How Aaron Barone Gave Ian Simpson a Taste of His Own Medicine
Before the excitement of the 888poker LIVE London Main Event, several members of Team888 locked horns with a couple of streaming stars in an 888poker Ambassador Sit & Go. While the streamers were hoping to win an 888poker LIVE Madrid package, the 888poker ambassadors were fighting for pride and bragging rights among their teammates.
Ian Simpson, Nick Eastwood, Vivian Saliba, Lucia Navarro, Aaron Barone, and Jack Dean made up the Team 888poker roster, with Inaki Angulo, Becky "bambinobecky" James, and Sophie "Sophie Snazz" Power joining them in a fast-paced single-table tournament.
While Saliba gave the newcomers some poker tips, Simpson was encouraging everyone to slowroll at any given opportunity during this fun event, something that would ultimately come back to bite the popular pro firmly on his backside.
It didn't take long for the first elimination to occur, a short-stacked James being sent to the rail by the Call of Duty streamer Snazz. Jack Dean headed to the rail soon after James' demise. The last of Dean's chips went into the middle with queen-eight, which lost to Angulo's dominating king-queen.
Then came Eastwood's exit. He committed his stack with ace-five only to run into Angulo's far superior ace-queen. A queen on the flop left Eastwood drawing thin. A five on the turn gave him a glimmer of home, which the bricked river took away.
Navarro crashed out in sixth, losing two hands to Simpson in quick succession. First, Navarro jammed her jack-ten into Simpson's jacks, and then her queen-ten into Simpson's pocket kings.
Simpson was the chip leader at this point and used his large stack to try to bully his remaining opponents and make some loose calls. He added to his stack when his suited six-three flopped a three to best Saliba's suited ace-nine, then his king-three also flopped a three to beat Sophie Snazz's ace-king and send her home in fourth.
Despite those wins, Simpson fell in third and was given a taste of his own medicine. Barone had just spiked an ace on the river to double through Simpson before Simpson jammed with three-deuce on a queen-deuce-ace flop. Barone, having flopped a set of queens, tanked for more than a minute, putting on an acting performance that would not have looked out of place on a Broadway stage, never mind a poker table in London. After acting like he was about to fold, Barone (obviously) called and showed Simpson the goods!
Barone then defeated Angulo after the briefest of heads-up matches. Angulo got his chips in good, king-eight versus suited seven-six, but two sixes on the flop and a full house-completing seven on the turn meant the Spaniard had to make do with a runner-up finish, leaving Barone to bask in the glory of victory and having gotten one over on his teammate!
