UltimateBet.com Aruba Poker Classic Day 1b: 267 Remain to Fight Over $2.3 Million Prize Pool
The second flight of the UltimateBet.com 2009 Aruba Poker Classic saw 281 runners take to the felt putting the total number of entrants at 469 and creating a prize pool worth over $2.3 million. After all was said and done, 156 players made it to the bag-and-tag part of the night, combining with the 111 remaining players from yesterday to leave 267 players moving on to Day 2.
The newest member of Team UltimateBet, Joe Sebok, didn't last long at all. Busting before the end of the first level, Sebok ran a couple of big hands and then into bigger ones before hitting the rail. Fellow team members Annie Duke, Billy Kopp and Liv Boeree also failed to make it through the day.
Jeff Madsen was another one of the big names in action, but he joined Sebok on the rail before the end of the first level. Madsen ran a flopped set into his opponent's higher set on the turn to make his exit. Other players who will be working on their tans tomorrow rather than building their chip stacks are Layne Flack, Will "The Thrill" Failla, Mark "P0ker H0" Kroon and Erica Shoenberg.
The action all day was slow and steady. Eliminations didn't come fast and furious nor were there too many large confrontations around the room. Defending champion Matt Brady knows all about the slow and steady pace of the event — he wasn't able to get much going all day long. "I'm hanging in there, I'm still alive to repeat," he said.
Team UltimateBet members Tiffany Michelle, Brandon Cantu, Shawn Rice and Michael Binger all made it through to Day 2 while only half of the Absolute Poker team, Matt Vengrin, made it. Lacey Jones was the other half of that team and busted toward the end of the day.
Matt Ross, Casey Kastle and Robbie Cunningham all made bids to be chip leader coming out of Day 1b. Each could easily challenge Jon Favaloro from Day 1a for pole position going into Day 2.
All 267 players will be back tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. local time to continue their quests for the $753,330 first-place prize. Be sure to follow all the live updates from PokerNews.
Wish you were there? Start building a bankroll on UltimateBet.com today and be sure to follow us on Twitter.
