Aruba Trip Report (very long)

[null]

Four weeks ago I was on vacation in Aruba. I saw lots of fish while snorkeling, and I saw plenty more at the poker tables. After putting it off for a long time, I finally got around to writing this trip report. I played primarily at the Radisson, which is where I heard the World Poker Tour event will be held. I stayed next door at the Wyndham, which is going to be opening a poker room as well in the near future. I also played a tournament at the Excelsior Casino, at the Holiday Inn.

From what I understand, the Radisson’s poker room opened fairly recently. In fact they were having a 40 person freeroll to promote it during the end of the week I was there, which I was unfortunately unable to stick around for. Their poker room is small, there are only five tables. It’s in the back of their casino. Although it’s small, it’s a great room. It’s right next to the bar, and there are a couple big screen TVs, one behind the bar, and the other in a small lounge area. I wonder if the WPT brings tables with them, or if they are going to be borrowing tables from the Holiday Inn. I’m sure they will be taking over space on the casino floor area. The Radisson’s tables all have automatic shufflers in them, which is great. They use two decks, so after a hand is done, the dealer takes out a fresh deck that’s ready to go, and puts the used deck into the shuffler so it’ll be ready for the next hand. I wish all B&M cardrooms had these auto shufflers, I haven’t seen them at any of the other places I’ve played (Foxwoods and Turning Stone).

The staff was friendly, although a bit inexperienced. I played mostly 4-8 limit, and people were allowed to come in without posting blinds. I also had a situation where I raised with KK UTG, and a guy just called the BB, then said he didn’t see my raise and asked if he could take his money back. The floor was called, and he was allowed to take it back. Also, some of the dealers were off a few times on calling the winning hand (or if it was a chop) and had to be corrected by the players. However, all in all, I thought the staff was good. The dealers all stated the number of players to a flop, which I found helpful.

The rake was high. For a full game of 4-8 it was capped at $6. Add a $2 jackpot drop and throw in a $1 tip for the dealer, and that’s $9 out of a big pot. I think the bad beat jackpot was Aces full beaten (aces full of tens?) with both hole cards playing. They also had a promotion running from 7-9 pm, where if you got aces cracked, or if you won with 72o, you got $100. Unfortunately when I showed up one night at 7 the games weren’t going yet. I was there during the week, and the games usually started after 8. The poker room’s hours were 7pm - 3:30am (or possibly 4).

The games were great, very soft. I got Small Stakes Holdem shortly before the trip and started reading it, and it was perfect timing. The games were loose as hell, with people calling down with almost anything, even a few people that would call down with ace high. English only was not in effect at the tables. While I mostly heard people speaking English, I also heard Spanish, and the local language, Papiamento. I took some Spanish in high school, so a picked up a bit. I learned the Spanish word for chip (ficha).

The nights I was there, there were one or two 4-8 games going and one 15-30 (I think) game going. One night there was a 6-12. They said they'd open tables for different limits if there was demand (with 4-8 being the lowest). I was there midweek, and I was told it was much busier on the weekends. The first night I was there I talked to the friend of the guy who'd help set up the room. He said that the guy who set it up was a pro, I saw both of them playing in the 15-30 game each night. They also helped get a 4-8 going one night (I guess they were prop players). He said they got the chips from ChipCo, imported some tables, and had a local carpenter duplicate the tables since they cost so much to import. The tables were all good quality, with each of them having the aforementioned autoshufflers built in. I heard that the Excelsior at the Holiday Inn ran 5-10 and a 2-5 PL Holdem game. They may have also had 4-8, and I'm sure they had a higher limit game - I never played a ring game there.

There’s an important difference when playing limit poker in Aruba: you can bet the big bet or the small bet on the flop. So in 4-8, you can bet or raise in units of 4 preflop, 4 or 8 on the flop, and 8 on the turn and river. Combine this with loose players that are as happy calling 8 to chase as they are calling 4, and you have a hugely profitable situation. Of course it makes for a larger pot on the turn, which makes chasing to the river more correct, but all in all I liked it. In terms of strategy adjustments, I usually bet 8 on the flop, only betting 4 rarely. Whether you could raise someone’s bet of 4 on the flop by 8 seemed to be up to the dealer, I think you were supposed to stick to the same increment, but this wasn’t always the case. Being able to raise someone’s bet of 4 by 8 was great, and I was able to do it a few times. The cap was three raises, I’m not sure if there was a heads-up cap.

Ok, on to the day by day recap. Some of the hand details will be sparse, and I can't remember if a few were sooooted or not - it was four weeks ago. The first night I was there, I went to the Radisson and sat down at the 4-8 table. Now 4-8 is out of my bankroll, but I figured hey, I’m on vacation, and I’m sure I can outplay most of the players. I bought in for $200. I was one of the few people who bought in for an appropriate amount. Especially considering that with the ability to bet 8 on the flop, it could cost $112 to cap the betting on every street. I hit some good hands, and barely had to dip into my $200. In one notable hand, I had TT, raised preflop, and flopped a set on a QTQ board with 2 of a suit. I think the flush hit on the river, and I dragged a huge pot against a guy with KJs for the straight flush draw, and another guy with trip Qs (of course there were a few others who had folded before the river). I finished the night up $210.

On day two, I wasn’t getting cards. The play was as bad as ever, but I wasn’t winning money. I had bought in for $200 again and had been eating into my winnings, but I was never down overall. Then I hit a big hand when I was dealt AKs UTG. I raised and managed to get it capped preflop with the help of the BB. The flop came KKx with 2 of a suit. The BB bet, I raised, and everyone else folded. The turn was a blank and the river was an A. The BB turned over K6s (not of the possible flush draw suit, not that it mattered) and I dragged a big pot. I finished day two +$28 for the day, +238 total.

Day three was when the magic happened. When I got to the Radisson, the 4-8 game was full. However, there were seats open at the 6-12 game. I was a bit apprehensive about sitting down at it – 4-8 was already out of my bankroll, could I handle the variance at 6-12? I decided to sit down, but I asked to be moved to 4-8 once a seat opened up. I bought in for $300, and never dipped too far into it. Looking around the table, I spotted a few players that I had played 4-8 with, and they hadn’t gotten any better. I was dealt a lot of big pairs – I got AA four times, KK QQ & JJ a couple of times each, TT at least once – and they all held up, with the exception of one of the QQ hands. In that losing QQ hand, I raised preflop, bet 8 on the board of rags, then I got raised on the turn when the board paired 3s. I lost to A3. That should give you an idea of the caliber of play.

Although a seat opened up at 4-8, the floor never called me, and I didn’t want to move anyway. The game was too good. In one big hand I remember I had JJ and flopped top set with a flush draw on the board. The flush draw hit on the river, and it also paired the board. I won a massive pot. My good run was fairly evenly distributed throughout the night. Later on in the night, a friendly guy that I had seen and talked to on previous nights showed up. He lost a hand with AA, and started talking about how his aces always got cracked. The very next hand I was dealt AA and won. I stuck around until the end of the night even though it got shorthanded. The last hand of the night, I was dealt QQ and won. When I went to cash out, I had 5 full racks of chips plus another partial rack. All told I had won $776 that night. That’s the best session I’ve ever had, and it felt great. For the trip, I was +$1014! I was nervous about carrying all of that money back to my hotel, even though I had heard there was no crime to worry about. I was in a bit of a paranoid (elated, but paranoid) mood. When I cashed out, two of the hundreds that they gave me were old-style hundreds. I checked for the strip that runs through them that says USA 100, and noticed that one didn’t have a strip. I went back to the casino and asked to exchange it for another, which they did. Was I overly paranoid, or was this smart thinking? You decide.

Day four my brother and I played in the NL Holdem tournament at the Holiday Inn that I’d heard about from a friendly guy I played 4-8 with. My brother just recently started playing holdem with some of his friends, and he’d won their small tourney. The first day I played at the Radisson, he tried out the $4-8 at another table, dropped $60, and stopped playing. At the time I didn’t know he was going to play. I actually brought a few books along for the trip in case he wanted to check them out – I had WLLH and Pot Limit and No Limit Poker, along with SSH to read myself, of course (I came prepared, heh). After he’d lost the $60, I gave him WLLH to peruse. I told him that he should buy in for $200 if he was going to be playing 4-8, and that it was really out of even my bankroll. He didn’t want to risk much more money, but he wanted to play some more poker, so the tournament was a great opportunity for that. Once we’d decided to play in the tournament, I had him switch to reading Pot Limit and No Limit Poker.

The tournament had a $25 buyin, with $25 rebuys and a $30 addon. I’m not sure what the house cut was. The top 4 places won money.. The structure was pretty bad – 600 chips, with the blinds starting at 10-20 – you had only 30x the bb to start! I think the addon was either 800 or 1000 chips, and the blinds increased every half hour. There were a few breaks, and they had pizza after the first four blind levels, which was the end of the rebuy period. I gave my brother some basic tournament advice, and I paid his entry fee since I’d done so well the previous night. I told him to save his money for a rebuy if he needed it. We drew cards for table assignment, and luckily got assigned to different tables. There were three tables, with about 22 people to start and a few latecomers.

I played fairly tight. The first pot I won, I won in a very dumb fashion, raising preflop with KQs and then bluffing at an A high flop. I had two callers on the flop, but I got the impression that either neither of them had an ace (after looking into their souls), or maybe one had a weak ace, so I went allin on the turn. One folded, the other called with some kind of straight draw that missed on the river. I won with A high, king kicker. Like I said, a stupid play, but hey, it worked. The next notable hand I played, I had QQ, raised preflop maybe 2-3x the BB (the blinds were big in proportion to the stacks). I bet out on a J high flop, got one caller, went allin on the turn (a blank), he called with QJ and hit his two outer on the river. I was down to 800 chips, and fairly pissed. I folded a couple of hands in the blinds, then stupidly went allin on the button with A8s after two callers, when I had only a few times the BB. I could have seen maybe 5 more hands for free, I’m not sure what the hell I was thinking. The guy who had told me about the tournament was actually playing at my table, and he acted after me. After I went allin, he said “I wanted to do that!” He ended up thinking and thinking, then throwing his hand away. After the hand he said he laid down jacks, and I believe him. My A8s lost the hand, out kicked by ATo.

After my fishtacular play, I could have rebought, but I decided against it. I would have had either 6x or12x the BB if I had (can’t remember which) – not exactly conducive to a skill based comeback. I noticed my brother was doing well, so I decided to hang around and watch him. He did have to rebuy once earlier. At first I was thinking of hitting up the 4-8 at the Radisson again, but he kept doing well. I was impressed; he made it to the final table. I was able to give him occasional advice from the rail. He hung in there as people started dropping. I think he knocked at least one guy out. By this time, a crowd had gathered to watch the end of the tournament. My brother had one big hand where he saw a KJK flop with QT. Shortstacked and first to act with two other players in the hand, he thought a little, then he moved allin. The first guy folded, and the second guy started hemming and hawing. He finally flipped a jack up and stared my brother down (since then I’ve read this would make his hand dead in most tournaments). He ended up calling with Jx. The turn was a blank, and the river was an Ace. My brother yelled “YES!,” did the fistpump, and got up and walked around. I thought it was funny, and the crowd loved it. This gave my brother a decent stack. He made it into the money, then to the final three. He got shortstacked again and then went out with KT. He netted $250 for his third place finish. An older, nice guy who’d taken to calling my brother “youngblood” finished second, and a local who my brother had crippled on the QT straight hand came back to win it (after proposing a deal that the older guy rejected).

I ended up back at the Radisson playing 4-8, eager to recoup my -$50 from the tournament, and end my vacation over $1,000 in the positive. My brother hung around to watch for a while. After winning $120, I told him that leaving the table was like “leaving a machine that gives you money.” Of course you can guess what happened after that. The game wasn’t even that great at that point, a couple of super fish had busted out. I ended up losing money for the night, first losing my winnings, then dipping into my buyin. I stayed until the game ended around 3:30 am, and finished with $98 left from my $200 buyin. Including the tournament, I was -$152 for the day. So I finished the trip +$862. Despite winning a lot overall, it still felt like a downer.

Two of the nights I was there playing 4-8, there was a player who said who they had never played Holdem before. One of them was a younger guy, and the other one was an elderly man who spoke only Spanish. Each of them knew the rank of poker hands, but that was about it. I saw one crazy situation with the younger new guy, when another player posted a straddle. The dealer tried to explain it to the newbie, and mentioned "raising blind." Somehow the newbie decided that this meant he should play his hand without looking at his cards! The straddler, who I was almost certain I saw look at his cards, told the new player that he would call him all the way down. The straddler claimed he hadn't look at his hand either. The newbie agreed. After a whole lot of betting and raising, with a third player folding (on the flop or turn), the newbie reached a headsup showdown with the straddler, still without having looked at his cards. The stradder flipped over AKo unimproved, and the newbie flipped over KT for the rivered pair of tens to win it! He won a big pot, which he proceeded to give back to the table. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen playing live, in my admittedly limited experience.

I recommend playing at the Radisson if you’re in Aruba in the future. I did leave Aruba with a sunburn, but I got another great souvenir – other people’s money [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. I also snagged one of the Radisson’s $2 chips. Overall, I had a great time.

[As Zehn]

Timing in life is everything. I was there the first 2 weeks of Aug. It was my second time playing. There were some fish and for some I guess I was their fish. Glad to hear you did well. Exactly when were you there?

[Phantom]

I was there last week, I lost 3 sessions in a row playing 4-8 at the Raddison. It was one of the most frustrating weeks of poker I have had in about 3 years.

The games were as soft as you described but the Fish were getting lucky and I was getting very bad cards. On the few occasions, I flopped hands, I got beat on the river pretty regularly. It was a little maddening and the tables closed promptly at 3:30 AM which was frustrating because it meant each of my sessions were fairly short once my GF went to bed and all..

The pots were pretty good size because of the number of people who would chase.

The dealers were very inexperienced. Just like you described, a lot of them struggling reading the hands.

I also played a pot limit game one night at the Holiday Inn Excelsior. That was a good game, very loose as well.

I have heard that the Wyndham just opened up their poker room, they have a pot limit game too.

Loved the Balashis though!! They went down like water.

[As Zehn]

Are there any other casinos in Aruba that are contemplating opening poker rooms? Anyone know how badly the island was hit by Ivan?

[Phantom]

They got some rain, 15 inches in one day. Which was huge for them, considering they only average about 8 inches a year (a Cabbie told me this). So there was a little flooding but nothing major.

[3rdCheckRaise]

What is the bigest limit they were spreading?

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I was there the last full week of August, midweek.

[null]

I think the it was 15/30, the Holiday Inn might have higher, I don't know since I didn't play any ring games there. They were the more established poker room.