After a fun week in the sun, the excitement has died down and everyone has returned to their ordinary lives. However, some are a bit richer. After around 8 days in Aruba enjoying pina coladas and other colorful icy drinks decorated with little umbrella thingies in them, the big winners are returning home with their pockets bulging. Most of us would be lucky to have some loose change left over after a week in paradise. I have three letters for these bulging pocket toters: MBN (must be nice). <READMORE>
This year, first place of the Aruba Poker Classic generated a mouth-watering $800K, with a total prize pool exceeding $2.7 million. Three Pocketfivers made the final TV table and several others came extremely close. Some of the players who managed to cash include Chris "brsavage" Savage, Pete "TheBeat" Giordano, Lasse "lucky seven" Ubostad, Grayson "the_dean22" Nichols, and Jonathan "Grand Total" Lach.

Closing in on the TV final table were Matt "Plattsburgh" Vengrin and John "Texas Troll" Tollefsen (pictured right) who finished in 7th and 8th respectively. They were each paid $47,840. I had a chance to talk with Texas Troll about his experience playing in Aruba. He told me that he suffered several bad beats throughout the tourney and was never able to maintain a large stack. As a result, he was forced to play a lot of small-ball. However, he chose his spots carefully and rarely put his chips in behind. He also told me that he made several big lay downs, one time with KK. The action went down like this: a raise was put in from EP, followed by a call. Texas Troll put in a re-raise, and the guy two to his left, whom he had labeled as tight, raised yet again. The next two players folded, one somehow exposing QQ. Troll ended up mucking, unable to put his opponent on anything other than AA. In the end, the other guy showed two cowboys. Even though the villain did not have the nuts, this lay down illustrates what Texas Troll is capable of.

On day three, Troll was crippled when his two pair were ousted by a flush made by Jordan "Octavian_C" Rich (pictured left) on the river. Shortly after, he shoved in his remaining chips with 89 and ran into A9. GG. John said that after his score, it was really still "business as usual, and not much has changed." An interesting addition to Texas Troll's story is that he made a last longer bet with Annette_15, with whom he used to play SnG's. Annette, don't make him come looking for you, people from Texas are dangerous. Just ask Waco.

Some of the players who made it to the TV final table inluded Jordan "Octavian_C" Rich, Jason Gray, and Brad "BlackHat" Smithson (pictured below right). Octavian_C was the first to be eliminated when his pocket sevens got all-in against BlackHat's AK. The classic race situation was ended abruptly though, as the flop came A-A-K, sending Jordan Rich to the rail $77,075 richer.

BlackHat continued his role as the eliminator, proceeding to knock out Jason Gray as well. With five left, Jason raised the pot preflop and was called by BlackHat and one other player. The flop came 9-8-6 and Jason led out for 60k. Brad "BlackHat" Smithson asked for a count on Gray's chips. When he learned that Gray had 250k behind, he chose to move all-in. The action got back to Jason, and he contemplated for a moment before calling with pocket aces. BlackHat turned over pocket sevens for an open ended straight draw and a pair. The turn brought a lucky seven for the hatman, leaving Gray with two outs for a win and eight for a tie. The board paired on the river, sending Gray out in 5th place with $106,310.

With three left, the former eliminator would become the eliminated. The man making this happen was Jim Mordue (pictured left), a native of Madison, Wisconsin. BlackHat found himself all-in with AJ against Mordue's superior AK. The flop brought a jack, quickly reversing the roles. The turn amazingly brought a king, agains reversing the situation while inspiring all of the cheese loving observers to jump to their feet and cheer in approval. The river was of no consequence, and Brad "BlackHat" Smithson was out in 3rd for $252,490.

This elimination meant that Jim Mordue was now heads-up with an extremely strong player who has yet to be mentioned: Travis "TravestyFund" Rice (pictured right). Travis has already had a $111,901 score in the WSOP earlier this year, and was largely considered to be the best player at the final table. The heads-up match didn't last long before the money got in the middle. A hand that may have very well helped set-up the final confrontation happened when Mordue opened for 85k and Travis opted to raise to 235k. Mordue thought for awhile before folding. TravestyFund showed J3o.

Rice stayed aggressive and found himself in what appeared to be a lot of trouble. Rice once again raised Mordue, who this time pushed back for all his chips. Rice thought intently for a while before quietly declaring, "I call." The man known as TravestyFund flipped over KT and knew he had a mountain to climb when Mordue showed AcKc. The flop came Q-8-4, preserving Mordue's lead. Even so, a lead is never preservable unless the Poker Gods deem it so. The turn was an earth shattering ten, and the river did not bring an ace or a jack, making Travis "TravestyFund" Rice the winner and owner of a title, and Jim Mordue a runner up. Mordue received $478,405 for his remarkable performance, and Travis Rice was given the title as well as $800,000.

As usual, the reporting by Court Harrington on PocketfivesLive was outstanding and allowed many of us to live vicariously through other players via updates and photos. Also, thank you to UltimateBet, the site that made it possible for so many players to travel to Aruba. Finally, a big congratulations to everyone who participated and found success.

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