$25,000 High Roller
Day 1 Started
$25,000 High Roller
Day 1 Started
Welcome to the 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $25,000 High Roller. For the past week, the 2013 PCA has been celebrating its 10th anniversary at Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. The 41-event schedule is rapidly winding down, but there’s still one major big buy-in tournament to be had—the $25,000 High Roller, which will feature one option reentry.
Last year, this event attracted 148 entries, including a who’s who of poker pros, and created a prize pool of $3,626,000. After three intense days of play, Leonid Bilokur walked away with the title and $1,134,930 first-place prize.
Bilokur, who began the final table fourth in chips, defeated the likes of Team Online’s Randy Lew, recent PCA preliminary event winner Michael Telker, high-stakes regular Govert Meetal, the ever-dangerous Jason Koon and Team PokerStars Pro Isaac Haxton to make it to heads-up play against another Team PokerStars Pro, Jonathan Duhamel.
The 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event champ held a 5.43-million-to-1.96-million chip lead when heads-up play began, but Bilokur managed to overcome the odds. Eventually he overtook the chip lead, and in the final hand, it was Bilokur's versus Duhamel's all in preflop. The board ran out and Bilokur made a full house to claim the title.
As last year’s PokerNews Live Blog said of Bilokur’s win: “He played very steady throughout the final table and some might say even a bit too tight at times. Despite what people may say, he played very solid and began to pick up more and more steam as other players at the table were eliminated. As play progressed, Bilokur began to pick up chips and open up his game. That proved to be the recipe for success.”
Here’s a look at last year’s final table:
Final Table Payouts
Place | Player | Prize |
---|---|---|
1 | Leonid Bilokur | $1,134,930 |
2 | Jonathan Duhamel | $634,550 |
3 | Isaac Haxton | $380,730 |
4 | Jason Koon | $271,950 |
5 | Nicolas Fierro | $217,560 |
6 | Govert Metaal | $181,300 |
7 | Michael Telker | $145,040 |
8 | Randy Lew | $108,780 |
We’re expecting a massive turnout for today’s event, and hopes are high that last year’s number of entries will be crushed. Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Eugene Katchalov are just a few of the players we expect to see in action, along with the recent $100,000 Super High Roller champ Scott Seiver.
The $25,000 High Roller is scheduled to kick off at 13:00 p.m. EST, which is about an hour from now. Join us then as the PokerNews Live Reporting Team brings you all the action from the tournament floor.
Level: 1
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 25
The cards are in the air here in the $25,000 High Roller. The players are in their seats and already the railbirds are lining up to watch the action. It's a field saturated with pros, which will certainly make for some great poker action.
Here are a list of notables that we've spotted thus far:
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Lawrence Greenberg |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Amit Makhija |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Jason Lavallee |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Paul Volpe |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Nacho Barbero |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Todd Terry |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Taylor Paur |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Vanessa Selbst |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Justin Bonomo |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Isaac Haxton |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Antonio Esfandiari |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Paul Newey |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Mike Watson |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Matt Stout |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Carlos Mortensen |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Larry Ormson |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Andrew Lichtenberger |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Cliff Josephy |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Cary Katz |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
David Sands |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Mickey Petersen |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
David Peters | 50,000 | |
|
||
Dwyte Pilgrim |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Will Molson |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
David Peters sat down at Table 5 and in his very first hand opted to raise to 525 from early position. The raise cleared the field all the way around to Dwyte Pilgrim in the small blind, he called, and the two saw a slop of .
Pilgrim proceeded to check-call a bet of 800, and the both players checked the turn and river. Pilgrim tabled the for two pair, and it was good as Peters gently flicked his cards to the muck.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Dwyte Pilgrim |
51,325
1,325
|
1,325 |
|
||
David Peters |
48,675
-1,325
|
-1,325 |
|
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Anthony Gregg |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Chris Oliver |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Govert Metaal |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Brian Lemke |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Chris Moorman |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Christian Harder |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Dan O'Brien |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Steve O'Dwyer |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Tom Marchese |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Sam Stein |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Jonathan Jaffe | 50,000 | |
|
||
Keven Stammen |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Alex Bilokur |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Max Silver |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Jason Koon |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Noah Schwartz |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Sam Chartier |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Alex Gomes
|
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
Marc-Andre Ladouceur |
50,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
It didn't take long for the first double of the day, which came just 20 minutes into Level 1. That's quite the feat considering players start with a 50,000 starting stack and the blinds are just 100/200 with a 25 ante. Even so, Brian Lemke and Jonathan Jaffe managed to get it all in preflop.
Now you might expect to see two big hands in a spot like that, perhaps aces versus kings, but that wasn't exactly the case. Lemke, who was all in and at risk for 49,975, did in fact hold the , but Jaffe held the mediocre . We're not sure of the betting, but the fact remained the chips got in preflop.
The flop gave Lemke hit a set, and the turn left Jaffe drawing dead. The meaningless was put out on the river for good measure, and a rather calm Lemke raked in the pot. Meanwhile, Jaffe was left with just 2,700 and was eliminated a few hands later.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Brian Lemke |
100,000
50,000
|
50,000 |
|
||
Jonathan Jaffe | Busted | |
|
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Matt Salsberg | 50,000 | |
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier | 50,000 | |
Eddie Blumenthal | 50,000 | |
Michael Tureniec | 50,000 | |
|
||
[Removed:172] | 50,000 | |
Dani Stern | 50,000 | |
Mikalai Pobal | 50,000 | |
|
||
Fernando Brito | 50,000 | |
Shyam Srinivasan | 50,000 | |
Matt Glantz | 50,000 | |
Jason Wheeler | 50,000 | |
|
||
Eli Berg | 50,000 | |
Brandon Meyers | 50,000 |
After being the first player to bust, Jared Jaffe sat down at a new table and opened to 525 from early position. Four people called, including Dani Stern and Cliff "Johnny Bax" Josephy, prompting someone to joke about Jaffe not getting respect.
"That's what happens when you're the first to bust," one player joked.
The flop fell . Josephy led out for 1,600 from the small blind, the player in the big blind folded, and both Jaffe and Stern called. The turn was the , Josephy checked, and Jaffe fired 4,200.
Both Stern and Josephy folded.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Dani Stern |
58,000
8,000
|
8,000 |
Jonathan Jaffe |
55,000
55,000
|
55,000 |
|
||
Cliff Josephy |
43,000
-7,000
|
-7,000 |
|