My Aruba Trip...

[Talking Poker]

I'm heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere.

Man, $17 per day for the slowest "high speed" internet connection I've ever seen. Anyway........

Uneventful flight(s) - I had to fly to Atlanta (from Florida) to fly past Florida again and come here. That's the price you pay to fly from you hometown airport.

I would guess 80% of the people on my plane were poker people. Annie Duke must have been on my plane without my even knowing it because I saw her at the baggage claim.

Shared a taxi with a few other poker players, checked in, walked around a bit, had a few beers at the bar and chatted with some dude for a while... Saw Howard Lederer, the Jetts, Alex (whichever one won last year) Brenes.

That's about it. I need to egister tomorrow AM. There is some "Pro Seminar" thing at 10:30, and then the Become a Pro tourney is at noon. There is a Welcome Reception tomorrow night.

More updates to come............

Thanks to those who have decided to back me. If anyone else is interested, I'll accept transfers tomorrow too, now that I know for sure I can get online.

[Aequitas58]

Do you know of a site feeding live updates? It'd be cool to see how things are going .... kinda as they happen.

Cardplayer? PokerWire?

[lightfungus]

Shoulda hollered when you trounced through ATL, maybe on the way back. Anyhoo, goodluck and win that poker pro thing, except it seemed like most of the buyins you could win have already happened...I think I missed something somewhere. Keep us posted.

[Talking Poker]

I think so too. 2006 haven't even started yet, my friend!

As for live updates, check CardPlayer, plus the UB links above - they have a blog, etc...

[BlibbityBlabbity]

[Talking Poker]

I'm out of hte "Become a Pro" tourney. There were 168 players in total, includingan estimated 20 or so who didn't make it and got blinded off. Maybe even 30. I finished around 50th, which pays exactly the same as 2nd does, btw.

My first table was great - really nice people... We were having fun and I was playing well. I got moved to a new, much quieter and much less fun table just before the break (after level 3). I had a decent amount of chips when we returned from the break, but probably not much above average.

One interesting hand came up where the BB (absent) was all in, and I was involved in the hand wih another player. I flopped top pair, and he led out at it. I decided to call and make a play on the turn. Well, a flush hit the turn and he fired again. This is a guy who I watched lead at a flop with a set of 9s on a completely uncoordinated board, so as I was about to fold, I said, "Well, at least I'll get to see his cards" (thinking the all in guy could contest for the pot). Apparently that's not how it works though. My mistake, no problem. Well, then some other guy at the table starts waving his hand in a "come on, let's go" type of way. I said, "What? I'm not allowed to think about my hand?" He said, "It's obvious you're going to fold." (It was). I said, "Well, I don't like you rushing me, especially when I'm not a slow player," so I capped my cards and sat back in my chair. I didn't want to be a ass to the rest of the table though, so I folded after about 5 seconds or so.

Moving on.... The antes kicked in and I got cold decked and lost quite a bit of my stack without even getting a reasonable hand (or opportunity) to open with. Just under the original 2000 starting chips, my buddy (see above) opened for a minimum raise (to 400). I reraised all in from MP with 99. He decided to call 1500+ more chips with his AJo. He hit an Ace on the flop, and that was that. I tapped the table, shook a few hands, and headed out.

Other than that one guy, most of the people were really friendly though, and I enjoyed meeting them. I got to play with a few big name UB players, P0ker H0 and I forget the guy's name that starts with an S. Hopefully I'll get to know some of them better as the week goes on and maybe we can get some fresh blood around here...

Now it's time to relax in Aruba. 7:30 is the Welcome Reception ($50 if you don't have tickets - I have 2), but other than that, there is nothing on the schedule for me today. The big one starts for me tomorrow.

To Be Continued......

[Talking Poker]

Had a nice time at the Welcome reception tonight. Got to see Phil Hellmuth jump in the pool for a $3000 donation to Katrina victims. I bought a book off of him and he signed it to "TalkingPoker.com" - That will be a prize in an upcoming contest.

I also met a really nice couple tonight. Turns out they are John Stoltzman's parents. I really enjoyed talking to them... John's Dad is a firefihter who makes a good bit of money playing online poker too. Definitely an inspirtion.

Ok, back to the festivities...