Aruba recap part 1
Posted: 2008-10-07 21:59:56By: Debo34
As usual the Aruba Poker Classic was the highlight of my year. We experienced another 12 action packed days of poker, drinking, water activities, nightlife and hanging with friends. There were many of the old faces there as well as many first timers I met throughout the trip.
The first few nights were wild as usual. Drunken cash games until the wee hours of the morning, and just catching up with old friends. I was able to get in plenty of beach and pool time during the first few days, including some great 6 on 6 pool volleyball games.
I played my first day of the main event on Monday which was day 1A. I really came into this event hungry to play and felt like I had been playing good poker leading up to the event. My goal coming in was to stay focused and to limit my mistakes. In past Aruba main events I hadn't avoided the big mistakes and felt like I didn't have the amount of patience I needed to take advantage of the great structure. Players started with 15k in chips and we had 90 minute levels.
Day 1 was a good day for me. I managed to take my 15k starting stack to nearly 25k by the 3rd level without knocking out a single player. I was making good reads and some good folds as well and felt comfortable with my table. At the end of the day I had my stack over 50k, good enough for top 10 for the day, and I really never had many chips at risk throughout the day.
Day 2 the combined field of day 1A and 1B was set to go. I started the day in the top 20 of the 290 ish players remaining. I got off to a fairly fast start in the first level of day winning a few pots and saw my stack grow to 75k without showing down a hand. Our table was the next to break, but not before I saw a series of hands fall my way and knocked out 3 consecutive players. My stack was at nearly 120k when I got moved to a new table. My new table was the toughest I had seen in the tournament. There were no bad players at the table and plenty of very good ones. I decided to sit tight on my stack for a bit and establish a tight image. I played very few hands for the first hour or so of the new table. I picked up a few pots and didn't blow off and unnecessary chips. My stack continued to grow and was at 150k. The only sticky spot of the day came when a loose player raised to 3400, and was re raised by the small blind to 8800. I was in the big blind and thought this looked like a good spot to pick up chips since I knew the player on the button was more than capable of making this re raise with any 2 cards. I made it 22k to go from the big blind without looking at my cards. The first guy folded fast and when the second guy sat there for nearly 2 minutes thinking, I couldn't help thinking to myself... How do I have all this money in the pot right now?
After a 2 minute delay did something I didn't expect, he flat called. The flop came out KK2 and I now needed to figure out how to win this pot. The player waited for 30 seconds and checked. At this point I still hadn't looked at my cards and decided to check fast behind him to make it look like I could have a monster. The turn came and it was a 7, and he checked again. I took a peek at my cards for the first time to see the 10 4 off suit. I decided to put in a bet that was less than 1/3 the pot in hopes to make it seem like I wanted a call. I fired 16k into the 50k pot. The player waited for a few seconds then asked me if I would show him my cards. I wasn't sure how to respond to the question, so I just replied "I'm not sure". I didn't want to reveal anything. He then asked for a second time if I would show to which I replied, " ok I guess". He folded and I tabled the 10 4 . Whew!! I avoided a big blunder there late in the day. I ended day 2 with 197k.
To be continued.
