Travis Rice Captures Aruba Poker Classic Title

8th October 2007

A strong starting field of 546 players, including top pros such as Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Joe Sebok, Annie Duke and rising online star Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad who recently won the Main Event at the World Series of Poker Europe, showed up for the Ultimate Bet Aruba Poker Classic compared to the very small turnout for the Turks and Caicos WPT event held last week in the nearby island.

The big turnout was probably helped by the fact that the age limit in Aruba for gambling is only 18 years old.

As always, the final table was held outside with the players having to face the heat and some strong winds.

The heads-up started roughly after eight hours of play and saw Travis Rice holding 3.5 million chips to James Mordue’s 1.9 million chips. Heads-up didn’t last long and it was over after a few hands.

Mordue’s Ace, King went against Rice’s King, Ten but with a Ten on the turn and King on the river it meant the Aruba Poker Classic title went to Rice, who’s online nickname is “Travesty Fund” along with the first prize of $800,000. Mordue had to content with runner up prize of $478,405.