Main Event
Day 6 Started
2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure
Main Event
Day: 6
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure
Buy-in
$10,000
Prize Pool
$15,132,000
Entries
1,560
Level
34
Blinds
150,000 / 300,000
Ante
25,000
Seat 8: Galen "GasparLeMarc" Hall - 6,435,000
Galen Hall has been a professional poker player for over a year, but he started playing poker in high school about ten years ago. Initially, he played limit hold'em, but switched to heads-up sit-n-gos early on. Nowadays, he is an all around player and also plays pot-limit Omaha and pot-limit Omaha-8 and, of course, no-limit hold'em.
Hall is ranked in the top 50 on Pocket Fives and last year he cashed for about $1 million total, with around $200,000 of that being profit. Even so, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure payout is huge for Hall and this is by far his best result. Hall has two small cashes in World Series of Poker events. One came in 2009 and one in 2010, both in $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em events.
He said he hadn’t even looked at the payouts yet because, “the most important thing is to just win it.” If he wins the PCA Main Event, Hall plans to put the money towards going to Stanford University in 2012. In his spare time, Hall is involved in the start-up venture Identify.com and his ultimate goal is to start a business of his own.
Hall is 24 years old from San Francisco and will enter the final table with 6,435,000 in chips.
Partial bio courtesy of PokerStars.
Seat 7: Philippe Plouffe - 1,555,000
Philippe Plouffe, who runs a café in Lachenaie, Quebec, has been playing poker for ten years now. He's been playing at a serious level for the last seven years having started playing with friends. He now plays around 60 hours a week.
Plouffe is engaged to be married and has a three-year-old son. He prefers to play live rather than online and, although he plays cash games regularly, prefers tournaments. If he thrives at the final table, Plouffe intends to play more. His favorite players are Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius. He may need to perform a bit like them today at this final table as he'll enter as the shortest stack left.
Plouffe is 31 years old and hails from Quebec, Canada. He is a PokerStars qualifier and brings 1,555,000 chips to the final table.
Partial bio courtesy of PokerStars.
Seat 6: Anton Ionel - 3,530,000
Anton Ionel is a businessman from Bucharest, Romania. The 43-year-old has been playing poker for ten years, having started to play live in casinos in his home country. Ionel has played several European Poker Tour events before, including the Grand Final in Monte Carlo, as well as cashing at EPT Budapest in 2008 for €6,384.
This, however, is his first PCA for Ionel. Not surprisingly, he has described his trip as an “amazing experience”. It will also be his biggest career win, topping his previous best result in Timisoara, Romania. Ionel took fifth in the Senator Poker Masters for €9,600. His progress in the Main Event is being watched by his 16-year-old-daughter who is following the action online from back home.
Ionel is a PokerStars qualifier and will enter the final table with 3,530,000 in chips.
Partial bio courtesy of PokerStars.
Seat 5: Sam Stein - 5,855,000
Sam Stein, 23, is a professional poker player who came up through the online ranks and began trying his luck in the brick-and-mortar world as soon as he turned 21. Since then, he’s managed to collect more than $1.1 million in career tournament earnings.
His biggest cash was when he finished runner-up to Tom Marchese at the first North American Poker Tour event at the Venetian last February for $522,306. This followed another big cash at last year’s PCA where he was runner-up in a $5,000 buy-in side event for $168,390. At last summer’s World Series of Poker, he bubbled the final table in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship, coming in tenth for $44,010. He also placed fifth at the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker event for $116,225 in August 2009.
Stein grew up in Los Angeles, but currently resides in Henderson, Nevada -- just outside Las Vegas. He won his seat to the PCA on Boxing Day in a $2,100 qualifier and will enter the final table with 5,855,000 in chips. That's good enough for third on the leader board.
Partial bio courtesy of PokerStars.
Seat 4: Bolivar “Ramux” Palacios - 2,445,000
The name Bolivar Palacios may sound familiar if you’ve been following the Latin American Poker Tour. Palacios has made three LAPT final tables to date, with his best finish coming at LAPT Rosario in Brazil. He came in second at that event for $188,280. Palacios is now guaranteed to beat this figure at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.
Palacios, known as "Ramux" online, was an industrial engineer for five months until he received a check for $300 and deposited it online. Since that deposit, he has cashed for $350,000 in lifetime winnings on the virtual felt. In the live realm, Palacios holds nearly $280,000 in tournament earnings.
Palacios will be the only Latin American at the table and is a member of the “Rat Pack of Panama” -- a group which includes Jose Severino, Victor Lemos and Jose Miguel de la Guardia. Palacios’ reported ambition is, “to become a millionaire". That's a goal he will definitely achieve with a fourth-or-better finish here at the this final table.
Palacios is 27 and hails from Santiago de Veraguas, Panama. He is a PokerStarsPokerStars[/url] player and will enter the final table with 2,445,000 in chips.
Partial bio courtesy of PokerStars.
Seat 3: Chris “ImDaNuts” Oliver - 19,670,000
Chris Oliver will enter the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure final table with 42% of the chips in play. He is one of the highest-ranked online players in the world with nearly $500,000 profit to his name last year on PokerStars alone. He plays online tournaments from $5 buy-ins and up, but now wants to concentrate more on live events.
He’s already guaranteed $202,000 here and with a huge chip lead going in to the final table, he is the hands-on favorite expected to make much more than that. If he takes the $2.3 million top prize, he intends to buy a house.
Oliver dropped out of high school to play poker, a decision that his parents were not too happy about. Now, they are pleased with his decision and have been following his progress in this event online.
Oliver is 21 from Holiday, Florida and will enter the day as the overwhelming chip leader with 19,670,000 in chips.
Partial bio courtesy of PokerStars.
Seat 2: Max “$Kill Game” Weinberg - 3,350,000
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Max Weinberg initially studied psychology at Arizona State university, but then dropped out after one semester to start playing poker full time. Online he favors heads-up sit-n-gos in the $500 to $5,000 range, and believes he is up about $300,000 to date.
Weinberg came to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure with his friend Gabe Paul who qualified on PokerStars in a SuperNovas’ freeroll. Weinberg said about the PCA, “I’ve always looked forward to playing the World Series, and I turn 21 in April so this is kind of a warm-up. I’ve
had some luck to make it this far... in the first few hours of Day 1, I had pocket sixes
and was all in on a 7-8-9 flop against aces. I hit a 5 on the river for a straight.”
Weinberg is 20 from Chicago, Illinois and enters the final table third to last in chips with 3,350,000.
Partial bio courtesy of PokerStars.
Seat 1: Mike “Sowerss” Sowers - 3,685,000
Seven years ago, Rounders enticed Mike Sowers to begin playing poker. Sowers spent the next two years studying psychology and business at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, but he eventually abandoned that venture to focus solely on poker.
It would be hard to question that decision now. Sowers has already racked up more than $2.5 million playing online and is one of the most successful and feared tournament players in the online realm. Sowers' biggest score came in September 2009 when he took down the PokerStars WCOOP $10,000 High Roller event for $448,500. Sowers has also cashed for more than $1.5 million in live tournaments –- including five WSOP cashes and two WSOP final tables in the last three years.
In January 2008, he won the Borgata Winter Open for $399,000. About a year later, he finished third at the L.A. Poker Classic for $654,797. So far he’s made more money online than live, but he is already guaranteed $200,000 so far, and a third-place-or-better finish will push
his live earnings ahead of his online earnings to date.
Sowers is 24 from Thomasville, North Carolina and will enter the final table with 3,685,000 chips.
Partial bio courtesy of PokerStars.
Day 6: The Final Table
Welcome back to the beautiful Bahamas for Day 6 of the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event!
We have arrived at the final table of this marquee event, and after today one of the eight remaining players will be crowned the Main Event champion and bank $2.3 million. Play resumes at 4 p.m. local time, but because the final table is being broadcast live in a sequestered area we will be unable to provide live updates.
Chris Oliver enters the final table as our overwhelming chip leader with 19.76 million. His next closest competitor, Galen Hall, sits with 6.43 million chips, which is less than a third of Oliver's.
Next on the list are Sam Stein (5.855 million) and Mike Sowers (3.685), both of whom have impressive results. Stein has over $1.1 million in live tournament earnings including a second place finish in the $5,000 NAPT event at the Venetian for $522,306. Sowers has amassed over $1.5 million in tournament earnings including two World Series of Poker final tables.
Anton Ionel (3.52 million), Max Weinberg (3.35 million), Bolivar Palacios (2.445 million) and Philippe Plouffe (1.555 million) round out the group. Palacios' name may be most familiar because he has three LAPT final tables including a second place finish at Rosario in Brazil for $188,280.
The action is sure to be exciting today, and we hope that you follow us here.