Poker News

Last year, a field of 1,529 players turned out to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) for its signature Main Event, a $10,000 buy-in poker tournament at the Atlantis Hotel and Casino in the Bahamas. This year, a field of 647 poker hopefuls turned out for Day 1A of the Main Event on Saturday, with a throng of additional players expected today for Day 1B.

At the end of the first starting day, the Netherlands’ Pieter de Korver led the way with a stack of 245,300, just ahead of Ryan Olisar’s second place tally of 227,700. A total of 10 levels were played and the final 272-player leaderboard is stacked with several of poker’s top names. Let’s take a look back at some of the action from Saturday.

The major news of the day was Viktor Blom finally admitting that he was the man behind the Isildur1 mask. Blom arrived to the Main Event area around 7:30pm ET to face fellow PokerStars pro Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier in a 100-hand live heads-up match in which he ultimately banked $22,000. Blom had long been speculated to be Isildur1, but up until Saturday, no confirmation was given. Read more.

Director General of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism David Johnson got the day started with the traditional “Shuffle up and deal” command and the first elimination occurred within ten minutes. Talk about a short outing! Austria’s Sebastian Panny was the first player ousted after running the nut flush into Dustin “DDBeast” Dorrance-Bowman’s straight flush. The wild hand set the tone for the day to come on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.

Near the end of Day 1A, un-retired player Shaun Deeb was eliminated from the PCA Main Event after his pocket tens could not withstand the A-J belonging to Jonas Becker. Also departing were PokerStars pro Chad Brown and Scott Seiver. The latter was eliminated holding pocket nines all-in before the flop against Chad “badbeatman06” Eveslage’s Q-J offsuit. The board came 7-3-T-2-K with four hearts, giving both players flushes, but Eveslage had the jack-high version for the win. Seiver told PokerStars officials following the hand, “I actually thought I was going to win that one.”

Phil Ivey was on-hand on Saturday. PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu passed him on poker’s all-time money list with a runner-up showing in the Super High Roller Event for $1 million. Ivey will now have to use the PCA Main Event to vault back into the lead. Ivey initially passed Negreanu last year after finishing second to Dan Shak in the $100,000 buy-in High Roller Event at the Aussie Millions. The Full Tilt Poker pro ended Day 1A with a stack of 75,600.

Holding down the fort in 15th place after Day 1A was Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Bernard Lee, who bagged up 163,200 in chips. Lee finished third in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit Regional Championship in Chicago last October for nearly a quarter of a million dollars.

Here are the top 10 players on the leaderboard after Day 1A of the 2011 PCA Main Event:

1. Pieter de Korver – 245,300
2. Ryan Olisar – 227,700
3. Guillaume Gignac – 219,600
4. Owen “ocrowe” Crowe – 213,000
5. Chad “badbeatman06” Eveslage – 203,500
6. Justin Scott – 203,300
7. Mathieu Martin – 199,500
8. Dmitriy Stelmak – 186,500
9. Tyler “brainwash” Cornell – 183,800
10. Toby Lewis – 181,000

Other brand name pros remaining in the top 50 after Day 1A include:

15. Bernard Lee – 163,200
28. Frank “RaineTech” Calo – 133,600
31. Jamie “thecronic420” Rosen – 130,800
40. Joe “hoodini10” Udine – 117,800
42. Olivier Busquet – 115,600
44. Ryan “HITTHEPANDA” Franklin – 113,800

Today, a brand new crop of players will take to the felts for Day 1B before the survivors are combined for Day 2 on Monday at Noon ET. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

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