Before the winter descends upon us, the tournament circuit takes us to the beach with the seventh-annual UltimateBet Aruba Poker Classic. The event has been a player favorite on the tour since its inception in 2002. This year, the tournament is expecting a field of more than 750 players and is guaranteeing a first-place prize of $1 million. The action begins on Saturday, Sept. 27 with the main event scheduled to start on Monday, Sept. 29. The main event will have a $5,000+$500 buy-in.
Here is a listing of the scheduled events:
Sept. 27
- $500+$40 no-limit hold’em — 7 p.m.
Sept. 28
- $500+$40 no-limit hold’em — 3 p.m.
- Aruba welcome banquet — 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 29
- $5,000+$500 no-limit hold’em main event day 1A — noon
- $500+$40 no-limit hold’em — 7 p.m.
Sept. 30
- $5,000+$500 no-limit hold’em main event day 1B – noon
- $500+$40 no-limit hold’em — 7 p.m.
Oct. 1
- $5,000+$500 no-limit hold’em main event day 2 — noon
- $500+$40 no-limit hold’em — 7 p.m.
Oct. 2
- $5,000+$500 no-limit hold’em main event day 3 — noon
- $200 rebuy Ante Up For Africa no-limit hold’em — 7 p.m.
Oct. 3
- $5,000+$500 no-limit hold’em main event day 4 — noon
- $500+$40 no-limit hold’em — 3 p.m.
Oct. 4
- $5,000+$500 no-limit hold’em main event final table — noon
- Awards ceremony and banquet — 7:30 p.m.
In 2007, Travis "TravestyFund" Rice came out on top of a field of 548 to score the top prize of $800,000. Past winners of this event include Devon Miller, Freddy Deeb, Eric Brenes, Erick Lindgren, and Juha Helppi.
The field is expected to be filled with online qualifiers and a number of notables have already won their seat or registered for the event, including Mark "P0ker H0" Kroon, Annie Duke, James "P0KERPR033" Campbell, Phil Hellmuth, Scott Ian, Shawn Rice, Tiffany Michelle, Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy, Adam "Roothlus" Levy, "Hollywood" Dave Stann, Adam "atxgeyer" Geyer, Eric "basebaldy" Baldwin, Casey "BIGDOGPCKT5S" Jarzabek, Mike "Bonzo9876" Katz, Christian "charder30" Harder, Zachary "crazyzachary" Clark, Joe "ender555" Ebanks, Taylor "Green Plastic" Caby, Frank "gator93" Hernandez, Jason "JaspudUF" Lee, Tony "muckthenuts" Dunst, Jordan "Octavian_C" Rich, Randal "RandALLin" Flowers, Russell "rdcrsn" Carson, and Cody "thugmoneymkr" Slaubaugh.
As always, the Card Player tournament team will be present to bring you all the live updates, photos, chip counts and interviews you can handle. See you in Aruba!
