Main Event
Day 1a Started
2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure
Main Event
Day: 1a
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
Welcome to the 2011 PokerStars.net Caribbean Adventure Main Event
Way back in 2004, the PokerStars.net Caribbean Adventure held their inaugural tournament on a cruise ship. That particular event drew 221 players and was won by none other than the "Great Dane", Gus Hansen. Today, the PCA will continue with their eighth installment of the Main Event. Here is a quick look back at former PCA winners:
2004- Gus Hansen ($455,780)
2005- John Gale ($890,600)
2006- Steve Paul ($1,388,600)
2007- Ryan Daut ($1,535,255)
2008- Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier ($2 million)
2009- Poorya Nazari ($3 million)
2010- Harrison Gimbel ($2.2 million)
Last year, 19-year old Harrison Gimbel emerged victorious over a 1,529-player field and took down the $2.2 million-dollar first-place prize. This year the field is expected to be even bigger!
The Main Event is broken down into two starting days, Day 1a and Day 1b. Today we will kickoff Day 1a of the event and a number of poker's biggest names are confirmed to play including: Amit Makhija, Court Harrington, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Shaun Deeb, and many more. Also in play will be a plethora of Team PokerStars Pros such as Dennis Phillips, Tom McEvoy, Theo Jorgensen, Vanessa Selbst, Marcin Horecki, Richard Toth, Angel Guillen, and Matthias De Meulder.
Cards will be in the air at Noon local time and it should be quite the tournament. Be sure to follow along right here. Not only will you get the best coverage of PCA action, come tonight you can learn the identity of the mysterious online superstar, Isildur1.
Level: 1
Blinds: 50/100
Ante: 0
Shuffle Up and Deal
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
For the past 15 minutes players have been strolling into the tournament area and taking their seats. Players will start with 30,000 in chips with the Dealer Button starting on Seat 1. For those of you who turn to Twitter for updates, you may notice a lack of Tweets from those in the tournament. The reason being that electronic devices cannot be used at the table; however, many pros have stated that they'll be tweeting during breaks and as always we'll keep you updated on the action.
After a brief welcome from various officials, the action is underway!
Who's Here?
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
After our initial pass, we've spotted the following players:
Dmitry Stelmak
Ronnie Bardah
Scott Seiver
Adam Junglen
Lauren Kling
Gabe Patgorski
"Miami" John Cernuto
Amit Makhija
Chris Bjorin
Isaac Haxton
Pierre Neuville
Hoyt Corkins
Dan Heimiller
Mike Leah
Eric Froehlich
Ricky Fohrenbach
James Van Alstyne
Nick Mitchell
Stu Paterson
Jon Aguiar
Matt Glantz
Justin Smith
John Monnette
Sam Chartier
Jon Turner
Ravi Raghavan
Aguiar Looking to Make it 4 Out of 5
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
With three players in a pot worth around 2,000, action check to Jonathan Aguiar on the button after a 
flop. He bet 900, and both a player in middle position and the cutoff promptly folded. It wasn't much of hand, but things tend to be slow in the early levels of a tournament as you well know.
What is more significant is that Aguiar is looking for yet another PokerStars.net Caribbean Adventure cash. Last year he finished in 42nd place, making three cashes in the previous four PCA's. If he can navigate this year's stacked field, he'll make it four out of five. One thing is for sure, Aguiar is beast when it come to the North American Poker Tour.
Small Pot For Turner
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
In a multi-way pot with the board reading 
, Jon Turner was the lone caller of a an opponent's bet of 450. The 
hit the turn and Turner check-called a bet from his opponent again, this time 650. The 
landed on the river and Turner checked one again. His opponent bet a tiny 450, unable to shake Turner who called and showed 
, good enough to win the pot.
Turner is up to about 33,000 early on.
Seidel Gets Aggressive
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
It was heads-up action between Erik Seidel and his opponent in the small blind. The pair created a pot of around 2,300 preflop and watched as the dealer put out 
on the flop. The small blind wasted little time in betting 1,300 only to have Seidel make it 3,000 to go from the button.
The small blind called and then checked the 
turn. Seidel stared at the bored briefly then threw out a bet of 9,000. The small blind quickly folded and Seidel increased his stack by a few thousand here in Level One.
Team Pros in the Field
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
Here are the Team PokerStars Pros we've spotted in the field so far.
Noah Boeken
Vanessa Selbst
Dennis Phillips
Joe Cada
Florian Langmann
Chad Brown
Victor Ramdin
Arnaud Mattern
Matthias De Meulder
Richard Toth
Angel Guillen
Theo Jorgensen
Juan Maceiras
Christophe De Meulder
Pieter de Korver
Phil Ivey has Arrived
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
The one and only Phil Ivey has made his way to his seat and will be playing Day 1a of the PCA. He is seated at the table nearest to us, so we should have a good view on all his action throughout the day.