$25,000 PCA High Roller
Day 1 Completed
$25,000 PCA High Roller
Day 1 Completed
The last high roller event of the 2019 PCA kicked off today and has easily surpassed the total number of entries from the previous year. The $25,000 PCA High Roller attracted all of the best players that made the trip to Atlantis Resort in The Bahamas and a very healthy field of 151 has turned up with more still possibly to come before the start of Day 2.
After ten levels on the opening day, Lucas Reeves managed to maneuver his way through the field to top the leaderboard of 65 players remaining. Reeves bagged up 247,000 chips, nearly five times the starting stack. Although the $25,000 Single-Day High Roller didn't go his way yesterday, Reeves returned today and found a different outcome.
Another familiar name near the top of the leaderboard is Jesus Cortes who is having a fantastic start to the year. Cortes has already accumulated nearly $1.1 million over the past week and with 239,000 chips in his bag, he may be on his way to another cash. Cortes finished third in the $100,000 Super High Roller and second in the $25,000 Single-Day High Roller. He will be looking to improve on those two results and finally lay claim to a title.
The day started rather slowly, like all of the high rollers do, and got off to a late start by about 30 minutes. Finally, there were enough players to open up two tables and the players took their seats. It didn't take long for the others to start strolling in as there were nearly 50 entries by the first break. With 60-minute levels and a 250 big blind starting stack, the structure allows for a lot of deep-stack poker to be played throughout.
Seth Davies and Sosia Jiang were the first couple of players to be forced to the rail, but with a single reentry option available, both were able to quickly jump back into the action. Unfortunately for both of them, their second bullet wound up with the same result. They joined the list of notables like Igor Kurganov, Scott Seiver, Steve O'Dwyer, Luc Greenwood, and Sylvain Loosli to fire off $50,000 without finding a bag.
Among the 65 players that will be returning tomorrow, some of the larger stacks to keep an eye on include Pablo Melogno (243,500), Pedro Marques (241,000), Thomas Boivin (227,000), defending champion Christopher Kruk (214,500), and Davidi Kitai (205,000). Liv Boeree was the only PokerStars Pro to bag up chips with 96,000 since Kurganov and Andre Akkari both went bust. More notably, Daniel Negreanu has not been seen on the tournament floor as of late and it's unsure if he will show up tomorrow.
The action is scheduled to get underway again at 12:30 p.m. local time and another 10 levels will be played. The blinds will resume at Level 11 at 1,000/2,000 and a 2,000 big blind ante. Late registration will remain open until the action gets underway and anyone that wishes to enter tomorrow will begin with 25 big blinds.
Keep it locked here as the PokerNews live reporting team will continue to bring you coverage of all the action throughout this three-day event.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Lucas Reeves | 247,000 | -2,000 |
Pablo Melogno | 243,000 | -14,000 |
Pedro Marques | 241,000 | 18,000 |
Jesus Cortes | 239,000 | 99,000 |
Thomas Boivin | 227,000 | 28,000 |
Christopher Kruk
|
214,500 | 42,500 |
Davidi Kitai
|
205,000 | 2,000 |
Christopher Kennedy | 201,000 | 11,000 |
Shyngis Satubayev | 197,500 | 197,500 |
Ariel Celestino | 190,000 | 150,000 |
Henrik Hecklen | 189,500 | -33,500 |
Fabiano Kovalski | 182,000 | -18,000 |
Sam Greenwood
|
165,500 | 32,500 |
Max Silver
|
165,000 | 115,000 |
Daniel Dvoress
|
155,500 | -5,500 |
Martin Zamani | 155,000 | 6,000 |
Kelvin Kerber | 146,000 | 28,500 |
Bartlomiej Machon | 144,500 | 54,500 |
Stephen Chidwick
|
144,000 | 20,200 |
Kristina Holst | 140,500 | -12,500 |
Nick Petrangelo
|
140,000 | 4,000 |
Ryan Riess
|
135,000 | 63,000 |
Joseph Cheong
|
134,000 | 6,500 |
Ramin Hajiyev | 133,000 | 99,500 |
Brock Wilson | 131,500 | 81,500 |
JC Alvarado opened under the gun and got three-bet by neighbor Martin Zamani. Alvarado crammed it in for about 45,000 and Zamani called right away, showing . Alvarado was in rough shape with , and the board did him no favors.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Martin Zamani | 149,000 | 99,000 |
JC Alvarado | Busted |
David Peters bet just a hair over pot, 16,000 into 15,000, from the cutoff on a board of . Big blind Kelvin Kerber called and they saw a arrive on the river. Kerber checked and called 25,000 more and Peters tabled for kings up, which was a winner.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
David Peters
|
125,000 | 59,500 |
Kelvin Kerber | 117,500 | 29,200 |
Benjamin Pollak opened for 3,500 in the cutoff and faced an all-in shove by Preben Stokkan, in the big blind. It was 21,800 and Pollak used two time banks then tossed in some chips.
"What you got?" he asked.
Stokkan showed and that beat Pollak's for the moment. The brought nothing for Pollak and he shipped over a double for nearly half of his stack.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Preben Stokkan | 44,400 | 18,400 |
Benjamin Pollak | 28,700 | -21,300 |
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Pablo Melogno | 257,000 | 37,000 |
Lucas Reeves | 249,000 | 44,000 |
Pedro Marques | 223,000 | 82,000 |
Thomas Boivin | 199,000 | 53,500 |
Christopher Kruk
|
172,000 | -8,000 |
Joao Vieira
|
171,000 | 64,000 |
Daniel Dvoress
|
161,000 | 73,800 |
Kristina Holst | 153,000 | 23,000 |
Joseph Cheong
|
127,500 | -12,500 |
Rui Ferreira
|
126,600 | 76,600 |
Markus Durnegger | 126,500 | -8,500 |
Stephen Chidwick
|
123,800 | 91,600 |
Ryan Riess
|
72,000 | 51,200 |
On a board reading , Christian Rudolph bet 37,900 into a pot of around 50,000, leaving himself with just 1,000 behind. Chris Hunichen made the call and the completed the board.
It was clear the rest of the money was going to go in on the river and when it did, Rudolph tabled for two pair. However, Hunichen flipped over for a bigger two pair thanks to the river and Rudolph left shaking his head.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Chris Hunichen | 142,500 | 79,600 |
Christian Rudolph | Busted |
Joseph Cheong bet 30,000 out of the small blind on a completed board of . Jesus Cortes was in there with a quick call on the button but he couldn't beat the tabled by Cheong, good for a backdoor flush.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Joseph Cheong
|
140,000 | 50,000 |
Jesus Cortes | 140,000 | -100,000 |
Paul Newey open-shipped all in for 25,500 from under the gun and Tom-Aksel Bedell shoved all in over the top from the cutoff. Preben Stokkan gave it some thought on the button but eventually decided to fold along with the rest of the table.
Tom-Aksel Bedell:
Paul Newey:
The flop came to leave Newey drawing slim to Bedell's set of queens. The on the turn gave Newey a straight draw but the on the river improved Bedell to a full house.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Tom-Aksel Bedell | 142,000 | 36,000 |
Paul Newey | Busted |