of Poker and there’s no longer an actual physical location for it, but it’s the WSOP that still elects new members. Last year Dewey Tomko and Henry Orenstein were inducted; the year before Phil Hellmuth and Barbara Enright were enshrined. There are five requirements a player must possess before being considered for the Hall of Fame, and they are:

• A gambler must have played poker against acknowledged top competition
• Played for high stakes
• Played consistently well, gained the respect of peers
• And stood the test of time
• Or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results

This year Harrah’s did something a bit different, allowing poker fans to nominate candidates for consideration. The votes were tallied and here are the nine players who find themselves on the ballot:

• Barry Greenstein
• Dan Harrington
• Phil Ivey
• Tom McEvoy
• Men Nguyen
• Scotty Nguyen
• Daniel Negreanu
• Erik Seidel
• Mike Sexton

An august group, to say the least. There’s actually one player who was initially on the ballot who no longer is–Tom “durrrr” Dwan, crusher of online cash games and the star of the most recent High Stakes Poker season.  It’s not a huge surprise that Dwan was politely ushered off the stage because one of the criteria for HOF admission is that the player “stand the test of time”, and as Dwan is only 22 he’s got some time to stand. To put things in perspective, Phil Hellmuth won the Main Event three years after Dwan was born, and Chip Reese was the youngest Hall of Fame inductee at 40. Methinks we’ll see the electors return their attention to durrrr in a decade or so.

For the nine who remain on the list a case could be made for all of them to be first-ballot inductees. I’ve heard some people say that perhaps McEvoy’s resume doesn’t compare with the others, but not only did McEvoy win the 1983 Main Event (the first satellite-winner to become World Champion) and win three other bracelets and also write several strategy books, McEvoy was also instrumental in making poker a smoke-free activity. It may seem impossible to imagine now but as recently as 2001 people could smoke at the table at the WSOP, until McEvoy convinced Becky Binion Behnen to make the Series smoke-free. I think that qualifies as a “positive and lasting result”.

So there are nine nominees–does that mean nine players will be entering the Hall? Well, no. There are 30 people who will be voting on who gets in–the fifteen living current members of the Hall and fifteen members of the poker media. I was not asked to be a Hall of Fame elector, and I wasn’t the least bit crushed or devastated or emotionally annihilated by that fact. Each elector votes for three players, and to gain admission the nominee’s name must appear on at least 75% of the ballots. Which could lead to some, ah, complications. As my friend and colleague Martin Harris pointed out, there’s a chance that NO ONE could be elected to the Hall of Fame. Because of the 75% rule a maximum of three players could possibly be elected this year, but the overall quality of the candidates makes it possible that the vote could be split so many ways that nobody reaches that magic 75% mark. As Martin says:

Let’s say five of the nine finalists end up getting a significant number of votes here. In fact, let’s go so far as to say the voters will only be focusing on five guys. Which ain’t gonna happen (each of the other four will probably get at least a vote or two, probably more), but let’s pretend it does.

So the 90 votes would be divided among those five. If divided evenly, none of them will come close to making it, as each will only get 18 votes, or 60% — well shy of the needed 75%. And, like I say, there probably won’t be 90 votes submitted for just five players, as the others will take some of those votes away. There will have to be overwhelming support for one candidate for him to get in, and given the group that has been proposed, the votes might be divided in such a way as to make it hard for that to happen.

From what I’m hearing there’s a real groundswell of support for Mike Sexton to be elected, I wouldn’t be surprised if more than 75% of the voters put a check-mark next to his name. But from there it gets really tough. Maybe the voters will have to flip it around–instead of making a case why they’re voting for so-and-so, they’ll have to explain why they DIDN’T vote for certain players. Chances are many will cross Ivey and Negreanu off their lists because of their age–their time will come, but not this year. Maybe their at-times questionable behavior at the tables will keep 2009 from being a Nguyen-Nguyen situation. Maybe some will say that McEvoy and Harrington don’t have a big enough profile in these celebrity-crazed days. But that sort of thinking could bring us full circle to a situation where the votes are evenly distributed and no one gets elected.

Which could make for a sticky situation for the Hall of Fame, this year and beyond. You have nine excellent players on the ballot this year…what happens when other big names are nominated? When players who aren’t quite on the A-list add to their list of accomplishments? Some of the players on this year’s list might’ve been inducted years and years ago, but the Hall of Fame didn’t add new members every year and now there’s this logjam that promises to get worse before it gets better. But while that might cause some consternation for the players who want to see their names added to the roster of all-time greats, it provides tasty fodder for poker fans (and poker writers) to argue about.

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Let It Rain, Let it Rain

Sunday, September 6, 2009 - Gene Bromberg

Unlike many Caribbean islands Aruba has an arid climate–you see cacti as well as palm trees. Hurricanes almost always give Aruba a miss, and it doesn’t rain too often. That’s one of the reasons why its one of the world’s great vacation getaways, you know that 95% of the time the weather is going to be close to perfect. Temps in the low nineties, blue skies, cool ocean breezes.

That said, even Aruba sees the occasional sprinkle. And perhaps that’s a good thing, because even perfection can become monotonous over time. Back in 2007 I was covering the late stages of the tournament when some big BOOMS could be heard through the Radisson’s thick walls. They were really loud and came with some regularity and I remembered that there was going to be a wedding and reception on the beach that night. “Must be fireworks,” I thought as I returned to my task.

Uh, no–the booms were indeed thunder, as a massive storm passed over the island while I sat inside blissfully unawares. When the dinner break came I went outside to find everything was soaking wet, especially the air–the humidity was probably around 170%. Occasionally the sky lit up with lightning flashes but the thunder was a long time coming, as the storm had moved off. But it was still over the island, and after some deduction I figured out that the boomers were still over Oranjestad, and I raced up the stairs outside my building to find a perch to take some pics. I raced up six flights, aimed my camera, and waited. And waited. And waited. I was sweating after climbing the stairs and what with the humidity I REALLY started to sweat, soaking through my shirt as I waited to get one semi-decent shot I could throw on the blog. I waited until dehydration almost overtook me when I got this one:

Even after that system passed we still got the occasional spot of rain. I think it even sprinkled a bit during Phil’s VIP party that year…though to be honest I’m not the best person to ask about what went on that evening. After a hard day’s work I went to the party intending on having a few Balashi’s, a bite to eat, and then back to my room for a good night’s sleep before the final table. It didn’t turn out that way. It d,idn’t turn out that way because I was unfortunate enough to run into Debo, who asked if I wanted to try a new drink they’d just invented called, interestingly enough, the Debo. Watermelon liqueur, Grey Goose, and a dash of Sprite. Well, when in Aruba…

It was bright, perky, refreshing, especially in the heat. I should say that I’m normally not a vodka drinker, usually I stick with the beers and the cabernets. But damn, that Debo was one tasty drink. And it went down EASY. So I had another one…because, like, EVERYONE had one in his/her hand. And that one went down even easier. I wandered over to the bar and the gentleman manning the controls said, “Another Debo?”. Yes please!

I ended up having like NINE of them, ending up in a state like I like to call “nicely drunk”. I was in love with the world and every single one of its inhabitants…I just wasn’t able to articulate those sentiments coherently in the English language. When the party broke up in the wee hours I remember–vaguely–going to the casino to lose a quick twenty playing video poker. I bobbed and weaved my way back to my room, a smile on my lips and a song in my heart.

When I woke up the next morning, however, the tune had changed a bit. To a funeral dirge.

“Uh oh,” I said when I peeled my eyes open. I felt bad. Awful. Really awful. Epically awful. I threw off the covers and stood up. And that was Bad. Here I’ll lower the curtain for a moment to let you, dear reader, fill in the blanks about what happened next. You’ve been in that spot before. You know. You don’t need it spelled out.

I had to get it together, and fast. The alarm clock on the dresser read 11:30. The final table started at high noon. I got myself in the shower in the hopes that hot water, mixed with Advil, would carry the day. After I toweled off and dressed I felt about 2% better, which meant that at least I wasn’t openly weeping. I shouldered my gear and headed out to the final table stage.

It was hot, and humid, and I desperately tried to figure out how on Earth I would survive the day. I walked over the bridge spanning the pool and as I looked down into it’s shifting blue waters I felt a queasiness rising. I gritted my teeth and muttered,  “Oh Gawd, Geno, don’t yack in the Radisson pool!!” I was so focused on keeping it together that I didn’t notice that the final table stage wasn’t quite ready for liftoff.

I found someone of authority walking around and asked what was up. “It rained last night, hard,” he said. The stage had suffered some slight damage and there would be a delay before we started.

“How long a delay?” I asked.

“We’ll be ready around three or so.”

Three hours. Three golden, magical hours to let my self-inflicted wounds heal. I thanked the bearer of this good news and re-crossed the pool bridge with a huge smile on my face. Of course, I wasn’t really in a physical state yet for smiling and my stomach left off a threatening “HHUURRRRRBBBBLLGLLLHHHH!!” before I gathered myself enough to continue on my merry way.

I needed two things–food, and rest. I ordered a cheeseburger and fries from room service and lay across the bed like a corpse. The food came, I tipped the waiter lavishly, and wolfed down as much grease as my rebellious stomach would allow. Two hours of dreamless sleep followed and when I woke I felt like a human being again. A hungover and hurting human being, but one up to performing simple tasks without causing a scene. So while some may curse the rain, I say that into every life some rain must fall. Even in Aruba. And especially when the Debos are flowing.

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