Snorkelling with Rick Gladding
Swimming with the Devilfish? Pah!
October 2002, I fancied a bit of a warmer climate, so headed for Aruba for the Ultimate Bet "Caribbean Poker Classic". I hadn't qualified for a tournament, just turned up to play some low limit games, have a holiday, view the Ultimate Bet goings on, etc. Mr G made the trip on a similar basis.
I'd better warn you now - there isn't much point to this posting, I just like the title.
The Brickell Bay Hotel was the option favoured by The Paper, 5 mins walk down the beach from the Holiday Inn which was hosting the poker. Not a great hotel actually, pretty basic, a pity, since cash games were hard to find during the day (well it makes sense, what kind of sick individual would be wanting to play poker in the Aruban daytime) and you could have done with some decent hotel facilities, blog buddies.
UB ran a tourney every day, maybe starting late afternoon, from a few hundred dollars to $1,000 plus. There were daily satellites at $125 with a pretty fast structure that didn't give a lot of play. Had a go at one of these (limit holdem, 600 starting chips, blinds started at 10-25 but went up quickly, got knocked out with QQ vs KT, K on flop, but too many chips committed to pass it) but otherwise it was a case of waiting for the $4-8 limit holdem that kicked off late evening. Mr Gladding displayed the versatility of a true pro, playing the limit stud games that kicked off late afternoon, mostly with the locals.
Faces at the event included the UB reps, viz Hellmuth, Devilfish, Duke plus the likes of Scotty, John Bonetti, Vaswani, Russ Hamilton, Jennifer Harman, Lederer, Juha Helppi, Phil Gordon. Maybe 100-130 players in all.
Probably the best bit of the trip was the snorkelling on the last day. I'm not an outdoorsy type at all, but this was really rather enjoyable.
I did actually tangle with the Devilfish on one occasion - I was playing $4-8 limit holdem, raised with 89 in a button steal type situation. A friend of the fish was in the big blind, and as she pondered the raise, he happened to join her, and re-raised. I think I hit 2nd pair on the flop and called them down, something like that. Turns out they had 89 too. One to tell the grand-children eh? Sheesh... balls of steel against one of the world's most feared...
I shall now sign off with an account of a few hands I saw where I admired the play:
1. Devilfish: 5 handed PLO game, $10-$10 blinds, Flop 983, all 3 players check. As dealer burns and turns, DF first to act, mutters "Put a 6 out there". Q comes. "That's no good" says our friend. All check. 6 comes on river, DF bets pot, others pass, he shows 77xx.
2. John Bonetti: UB ran this fairly extraordinary freeroll for some of the 'pros', winner take all $250K, between Duke, Scotty, Bonetti, Hellmuth, Devilfish, Hamilton, P.Gordon plus I think Harman and Vaswani. Bonetti and Hellmuth see a flop of 943 and both check. A deuce on the turn, Hellmuth checks, Bonetti bets 2000, Hellmuth calls. Queen comes on the end, Hellmuth checks, Bonetti bets 5000. Hellmuth: "D'ya get lucky and hit a Queen?" Bonetti (in brusque, gruff Brooklyn tones) "Yeah I got lucky, I hit a Queen.... or what if I've got two pair?............." then in a pleading, sad, tone of voice: "Don't call, Phil, don't call" as if in deep sympathy with Mr H. Hellmuth finally folds, Bonetti holds onto his cards, says "do you want to see?" Hellmuth has his chin tucked into his chest and visor down, mutters "I don't care.... ok then yes", Bonetti shows T8.
3. Bonetti and DF, just for the speech play. As Bonetti mucks his cards, P.Gordon seems to have glimpsed them as they've hit the table... "two spades exposed" he says. DF says to Bonetti: "Throw em in low". JB is irked. "I dint have two spades... he's trying to use psychology, to get an edge....I got children older dan you". JB stews for a few more minutes, muttering and shaking his head... "you bin speakin to me for years, but I never understood a word you said" DF quietly: "it's a good job - you didn't hear what I was calling you".
Final highlight: Melissa Hayden says to me: "you're from London?"... squints a bit more closely ... "is your name Julian?... Oh... but you know who I mean right?... hey Scotty, do you remember Julian from the ride at the Stratosphere?"... Scotty: "Oh, errr, uh-huh".
October 2002, I fancied a bit of a warmer climate, so headed for Aruba for the Ultimate Bet "Caribbean Poker Classic". I hadn't qualified for a tournament, just turned up to play some low limit games, have a holiday, view the Ultimate Bet goings on, etc. Mr G made the trip on a similar basis.
I'd better warn you now - there isn't much point to this posting, I just like the title.
The Brickell Bay Hotel was the option favoured by The Paper, 5 mins walk down the beach from the Holiday Inn which was hosting the poker. Not a great hotel actually, pretty basic, a pity, since cash games were hard to find during the day (well it makes sense, what kind of sick individual would be wanting to play poker in the Aruban daytime) and you could have done with some decent hotel facilities, blog buddies.
UB ran a tourney every day, maybe starting late afternoon, from a few hundred dollars to $1,000 plus. There were daily satellites at $125 with a pretty fast structure that didn't give a lot of play. Had a go at one of these (limit holdem, 600 starting chips, blinds started at 10-25 but went up quickly, got knocked out with QQ vs KT, K on flop, but too many chips committed to pass it) but otherwise it was a case of waiting for the $4-8 limit holdem that kicked off late evening. Mr Gladding displayed the versatility of a true pro, playing the limit stud games that kicked off late afternoon, mostly with the locals.
Faces at the event included the UB reps, viz Hellmuth, Devilfish, Duke plus the likes of Scotty, John Bonetti, Vaswani, Russ Hamilton, Jennifer Harman, Lederer, Juha Helppi, Phil Gordon. Maybe 100-130 players in all.
Probably the best bit of the trip was the snorkelling on the last day. I'm not an outdoorsy type at all, but this was really rather enjoyable.
I did actually tangle with the Devilfish on one occasion - I was playing $4-8 limit holdem, raised with 89 in a button steal type situation. A friend of the fish was in the big blind, and as she pondered the raise, he happened to join her, and re-raised. I think I hit 2nd pair on the flop and called them down, something like that. Turns out they had 89 too. One to tell the grand-children eh? Sheesh... balls of steel against one of the world's most feared...
I shall now sign off with an account of a few hands I saw where I admired the play:
1. Devilfish: 5 handed PLO game, $10-$10 blinds, Flop 983, all 3 players check. As dealer burns and turns, DF first to act, mutters "Put a 6 out there". Q comes. "That's no good" says our friend. All check. 6 comes on river, DF bets pot, others pass, he shows 77xx.
2. John Bonetti: UB ran this fairly extraordinary freeroll for some of the 'pros', winner take all $250K, between Duke, Scotty, Bonetti, Hellmuth, Devilfish, Hamilton, P.Gordon plus I think Harman and Vaswani. Bonetti and Hellmuth see a flop of 943 and both check. A deuce on the turn, Hellmuth checks, Bonetti bets 2000, Hellmuth calls. Queen comes on the end, Hellmuth checks, Bonetti bets 5000. Hellmuth: "D'ya get lucky and hit a Queen?" Bonetti (in brusque, gruff Brooklyn tones) "Yeah I got lucky, I hit a Queen.... or what if I've got two pair?............." then in a pleading, sad, tone of voice: "Don't call, Phil, don't call" as if in deep sympathy with Mr H. Hellmuth finally folds, Bonetti holds onto his cards, says "do you want to see?" Hellmuth has his chin tucked into his chest and visor down, mutters "I don't care.... ok then yes", Bonetti shows T8.
3. Bonetti and DF, just for the speech play. As Bonetti mucks his cards, P.Gordon seems to have glimpsed them as they've hit the table... "two spades exposed" he says. DF says to Bonetti: "Throw em in low". JB is irked. "I dint have two spades... he's trying to use psychology, to get an edge....I got children older dan you". JB stews for a few more minutes, muttering and shaking his head... "you bin speakin to me for years, but I never understood a word you said" DF quietly: "it's a good job - you didn't hear what I was calling you".
Final highlight: Melissa Hayden says to me: "you're from London?"... squints a bit more closely ... "is your name Julian?... Oh... but you know who I mean right?... hey Scotty, do you remember Julian from the ride at the Stratosphere?"... Scotty: "Oh, errr, uh-huh".
posted by The Paper at 1:23 PM
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