Kevin Riordan: Aruba suspect a poker 'punk' to Glouco man

Before Joran van der Sloot became one of the most famous murder suspects in the world, Matthew Biebel nearly threw a punch at him during a poker game.

"You could tell he was a punk," Biebel says, recalling his encounter with Van der Sloot in Aruba on May 30, 2005 - the last day Natalee Holloway was seen alive.

Five years to the day later, a young woman named Stephany Flores Ramirez was found murdered in Van der Sloot's hotel room in Peru. The baby-faced suspect with the dyed buzz cut and dead eyes awaits trial in that case.

Biebel's 2005 confrontation with the "Dutch playboy" was captured by security cameras at the Radisson Aruba Resort, Casino & Spa. About a week after Biebel got back from vacation, three cars pulled up unannounced at his Mullica Hill home, disgorging a quartet of FBI agents who proceeded to interview him ("they were professional") for an hour.

"They wanted to know what the fight was about," Biebel says. "They thought that maybe we had had a disagreement about something other than poker.

"They wanted to know what his demeanor was like. They wanted to know if he was disheveled, and I said he looked like any other poker player - cool, calm, and collected."

A 55-year-old Inquirer driver and father of two grown sons, Biebel was in Aruba with a friend. That same weekend, Holloway, 18, was seen at a bar with Van der Sloot; she missed her return flight to the United States, and her body has not been found.

(Although questioned extensively in that case, Van der Sloot was not charged; he later retracted incriminating statements he had made on video and to a TV reporter. Peruvian police say he has confessed to killing Ramirez.)

Van der Sloot shared a poker table with Biebel and his friend May 29 and 30. Although house rules require that English be spoken during games, Van der Sloot frequently chatted with other players in a local language called Papiamento, Biebel says.

"I let it go, but finally there was a pot that was just me and him, and he did it again. I called over the guy who manages the poker room, and I told him that he was breaking the rules. He was told to stop, and he did.

"The next night, the stakes were higher, and I was in a hand with him, and he started doing it again, when he was deciding whether to call my bet. And my bet was a substantial bet.

"For all I knew, he was asking the other players what they folded. He said something smart back to me. . . . I honestly don't remember what it was, but it was not good.