Donnie Peters
We'll just call him Mr. NAPT for now
Since the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure became an event on the North American Poker Tour this year, Jonathan "FatalError" Aguiar has now cashed in all three NAPT events. A 42nd finish down in the Bahamas followed by a 22nd out in Las Vegas go along with his in-the-money finish today. Aguiar is the only player to record cashes in all three events and will be looking to score in the top 50 once yet to keep his average finish in NAPTs very high.
Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso has made it to the money and also cashed back at the NAPT Venetian, along with Bob Lauria and Mike Beasley. Rousso placed 25th there.. Those are the only three others, along with Aguiar, to cash in both NAPT events on U.S. soil.
Mickey Doft
Taylor Shpur was all in for 119,000 with and was up against the of David Williams. The board ran out and Williams was down to just below 50,000 after getting beat on the river.
The next hand, it was folded around to Williams in the small blind and he shoved. Justin Pechie made the call with and was trailing Williams' . This time the board came in Williams' favor as it rolled out and he is back over 100,000.
Donnie Peters
Bubble boy Nicholas Kamen stares down G0lfa.
Nicholas Kamen raised to 10,500 and then Ryan D'Angelo moved all in to put Kamen at risk if he were to call. Kamen did make the call and then the two players waited for the other tables to finish all the hands and then the cards were turned up.
D'Angelo held two red eights and up flipping with Kamen's . It was Kamen that needed to win the race in order to stay alive in the tournament and stave off a bubble elimination.
The flop came down and Kamen picked up a straight draw to go with his two overs. The turn added the and then the river completed the board with the . Kamen failed to improve and D'Angelo's eights held strong.
Kamen was the 105th finisher and the bubble boy here at Mohegan Sun. D'Angelo picked up about 150,000 chips and everyone is now in the money.
Still battling
With 105 players left, Vanessa Rousso moved all in for 134,000 over the open-raise of Vincent Rubianes. Rubianes called with but Rousso showed . The board rolled out uneventfully, . With one card to come, someone from across the room shouted out, "QUEEN!" but it wasn't to be. The river fell to give Rousso a double-up to about 280,000.
We're one step closer to the bursting of the bubble after the elimination of Tim West. West shoved for 118,000 after Travis Klein opened for 12,500. Joe Nemeth woke up with in the big blind. With the big-stacked Klein still to act behind him, Nemeth tanked a while but did finally call. West was in bad shape with and never improved.
Mark Salinaro is just fine with a chop on the bubble.
With the tension high on the bubble, the tournament staff is having an very difficult time keeping the rail in check. But as usual, they're having an even tougher time keeping players in their seats between hands. Just about every 15 seconds, someone calls for players to sit down, the rail to move back, and the dealers to stand up when they're done with a hand. At this rate, hand-for-hand to lose two players could take a loooong time.
There was much excitement when one player moved all in and Ryan "G0lfa" D'Angelo called. Everyone stormed the table, but the crush was for nothing as they both turned up ace-king and chopped the pot.