TRAVIS RICE TAKES THIS YEAR'S ARUBA POKER CLASSIC

12 October 2007

Top international pros and some promising young guns in starting field


After braving wind, sun, insects and a tension filled heads up that lasted only a few hands, Travis Rice emerged as the winner of the Ultimate Bet Aruba Poker Classic over the weekend when he saw off second placed James Mordue to collect the winner's cheque of $800 000 and the respect due to the top dog in a starter field of 546 players, many of them top international professionals.

Rice, famous as an Internet poker ace playing as 'Travesty Fund' said he was delighted by the major land tournament win which took just over eight hours in all to finalise.

Mordue, equally tormented throughout the al fresco tournament by hot, windy conditions and flying insects, had to be content with the second place prize of $478 405.

There were several young guns taking advantage of the 18 years age limit on the event, including rising Internet poker star and WSOP sensation Annette Obrestad, but this time around they were not really to feature among a field that included the likes of Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Freddy Deeb, Annie Duke and Joe Sebok.

Rice headed the chip counts on the final table of six, facing Brad Smithson, Mordue, Nick Blackburn, Jordan Rich and Jason Gray and he dominated play throughout as his stack continued to grow. By heads up he held 3.5 million chips to Mordue's 1.9 million.

The first two players to head for the cashier's desk were roomies Jordan Rich and Jason Gray. The former finished in sixth place, worth $77 075, whilst Gray took the fifth placing cheque of $106 310 Smithson eliminated both players. Nick Blackburn was next out in fourth place, busted out by Rice for a payday of $146 180.

Smithson, fighting back from a big loss earlier on, was started to look promising again until he ran into Mordue and was sent to the rail and a third placing reward of $252 490. After that, it took only a few hands of heads up play to bring the tournament to a close, and allow the players to escape the elements.

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