Travis Rice Wins Aruba Poker Classic

by Gene Bromberg

In contrast to the small turnout at the
Turks and Caicos WPT event held the
previous week, the UltimateBet Aruba
Poker Classic boasted a field of 546,
including top pros such as Phil Hellmuth,
Mike Matusow, Freddy Deeb, Annie Duke
and Joe Sebok.

The fact that the age requirement to play
in Aruba is 18 attracted some of the top
online players in the world, including
Annette "Annette_15" Obrestad, who
recently won the World Series of Poker
- Europe Main Event. Obrestad didn't make
it past Day 2, and the other big names in
the field fell by the wayside as we reached
the final table.

Perhaps the best-known player among
the final six was Travis "TravestyFund" Rice,
and the online superstar dominated the
final table on his way to the victory and
the $800,000 first prize.

As with previous Aruba Classics the final
table was held outside, and the players
had to deal with the heat (both from the
sun and the TV lights) as well as a stiff
breeze that threatened to blow the cards
off the table.

After the sun went down it cooled off,
but the TV lights attracted swarms of
insects, including a gigantic dragonfly
that repeatedly buzzed Rice's head.