Congrats to Brandon Hall on finishing first in the 2009 Aruba Poker Classic Main Event. Brandon joins a long list of Aruba Poker Classic champions that includes Juha Helppi (2002), Erik Lindgren (2003), Eric Brenes (2004), Freddy Deeb (2005), Devon Miller (2006), Travis Rice (2007) and Matt Brady (2008). The 2009 Aruba Poker Classic featured a prize pool of $2,303,750 with $753,330 for first place.
Elliot smith scored the keys to the Mercedes ML-350 in UltimateBet’s Mercedes Giveaway contest after ending the tournament with a massive chip lead. Also pictured are P0ker H0 and Ryan Caldwell.
10 players secured their seat at the final Aruba tournament through UltimateBet a few months back. Half the players had already secured an Aruba Poker Classic Main Event seat and the other half who won their spot were here solely for the fine piece of German engineering.
I’d throw a photo up but something’s wrong with the internet connection here in Aruba and we’re having a little trouble getting photos up. Must be the rain. Yup, it’s raining. All day, apparently. Should make for a fantastic final table – outdoors (see the post below).
The final table of the Aruba Poker Classic kicks off today by the pool and aside from the scattered showers forecasted throughout the day (it’s raining right now, by the way) it should prove to be an amazing day for the final seven, who stand to take home as much as $753,330. Here’s a look at the chip count at the end of Day 4:
Robert Mizrachi – 1,980,000
Eric Baldwin – 1,570,000
Chase Steely – 1,300,000
Brock Parker – 1,240,000
Brandon Hall – 442,000
Matt Ross – 301,000
Roberto Santos – 211,000
UltimateBet (“UB”) gets serious about children in need while giving poker players another reason to show their community spirit and indulge their love of the game at this year’s Aruba Poker Classic (“APC”). On October 8th, as Day Three of UB’s Main Event prepares to wrap for the night, players in Aruba will take to the felt in the annual $100 Rebuy Charity Poker Tournament. The fundraiser gets set to deal out the cards at 7pm in the ballroom area of the Radisson Aruba Resort, all in the name of one very good local cause, the Children’s Home Imeldahof.
The Children’s Home Imeldahof offers temporary home and guidance to children who are unable to remain in their own homes due to mental, physical and sexual abuse, neglect, and alcohol or drug abuse by parents. The Home provides more than just physical shelter for the resident children, with an emphasis on providing for their emotional well-being as a priority.
The proceeds Imeldahof receive from UB’s Charity Hold’em event will contribute to their purpose-built activity centre, which still needs a new roof, a paint job and appropriate games and accessories before it will be available to the 52 children who are housed under their roof at any given time.
“We are proud to support such a worthy cause for local kids in Aruba, and we invite everyone – poker player or not – to turn out at the Radisson ballroom to participate,” said Annie Duke Cardroom Consultant for UltimateBet. “Come along and help UB raise thousands of dollars in donations that will directly assist Imeldahof complete this project and provide an environment in which their children can relax, have fun and be safe.”
On this occasion, 100 percent of the $100 rebuys from the APC fundraiser will be donated directly to the chosen children’s charity, and UB will match the money made from the rebuys dollar-for-dollar to boost the donation total, up to $5,000.
For the past eight years, UltimateBet has been welcomed to the island paradise of Aruba, where it has hosted its signature land based poker festival. The Charity fundraiser is one way that UB is able to repay the outstanding local hospitality it receives each year, and the leading online poker site enjoys giving something of value back to the island community.
Follow the action of the APC with regular updates, pics and articles, available at: http://www.ultimatebet.com/aruba-poker-classic
For further information on the Kinderhuis Imeldahof, email imeldahofaruba@setarnet.aw or call (297) 587 6085
Tags: aruba charity, charity, Imeldahof, ub, ultimatebet
86 players are left standing as we head into Day 3 of the Aruba Poker Classic Main Event. I touched base with Jon Favaloro just before play resumed on Wednesday to talk about his massive first place chip lead.
This is his third year at the Aruba Poker Classic. After playing in ’06 and ’07, and then sitting out for a year, it’s fairly obvious that Favaloro used that one-year hiatus to hone his game like a champion. After Day 1A and 1B wrapped up, Favaloro topped the chip count list with an impressive 88,575 in chips. Jon credits his success so far in the Main Event not to any one monster hand that catapulted him to chip lead status, but rather to a slow and steady game that allowed him to chip up slowly.
“I had no big confrontations in Day 1,” notes Favaloro. “I just slowly picked up chips here and there and eventually took the lead.”
It’s that same slow and steady strategy that earned him a spot in the Main Event to begin with. Favaloro made his way to Aruba through UltimateBet’s 50-seat Guaranteed Super Satellite where he managed to squeeze his way into the top 50 and earn an $8,500 prize package.
Favaloro plays mostly online, preferring it to land-based poker tourneys.
Favaloro heads into Day 3 in 2nd place with 255,300 in chips, just behind chip leader Robert Mizrachi who’s sitting with 353,200.
Here’s a quick but really gorgeous snapshot of who leads in chips as we head into Day 2. The Main Event continues today at Noon.
1 – Jon Faualoro – 88,575
2 – Robert Mizrachi – 80,600
3 – Casey Kastle – 78,300
4 – Matthew Ross – 75,100
5 – Ryan Caldwell – 74,475
6 – Chase Steely – 73,525
7 – William Cruz – 70,050
8 – Tristan Wade – 64,450
9 – Justin Young – 61,700
10 – Gylbert Drolet – 59,375
This is why we’re all here. Money. Glory. A championship title. And the path (made of sand) that took us here. With last-minute airline flights holding last-minute players with last-minute buy-ins in their pockets still landing yesterday, the prize pool for this year was literally up in the air. Well now it’s official. 475 players have gone to battle in the Main Event of the 2009 Aruba Poker Classic for a handsome first place prize of $753,330. Not bad for a week’s work if you ask us.
Download here Day 1A bulletin.
Tags: aruba poker classic 2009, bulletin, day 1a, newsletter
Ok folks, here’s a nice stack of chip counts for you to sip on like a fine Balashi on the beach (for those of you NOT in Aruba, Balashi is a wicked-good beer sold here in buckets). Day 1b is currently in progress so we don’t have final chip counts ready for that, obviously. But 1a wrapped up late last night and we’ve got the top 10 chip stacks ready to rock.
Phil Hellmuth is sitting like a pro in 10th place so stay tuned for more details on what happens to him tomorrow.
1st – Jon Faualoro – 88,575
2nd – Ryan Caldwell – 74,475
3rd – Chase Steely – 73,525
4th – Tristan Wade – 64,450
5th – Gylbert Drolet – 59,375
6th – Ryan Howard – 54,100
7th – Kazuhito Oshima – 52,325
8th – Jamie Armstrong – 52,175
9th – Majd Ibrahim – 50,450
10th – Phil Helmuth – 49,175
The normally tranquil island of Aruba is about a million times more energetic today thanks to the hundreds of players who qualified online for the 2009 Aruba Poker Classic and made their way down to paradise.
The Radisson Aruba Resort, Casino & Spa is jampacked with poker players, the biggest pros, celebrities, and even clowns. Yes clowns (more on that later).
But this is anything but a circus. The weeklong event is a well-organized, fine-tuned tournament hosted by tournament director Matt Savage and run by the biggest and best online poker site celebrating 10 years of dealing cards online. The first hand of the Main Event was dealt at Noon today and we’ll be keeping tabs on who got knocked out, who’s got the massive chip lead and who threw the biggest tantrum.
Stay tuned.
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