2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure

$100,000 Super High Roller
Day: 1
Event Info

2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
a7
Prize
$2,003,480
Event Info
Buy-in
$98,000
Prize Pool
$5,724,180
Entries
59
Level Info
Level
24
Blinds
100,000 / 200,000
Ante
30,000

$100,000 Super High Roller

Day 1 Completed

Gruissem Reenters To Take The Day 1 Chip Lead

Level 8 : 2,500/5,000, 500 ante
Philipp Gruissem
Philipp Gruissem

The 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, kicked off today with the $100,000 Super High Roller from the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. The tournament, which is in its third year, attracted 47 players who accounted for ten re-entries—bringing the total field to 57. That number will surely increase, as registration is open to the start of Day 2—which will see Philipp Gruissem begin with the chip lead holding 771,500.

Gruissem actually busted the tournament early on but opted to re-enter. It proved a fruitful decision as he vaulted up the leaderboard in the last two levels of the night. For instance, 13-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, who was playing in the PCA for the very first time, took his seat in Level 8, and within 30 minutes, Gruissem sent him to the rail. Hellmuth was evidently heads up with the German on a board of {j-Spades}{2-Clubs}{9-Clubs}{9-Hearts}{5-Spades}, and led out with a large bet. Gruissem, who had the bigger stack, moved all in and Hellmuth called off. Gruissem turned over {j-Diamonds}{9-Diamonds} for a full house and Hellmuth flashed the {9-Spades} before mucking and hitting the rail. Whether or not he’ll re-enter remains to be seen.

Long before Hellmuth busted, the big story of the day was the fact that Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, who won the event last year for $1,254,500, was not returning to attempt a title defense. Nonetheless, plenty of pros turned out in force including the first-ever woman to play the $100,000 Super High Roller, Vanessa Selbst; the winner of this event in 2011, Eugene Katchalov; consummate high roller Phil Ivey; and Team PokerStars Pros Jason Mercier and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier.

It didn’t take long for action to heat up; in fact, after just an hour a huge pot developed that saw the aforementioned Katchalov jump out to the early chip lead. It happened when a preflop raising war saw Katchalov have 22,500 of his chips in front of him only to face a raise to 45,000 by Fabian Quoss. Katchalov made the call and then check-called a bet of 40,000 on the {Q-Clubs}{3-Hearts}{2-Spades} flop. Both players then checked the {10-Diamonds} turn and the {9-Hearts} completed the board river. Katchalov checked for a third time and then quickly called off when Quoss moved all in. Katchalov tabled {Q-Diamonds}{Q-Hearts} for top set, which bested Quoss' {A-Spades}{A-Hearts} to score the first double up of the Super High Roller.

Quoss was left with chips after that hand, but succumbed a short time later—but not before both Igor Kurganov and Jason Koon preceded him out the door. Speaking of which, Kurganov opted to take advantage of the event’s unlimited re-entry option and fired a second bullet, though little good it did him as he was sent to the rail a short time later. It was there David Benefield, Brandon Steven, Jeff Gross, Andrew Lichtenberger and Mike “Timex” McDonald soon joined him. None of those players, with the exception of Quoss, opted to re-enter, though each have the option of doing so prior to the start of play on Day 2.

With that said, there were a few eliminations who opted to jump right back into the action. In the last level of the night, Daniel Negreanu open-shoved for his last 70,000 or so from early position holding {K-Diamonds}{Q-Clubs} and received a call from Olivier Busquet, who held {A-Diamonds}{10-Diamonds} in the big blind. The {4-Clubs}{q-Diamonds}{5-Clubs} flop actually gave Negreanu the lead, but the {j-Diamonds} gave Busquet extra outs. Unfortunately for “Kid Poker”, the {a-Spades} spiked on the river to give his opponent a winning pair of aces—with that, Negreanu immediately rebought. Others who busted and opted to re-enter right away were Tobias Reinkemeier, Paul Newey, Tom Dwan, Bryn Kenney, Isaac Haxton and Cary Katz, though Newey and Kenney both busted a second time.

Action is set to recommence at Noon EST on Sunday as the remaining 37 players return for Day 2 action. Be sure to join us then as the PokerNews Live Reporting Team brings you all the latest and greatest from the 2013 PCA!

Tags: Philipp Gruissem

End-Of-Day Chip Counts

The Day 2 table and seat draw will be done tomorrow shortly before play begins.

Player Chips Progress
Philipp Gruissem de
Philipp Gruissem
771,500
WSOP 1X Winner
Scott Seiver us
Scott Seiver
729,000 129,000
WSOP 4X Winner
WPT 1X Winner
Dan Shak us
Dan Shak
650,000
Tom Marchese us
Tom Marchese
638,500 235,000
WSOP 1X Winner
Vivek Rajkumar in
Vivek Rajkumar
608,500 -6,500
WPT 1X Winner
Jason Somerville us
Jason Somerville
604,500 149,500
WSOP 1X Winner
Nick Schulman us
Nick Schulman
580,000 295,000
WSOP 4X Winner
WPT 2X Winner
Steve O'Dwyer ie
Steve O'Dwyer
527,500 -149,500
EPT 1X Winner
Eugene Katchalov ua
Eugene Katchalov
514,500 -27,500
David Sands us
David Sands
505,500 -59,500
Jason Mercier us
Jason Mercier
502,500 -147,500
Daniel Alaei us
Daniel Alaei
488,000 -4,500
WSOP 5X Winner
WPT 1X Winner
Timothy Adams ca
Timothy Adams
462,000 -43,000
WSOP 1X Winner
Tobias Reinkemeier de
Tobias Reinkemeier
433,000 183,000
Antonio Esfandiari us
Antonio Esfandiari
432,000 154,500
WSOP 3X Winner
WPT 2X Winner
Vladimir Troyanovsky
Vladimir Troyanovsky
426,000 161,000
Mike Watson ca
Mike Watson
419,500 181,500
WPT 1X Winner
EPT 2X Winner
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier fr
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier
388,600 -36,400
Vanessa Selbst us
Vanessa Selbst
382,000 7,000
Anthony Gregg us
Anthony Gregg
344,500 -100,500
WSOP 1X Winner
WPT 1X Winner
Noah Schwartz us
Noah Schwartz
334,500
WSOP 1X Winner
WPT 1X Winner
Jonathan Duhamel ca
Jonathan Duhamel
314,000 -196,000
Erik Seidel us
Erik Seidel
311,500 160,500
WSOP 10X Winner
Poker Hall of Famer
WPT 1X Winner
Greg Jensen us
Greg Jensen
302,500 -162,500
Fabian Quoss de
Fabian Quoss
302,000 52,000

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Shak Doubles Through Schwartz

On the second to last hand at their table, Dan Shak doubled for about 320,000 through Noah Schwartz.

As told to us by Shak, Schwartz started the action with a raise to 15,000. Next to act, Shak made it 50,000 to go. Schwartz re-raised all in with a covering stack and Shak called with {A-}{K-}, holding up against Schwartz's {A-}{Q-}.

Player Chips Progress
Dan Shak us
Dan Shak
650,000 389,000
Noah Schwartz us
Noah Schwartz
334,500 -295,500
WSOP 1X Winner
WPT 1X Winner

Tags: Dan ShakNoah Schwartz

Haxton Reenters; Gets Crippled

Level 8 : 2,500/5,000, 500 ante

In a three-way pot against Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Isaac Haxton, Vanessa Selbst moved all in for 138,500 on a board of {q-Diamonds}{10-Diamonds}{3-Diamonds}{a-Spades}{3-Clubs}. Haxton called, and Grospellier mucked.

"Flush," Selbst announced, tabling {7-Diamonds}{5-Diamonds}.

Haxton unhappily mucked, and is down to around 60,000 chips. Selbst more than doubled to over 350,000.

Player Chips Progress
Vanessa Selbst us
Vanessa Selbst
375,000 40,000
Isaac Haxton us
Isaac Haxton
60,000 -190,000

Tags: Bertrand "ElkY" GrospellierIsaac HaxtonVanessa Selbst

Hellmuth Out

A few moments ago, we noticed that Phil Hellmuth wasn't sitting in his chair. We walked over to his table so see if he was just taking a short break, and his stack was missing as well. We asked a member of the television crew, and according to him, Hellmuth was eliminated.

Hellmuth was evidently heads up with Philipp Gruissem on a board of {j-Spades}{2-Clubs}{9-Clubs}{9-Hearts}{5-Spades}, and Hellmuth led out for a large bet. Gruissem moved all in, having Hellmuth well-covered, and Hellmuth made the call. Gruissem turned over {j-Diamonds}{9-Diamonds} for a full house, and Hellmuth flashed the {9-Spades} before mucking and hitting the rail.

Player Chips Progress
Philipp Gruissem de
Philipp Gruissem
697,000 237,000
WSOP 1X Winner
Phil Hellmuth us
Phil Hellmuth
Busted
WSOP Main Event Champion
WSOP 17X Winner
Poker Hall of Famer

Tags: Phil HellmuthPhilipp Gruissem

Sands Cracks Chewy's Aces

David "Doc" Sands opened to 11,000 on the button. Andrew Lichtenberger three-bet to 33,000 from the big blind, Sands four-bet to 62,000, and Lichtenberger moved all in for 210,000. Sands called.

Sands: {a-Diamonds}{k-Spades}
Lichtenberger: {a-Spades}{a-Clubs}

The board ran out {q-Spades}{j-Spades}{5-Diamonds}{j-Hearts}...{10-Diamonds}, and Chewy was eliminated.

Sands now has 565,000 chips.

Player Chips Progress
David Sands us
David Sands
565,000 275,000
Andrew Lichtenberger us
Andrew Lichtenberger
Busted
WSOP 1X Winner

Tags: Andrew LichtenbergerDavid Sands

Dwan and Haxton Bust

According to Noah Schwartz, he opened to 12,000 from the cutoff, Tom "durrrr" Dwan called on the button, and the flop fell {j-}{8-}{6-} with two diamonds. Schwartz checked, Dwan bet 23,000, Schwartz moved all in for effectively 150,000, and Dwan called.

Schwartz: {k-Diamonds}{j-Hearts}
Dwan: {a-Diamonds}{5-Diamonds}

The turn and river both bricked, and Dwan was eliminated. He quickly re-entered.

Isaac Haxton was also eliminated over on the feature table. Unfortunately, we missed the action.

Player Chips Progress
Noah Schwartz us
Noah Schwartz
630,000 313,000
WSOP 1X Winner
WPT 1X Winner
Tom Dwan us
Tom Dwan
250,000 84,000
Isaac Haxton us
Isaac Haxton
Busted

Tags: Isaac HaxtonTom Dwan