Aruba moment # 4
Sunday, August 23, 2009 - Debo34
Well Aruba is just a little over 5 weeks away, and I can’t wait. This week my son turned 15. My wife and I took him and some friends on Friday to a water park about an hour away. Next year he will be driving on his own ( if he gets his grades up). The only other news of the week is that my Oregon ducks season tickets arrived!! I am really excited about the upcoming season. The Ducks have an insane home schedule this year which includes playing 3 straight bowl teams from last year in Purdue, #2 ranked Utah, and Cal in 3 consecutive weeks. They also have home games against 2 other ranked teams in USC and Oregon St. Should be an amazing season.
Aruba moment # 4. My first Aruba main event.
I remember the day well. It was October 16 2003. The reason I can remember the exact date is because October 16th is my birthday.
As I mentioned in a previous blog I was pretty green when I won my first Aruba package. I came in a little nervous and tight, but the structure was good enough for that style of play. I didn’t recognize anyone at my table, which I felt was a good thing. I pretty much played ABC poker for the first half of day 1 and picked up some decent hands. I was surviving but not really going anywhere. I was hanging right around 20-25 big blinds late in day 1 when the following hand came up with 4 minutes left in the day. The action was folded to me and I picked up AQ suited on the button and made a standard raise. The small blind folded and the big blind instantly moved all in. I really wasn’t sure what to do at that particular moment. I really felt like there was a good chance I was ahead, but I also really wanted to make it to day 2 on my first big event. As the clock expired ending day 1, the guy looked at me and said, ” just fold, and we can go get a drink”. I asked him if he wanted me to call and he told me ” not really”. I decided to go with my gut and finally called. He flipped over KQ. Yessssssss, I made the right call! Well as we know in poker sometimes that’s not enough. I was clear on the flop, but the turn brought a king and I had lost the hand. The dealer counted the chips out and I was still alive. 2850 chips is what I had remaining. I made day 2 with almost 3 big blinds..lol. The very first hand I picked up on Day 2 I moved my 3 blinds in with AQ and ran into AA and QQ. That was the end of my first APC.
An interesting side note to this story. That starting table I had, where I didn’t recognize anyone. Well 3 of those guys from that starting table made the final table that year. Daniel Larson, Anthony Fagan, and eventual champion Erick Lindgren were all at my starting table.
See you in Aruba
Debo
Tags: Anthony Fagan, Aruba, Daniel Larson, Debo34, Eric Lindgren, Oregon Ducks, Poker Poker Poker
