Poker News

The 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is off and running at the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas and they have chosen to start the tournament in style. The first day of the $100,000 Super High Roller is in the books, smashing last year’s attendance numbers.

Of course, with such a high buy in, only the crème of the poker world would have the audacity to step up to such a challenge as the Super High Roller. Every table was replete with some of the biggest names in the game and, moments after the cards were in the air, Phil Ivey would join their midst. Jason Koon welcomed Ivey rudely by chopping about 22K in chips from his 250K stack moments after Ivey sat down at the felt.

The first significant move of the tournament came during a battle between Vanessa Selbst and Sam Stein. On a 5-3-10-A rainbow flop and turn, Selbst would lay out about 25K in chips and, once Stein made the call, the twosome saw a seven fall on the river. Selbst once again fired from under the gun, this time for slightly more than 58K in chips and Stein went into the tank. After some deliberations, he made the call but mucked once Selbst unveiled pocket threes for a flopped set; the hand pushed her up to the 350K mark and Stein’s stack shrunk to 125K.

With unlimited rebuys throughout the day’s action, players drifted in and out in a very laid back manner. Phil Hellmuth, who normally makes a late entrance to any tournament he is in, didn’t even show until after the dinner break. Making his first ever appearance at the PCA, Hellmuth probably should have waited even longer; within an hour of dropping his $100K in the pool, he was eliminated by Philipp Gruissem after Gruissem flopped two pair and turned a boat against Hellmuth’s flopped pair of nines and turned trips.

Gruissem, who had been previously eliminated and used a second bullet on this event, would use the knockout of the reigning World Series of Poker Europe Championship Event winner to end the night with a nice chip lead:

1. Philipp Gruissem, 771,500
2. Scott Seiver, 729,000
3. Dan Shak, 650,000
4. Tom Marchese, 638,500
5. Vivek Rajkumar, 608,500
6. Jason Somerville, 604,500
7. Nick Schulman, 580,000
8. Steve O’Dwyer, 527,500
9. Eugene Katchalov, 514,500
10. David “Doc” Sands, 505,500

Other players who aren’t among the Top Ten are Jason Mercier, Daniel Alaei, Tobias Reinkemeier, Antonio Esfandiari, Mike “SirWatts” Watson, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Jonathan Duhamel, Erik Seidel and Selbst, who are all over the 300K mark in chips.

A name that you don’t see on the leaderboard in the 2013 Super High Roller is its defending champion, Viktor “Isildur1” Blom. Blom, whose first major tournament victory was in this event last year, explained his reasonings early this morning for not attending the PCA this year: “I made more than what I cashed for last year (at the PCA) on Full Tilt Poker (Blom, along with Gus Hansen and Tom Dwan, is a member of “The Professionals,” the new sponsored pros on Full Tilt) the last three days!”

Although the final numbers for the tournament aren’t in yet (players can enter/re-enter until the cards fly this afternoon), it appears as though the 2013 Super High Roller will easily eclipse last year’s numbers. 32 players entered in 2012 and, so far this year, there are 57 entries on the big board (47 players and ten reentries). 37 players are left in the tournament after Day One and, once the Day Two proceedings begin, a firm number on both the players, entries and payouts for one of the biggest tournaments during the tournament poker season will become known.

While the Super High Roller will continue today, there are a few other events on tap for those who don’t want to bask in the sunshine in the Bahamas. A super-satellite to the $10,000 PCA Main Event (which begins on Monday) will be held with a buy in of $1100. There will also be two turbo tournaments – one with a $2150 buy in, the other with a $300 price tag – which could provide for players to get in their poker AND some beach time on Sunday!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *