2014 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure

$25,000 High Roller
Day: 1
Event Info

2014 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
k10
Prize
$1,192,624
Event Info
Buy-in
$25,000
Entries
247
Level Info
Level
27
Blinds
40,000 / 80,000
Ante
10,000

Day 1 Concludes with Jonathan Jaffe On Top

Level 8 : 800/1,600, 200 ante
Jonathan Jaffe
Jonathan Jaffe

Day 1 of the 2014 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $25,000 High Roller has come to a close. After 10 hours of play, the survivors have bagged up their chips to return for tomorrow's Day 2, and it's Jonathan Jaffe who finished in the top spot on the leader board. Jaffe steadily built his stack all day long and finished on an impressive 422,000 in chips.

The event attracted 229 entries throughout the day, and that stemmed from 190 unique players and 39 reentries. With registration and reentry open until play begins for Day 2, it is expected that the field size will grow even more and get up to around the 250-player mark. This year marks the largest ever $25,000 High Roller at the PCA, smashing last year's record field that attracted 161 unique players and 43 reentries for 204 total buy-ins.

The reigning champion, Vanessa Selbst, has advanced to Day 2. She opted to play after busting from the $10,000 Main Event on Day 4 earlier in the day for a $32,000 payday for her 42nd-place finish and went on to find a double right towards the end of the night through Martin Finger that helped her to finish around 200,000 or so.

Along with Selbst, there's plenty of supreme firepower remaining in this field. Of those who will be back for action on Sunday are Team PokerStars Pro and Global Poker Index Player of the Decade Daniel Negreanu, 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Greg Merson, and two-time World Poker Tour Alpha8 winner Philipp Gruissem. Team PokerStars Pros Jason Mercier, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Maxim Lykov, and Jonathan Duhamel also still remain.

Day 2 will commence at 12 p.m. local time here in the Bahamas at the Atlantis Resort, and that's when registration and reentry will be officially closed. We will then be able to grab the prize pool and payout information, but rest assured that there is going to be plenty of money up for grabs and tons of exciting poker action to be had.

We'll see you back here on PokerNews starting at noon tomorrow for all of the live updates.

Tags: Jonathan Jaffe

Selbst and Finger Clash

Level 8 : 800/1,600, 200 ante
Vanessa Selbst
Vanessa Selbst

According to one of our colleagues there was just a huge clash between Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst and Martin Finger. Bryn Kenney raised and Shaun Deeb called from the button after which the fireworks started.

Selbst three-bet to 13,500 from the small blind and Finger four-bet from the big blind to 29,000.

Both Kenney and Deeb folded quickly and the action was back on Selbst.

Selbst went into the tank for about two minutes before she decided to move all in for 90,300. Finger went into the tank for about 90 seconds when Keith Lehr, who had been wondering around returned and called the clock on him.

Players at the table told the floor staff that this was unfair and Finger was given some additional time. Eventually Finger called and turned over {K-Spades}{Q-Clubs} versus Selbst's {K-Clubs}{K-Hearts}.

The board ran out {4-Spades}{6-Diamonds}{7-Hearts}{J-Clubs}{J-Spades} and Selbst secured a very big double up near the end of night.

Player Chips Progress
Vanessa Selbst us
Vanessa Selbst
190,000 139,000
Martin Finger de
Martin Finger
WSOP 1X Winner
EPT 1X Winner
38,000 -112,000

Tags: Vanessa SelbstShaun DeebBryn KenneyMartin FingerKeith Lehr

Gruissem Wins Enormous Pot

Level 5 : 400/800, 100 ante
Philipp Gruissem
Philipp Gruissem

Philipp Gruissem was just spotted with an enormous stack in front of him while Jared Jaffee seemed to have lost a lot. We asked Gruissem who gave us a seven second recap of the action.

"I raise with aces, he three-bets, I four-bet, he five-bets and I six-bet," Gruissem starts.

"Is that right?" Gruissem asked as he looked over to Jonathan Little who nodded.

"So he calls and the flop is queen-ten-four," Gruissem continued, but he did not finish his story as it was time to play another hand. Little said that Jaffee check-raised all in with {A-}{Q-} and Gruissem's aces held up.

Player Chips Progress
Philipp Gruissem de
Philipp Gruissem
WSOP 1X Winner
310,000 265,000
Jared Jaffee us
Jared Jaffee
WSOP 1X Winner
WPT 2X Winner
40,000 -152,000

Tags: Jared JaffeeJonathan LittlePhilipp Gruissem

Lodden Thinks Is Back; Ausmus Drops An "Absurd" Number

Level 5 : 400/800, 100 ante
Jeremy Ausmus
Jeremy Ausmus

Antonio Esfandiari always likes to have a good time when he's playing poker. It's in his blood, and he's got his table playing the brilliant gambling game of "Lodden Thinks."

For this installment of the game, former World Series of Poker November Niner Jeremy Ausmus played Lodden. Before prompting the question to Ausmus for him to lock in a number, Esfandiari and his table requested Jason Mercier, who was sitting at an adjacent table, inform them what his absolute favorite food in the world was. Mercier told them it was chicken parmesan. The question prompted to Ausmus was then, "How much would it cost for Jason Mercier to NOT eat chicken parmesan for the rest of his life?"

Ausmus took some time and locked in a number. After the bidding war heated up a bit, Bryn Kenney bought the under on $47,000. Ausmus then released his number and it was massively different than what the table was bidding on... $5,000,000!

"What! $5,000,000?!?!?" screamed Esfandiari, nearly falling out of his chair. "That's an absurd number! Just absurd!"

Everyone began ribbing Ausmus a little bit, and then the table began raising questions as to what the real number was. This is when Esfandiari bet Dan Shak $500 that the real number Mercier would accept would be $100,000 or lower. Shak had anything higher than $100,000.

Mercier was asked what his real number was, and the table made sure to tell him to think and be truthful about it. Mercier's answer? $225,000.

"Yes! Yes!" yelled Shak, briefly popping up in his chair with excitement. "Bang!"

Esfandiari couldn't believe it, and he even said, "I was willing to lose everything on that one."

"$225,000 and I'd accept it right now," said Mercier with a smile.

"Well, you just made me $500," commented Shak.

"For $5,000,000 I'd try and not eat any food for the rest of my life!" Mercier joked with a big laugh.

Tags: Antonio EsfandiariBryn KenneyDan ShakJason MercierJeremy Ausmus

Mercier Knocks Out Two Players

Level 4 : 300/600, 75 ante
Jason Mercier
Jason Mercier

Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier just raked in an enormous pot and we barely caught the end of it. After things cooled down Mercier explained to us what happened.

There was a raise to 1,200 and three players called including Mercier in the big blind. The flop brought out {8-Diamonds}{6-Hearts}{5-Clubs} and the action was checked to the player in position who bet 3,000.

Mercier raised it up to 9,600 and Simon Higgins, the initial raiser, moved all in for 27,100. The player in position made the call and Mercier moved all in over the top. Mercier's opponent had 33,000 chips behind and he made the call for his tournament life.

Mercier: {4-Diamonds}{7-Diamonds}
Higgins: {K-Spades}{K-Hearts}
Opponent: {6-}{6-}

The board ran out {3-Spades}, {J-Diamonds} and Mercier's flopped straight held up. Mercier knocked out two players and he's now chip leader with 180,000 chips.

Player Chips Progress
Jason Mercier us
Jason Mercier
180,000 123,000
Simon Higgins gb
Simon Higgins
Busted

Tags: Jason MercierSimon Higgins