On Monday, the field of the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event convened under one roof for the start of Day 2. When the smoke cleared, the group of 645 was trimmed all the way down to 173. Adam Geyer leads the way after two days of play with a stack of 909,000. He’s the only player to cross the 800,000-chip plateau and his closest competition, Ilan Rouah, bagged up 795,000 last night.
The money bubble popped on Monday when longtime poker player Marco Johnson was shown the door in 233rd place. Johnson was all-in before the flop with K-9 of clubs, but picked an inopportune time to commit his chips, as 2010 PCA High Roller champ William Reynolds held A-9. The board ran out 9-7-2-10-Q with two clubs and, just like that, everyone remaining was in the money. The minimum payout was $15,000 in the $10,000 buy-in tournament and a top prize of $2.3 million is still up for grabs.
Reynolds was ousted before play concluded despite the influx of chips from busting Johnson. He was all-in before the flop with pocket sevens and up against both A-Q and Dwyte Pilgrim’s pocket jacks. When the five community cards were dealt, Pilgrim’s jacks remained the best hand and the double elimination resulted in Reynolds exiting stage right.
Following the money bubble finally bursting, 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Niner Jason Senti was eliminated. Senti, who goes by the moniker “PBJaxx” online, ran A-Q into A-K on his final hand and could not improve. He took home $15,000 for his efforts; his seventh place finish in the WSOP Main Event was good for $1.3 million.
Also departing with cash in tow was Nick Binger, the brother of rocket scientist and former UB.com pro Michael Binger. Nick Binger pushed his stack into the middle before the flop with A-9, but had the unfortunate task of trying to trump A-J. His opponent hit aces and jacks when the hand was over and that was all she wrote for Nick. Michael Binger remains in the hunt for the seven-figure first place prize and holds 100,500 in chips after Day 2, the 151st largest tally overall.
Viktor “Isildur1” Blom’s first live tournament as a PokerStars sponsored pro ended just short of the money. Blom, who has had a whirlwind last week, 3bet all-in pre-flop with A-Q offsuit and ran into pocket jacks. There was no help when the board came 10-6-2-K-K and Blom departed empty-handed. The true identity of Isildur1 was revealed on Saturday night during Day 1A of the PCA Main Event.
Still holding strong near the top of the leaderboard is 2003 WSOP Main Event winner Chris Moneymaker, who bagged up the fifth largest stack in the room on Monday at 650,500 after owning the sixth spot after Day 1B. Others in the top 10 include DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member David “Doc Sands” Sands and November Niner Eric Buchman:
1. Adam Geyer – 909,000
2. Ilan Rouah – 795,000
3. Chris “Getting Daize” Oliver – 792,500
4. Harry Kaczka – 687,000
5. Chris Moneymaker – 650,500
6. Eric Buchman – 648,500
7. Oleg Perepletchikov – 641,500
8. David “Doc Sands” Sands – 617,000
9. Josh “JBT449” Bergman – 610,000
10. Bahbak Oboodi – 596,500
When play came to an end last night, the blinds were at 2,500-5,000 with an ante of 500. Other notable players remaining who hold chip stacks in the top 50 include:
11. Eric “EFro” Froehlich – 595,500
16. Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers – 506,000
18. Dwyte Pilgrim – 489,000
24. Jonathan Jaffe – 449,000
25. Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka – 447,000
39. Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo – 381,000
The 2011 PCA Main Event will stretch until Saturday, when you can catch its final table on a one-hour delay on ESPN3.com and ESPN2 starting at 5:00pm ET and 10:00pm ET, respectively. Both networks will show hole cards and feature commentary from players like David Williams, Daniel Negreanu, and Chad Brown. Visit PokerStars for more information.
