2009 Aruba Poker Classic

$5,500 Aruba Poker Classic Championship
Day: 1b
Event Info

2009 Aruba Poker Classic

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
j10
Prize
$753,330
Event Info
Buy-in
$5,000
Prize Pool
$2,303,750
Entries
475
Level Info
Level
26
Blinds
40,000 / 80,000
Ante
10,000

Day 1b in the Books

Defending champion Matt Brady still in contention
Defending champion Matt Brady still in contention
Five more levels of play today and Day 1b is in the books. The second flight of the 2009 Aruba Poker Classic saw 281 runners take to the felt. That put the total number of entrants at 469, creating a prizepool worth over $2.3 million. After it was all said and done, 156 players made it to the bag-and-tag portion of the night, combining with the 111 remaining players from yesterday to leave 267 players moving on to Day 2.

The newest member to 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 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 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 that will be working on their tan 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. The eliminations didn't come fast and furiouis 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 as 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 towards the end of the day.

Matt Ross, Casey Kastle and Robbie Cunningham are all making 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. The official chip counts will be posted later on.

All 267 players will be back tomorrow at 12:00pm local time to continue their quest for the $753,330 first-place prize. Be sure to follow all the live updates from PokerNews starting then! We'll see you tomorrow.

Tags: "P0ker H0"Annie DukeErica ShoenbergJeff MadsenJoe SebokJon FavaloroLacey JonesMatt BradyMatt Vengrin