2009 Aruba Poker Classic
$5,500 Aruba Poker Classic Championship
Day: 5
It's hot out here. Really hot. Sweat spots dot the shirts of our remaining four players. Dealers are struggling with spreading the flop as the cards are sticking together. Eric 'basebaldy' Baldwin enlisted help from the rail with some spray-on sunscreen, and Matt Savage even had the table moved once to try to keep the players out of the sun.
It's hard to tell if the conditions are effecting play itself, but at the very least its safe to say they've affected morale.
Eric Baldwin - 2,250,000
Brandon Hall - 1,450,000
Chase Steely - 1,400,000
Showdown
Hall:
Steely:
It was Hall who was at risk, but he was in fine shape to double up with his overpair. When the dealer ran the board , he did just that, increasing his chip stack to 1,450,000. He has moved just a few thousand ahead of Chase Steely who went from chip leader to short stack during the course of that hand.
Robert Mizrachi - 2,240,000
Eric Baldwin - 2,010,000
Brandon Hall - 560,000
Level: 23
Blinds: 12,000/24,000
Ante: 4,000
Steely now has 2.12 million and is the chip leader while Hall went down to 750,000.
The turn was the , putting four hearts on board. Baldwin checked again and Mizrachi fired 150,000 this time. Baldwin released his hand with a quick flick, dropping to 1.94 million. Mizrachi is up over two million now.
After the hand, Mizrachi stepped away from the table to put on a new white polo shirt. We're thinking it's from a sponsor and should have a photo coming soon.
It brought , and Mizrachi grabbed control with a bet of 55,000. Steely didn't waste much time making the call, but Baldwin had loftier intentions. He stacked out a re-raise to 162,000 and spilled it forward into the middle of the table. Mizrachi put in the call while Steely thought it best to duck out of the way.
The turn brought the , and Mizrachi tapped the felt. Baldwin kept the heat on with a healthy bet of 337,000, and that was enough to send the message to Mizrachi, and he chose to save his 1.7 million chips for a better spot. That pot bumps Baldwin back over the 2-million-chip mark with about 2,150,000.
Action folded around the table to Steely in the small blind and he completed the bet. Santos checked his option in the big and the flop came down . Steely led out with a 26,000 bet and Santos made the call.
4th Street brought the and Steely fired again, this time making it 68,000 to play; Santos called once more, leaving himself approximately 145,000 behind.
When the fell on the river, Steely paused, looked over at Santos' chips and watched the Venezuelan slide them from behind his cards to the front, in plain view of Steely.
"You're all in?" Steely asked.
Santos pointed at Steely.
"You check?" he asked.
"No, I haven't checked," was Steely's reply.
Another minute passed and Steely made his decision.
"I'm all in."
Santos made the call and Steely tabled for a seven-high straight. Santos mucked his hand, accepting his fate as the tournament's 5th place finisher.
After the hand, Steely stacked up just over two million in chips, assuming the top spot on our leaderboard.