Travis Rice wins UltimateBet Aruba Classic

Travis Rice wins UltimateBet Aruba Classic

Monday, 8 October 2007

A starting field of 546 and some of the world’s top pros such as Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Freddy Deeb, Annie Duke and Joe Sebok wasn’t enough to stop another online pro making a successful transition to the live circuit.

A starting field of 546 and some of the world’s top pros such as Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Freddy Deeb, Annie Duke and Joe Sebok wasn’t enough to stop another online pro making a successful transition to the live circuit. Travis “TravestyFund” Rice dominated a final table of six, and took home $800,000 on the way.
The field was always going to be packed with young online whizzes due to the Aruba legal age for poker being 18. Annette Obrestad entered but couldn’t repeat her success of London, failing to make it past Day Two. All the other big names also failed to make it to the final table, and so were left with a demonstration of how the young guns take down major tournaments.
As always in Aruba, the event was held outdoors, which made for one of the rare occasions when players more accustomed to playing in front of monitors had to deal not only with tells, but also the bright sun, sea breeze and occasional insects.
After eight hours, heads up play began between Rice and James Mordue. Those expecting a drawn-out struggle didn’t have long to wait though. Only a few hands before the end, Rice scored an early psychological blow after re-raising Mordue pre-flop and then showing J-3 off-suit after James had mucked. With this possibly playing on his mind, Mordue pushed a couple of hands later with K-T, only to run into Rice’s A-K. The board bricked out and the ‘TravestyFunds’ were increased by $800,000.



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