Umnhhhh! Nice title – right? It’s not exactly what one would think. It’s a catamaran, super party boat, that takes the island visitor out to sea. Some drinks are provided, snorkeling, swimming, fun, and all in all a general good time is had by everyone…or so they say. Everyone’s telling me I missed the boat. Perhaps they don’t know I missed it on purpose. I know it’s an old saw here but let me create a little more sawdust – first of all I’m claustrophobic, I have a motion sickness thang, and I’m taking a medication that recommends ‘no sunlight’. Those are the three major reasons that I don’t attend the annual ‘pleasure trip’. Each year, UltimateBet founder Russ Hamiltonand/or Suzie Lederer have provided this trip for the poker staff that comes to Aruba every year to work the event. This trip is on the day the final table is being played at a ‘location to be determined’. If you are dealing the final table, you ain’t going. If you are me, you ain’t going either. This year, I heard that Suzie paid for the trip. *applause – whistles – foot stomping*

I kept trying to figure out how I was going to include all of the pictures of people I took as they were getting ready to board for an afternoon of ‘pleasure’ filled fun. A few tests – a little time and effort – and I think I have it. It takes a lot of time to even resize and set the images to be uploaded to wordpress, then even more time to load the image into the page…needless to say this little task has taken a few hours of my time. Click on the thumbnail for the full picture, then hit ‘back’ to return to this page. Most of all, please welcome and enjoy seeing the people that work this event. There’s only one picture here that really doesn’t fit with the mix…you figure it out.

This event was Saturday, the 30th. The final poker event was being played out by the Radisson pool. I cruised by there, took a few photos, and headed for the Excelsior Casino in the Holiday Inn. Satellites were running for a 6:30 p.m. Holdem Tournament. More on that later.