$1,100 BSOP Bahamas Main Event Day 1 | 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure

$1,100 BSOP Bahamas Main Event

Day 1 Completed

01-23-2023 02:21 UTC-4

Graydon Kowal Bags Chip Lead After Day 1 of the $1,100 BSOP Bahamas Main Event

Andrew Knowles

Level 8 : Blinds 500/1,000, 1,000 ante

After eight levels of play on Day 1 of $1,100 Brazilian Series of Poker(BSOP) Bahamas Main Event at the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, it was Canada's Graydon Kowal that came out on top of the leaderboard with an impressive stack of 266,000.

Close on the leader's heels was Brett Kennedy with 232,000 and Mekhail Mekhail with 192,000 to round out the all-Canadian top three. A field of 102 will return on Monday and they will be joined by the Day 2 registrants.

The day started with roughly 45 players, but that number quickly grew to a total of 258 with the late registration and unlimited reentries open until the end of Level 10 on Day 2. The field has generated a prize pool of $250,260 so far, with more to come on Monday. Players who wish to buy in or reenter tomorrow will start with 30,000 and the blinds will resume at 600/1,200/1,200.

2023 BSOP Bahamas Main Event Top Ten Day 1 Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Day 2 Big Blinds
1	Graydon Kowal	Canada	266,000	221
2	Brett Kennedy	Canada	232,000	193
3	Mekhail Mekhail	Canada	192,000	160
4	Elliot Smith	Canada	184,300	153
5	Robert Petronio	Canada	182,000	151
6	Paul Dewald	United States	182,000	151
7	Yannick Cardot	France	160,700	134
8	Keith Lehr	United States	159,900	134
9	Blaz Zerjav	Slovenia	152,100	127
10	Jose Totel	Brazil	146,100	122

Many notables joined the field throughout the day and for most, this was their first tournament of the series. Some who fell by the wayside throughout the day included PokerStars Ambassadors Benjamin Spragg and Parker Talbot as well as Michael Dentale and Aliaksandr Shylko.

There were also plenty of familiar faces that found a bag including Maria Konnikova (111,900), Vanessa Kade (76,800), and PokerStars Ambassador Fintan Hand (73,700). Konnikova won the 2018 PCA National Championship for $84,600 and she will look to put her 93 big blinds to work on Day 2 tomorrow.

Hand bagged a healthy stack and much of that came with some flip run good as he picked up queens against the ace-king for his opponent and sent them to the rail early on. Another notable pot was when Shawn Buchanan found pocket nines and moved in against Philipp Gruissem who held ace-ten. The board ran out with a flopped set for Buchanan to score the full double.

Day 2 will resume on Monday, January 23 at 2 p.m. local time. Eight more levels of 60 minutes each are on tap, with the blinds returning in Level 9 at 600/1,200 and a 1,200 big blind ante. Late registration will be remain open until the end of level 10, and the prize pool and payouts will be announced shortly after.

Be sure to come back tomorrow for continued live PokerNews coverage of the 2023 BSOP Main Event and the rest of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure at Baha Mar in Nassau, The Bahamas.

Tags: Aliaksandr Shylko Benjamin Spragg Blaz Zerjav Brett Kennedy Charles Lehr Elliot Smith Fintan Hand Graydon Kowal Jose Totel Maria Konnikova Mekhail Mekhail Michael Dentale Parker Talbot Paul Dewald Philipp Gruissem Robert Petronio Shawn Buchanan Vanessa Kade Yannick Cardot

01-23-2023 01:45 UTC-4

Day 2 Seat Draw (By Table)

Matt Hansen

Level 8 : Blinds 500/1,000, 1,000 ante

Table	Seat	Name	Country	Chips	Day 2 Big Blinds
1	1	Frederic Robert	Canada	25,500	21
1	2	Marcel Schwarz	Germany	32,000	27
1	4	Young Eum	USA	142,300	119
1	6	Andre Machado	Brazil	33,000	28
1	7	Gabriel Jansen	Brazil	25,500	21
1	8	Allan Barnes	Canada	68,400	57

2	1	Eduardo Lopes	Brazil	69,000	58
2	2	Paul Dewald	USA	182,000	152
2	3	Arash Shahi	Canada	75,300	63
2	4	Lucas Silva Rocha	Brazil	82,900	69
2	5	Diogo De Melo Cardoso	Brazil	44,000	37
2	6	Mateusz Moolhuizen	Netherlands	131,000	109

3	2	Julio de la Rosa	Dominican Republic	19,300	16
3	3	Vanessa Kade	Canada	76,800	64
3	4	Katie Lindsay	Canada	38,300	32
3	5	Jason Wheeler	USA	85,400	71
3	6	Fabio Muhr	Austria	106,100	88
3	7	Eric Schaeffer	USA	87,800	73

4	2	Diego Cuellar	Peru	106,300	89
4	4	Ludovic Geilich	United Kingdom	37,000	31
4	5	Brett Kennedy	Canada	232,700	194
4	6	Olga Iermolcheva	Ukraine	36,800	31
4	7	Micha Hoedemaker	Netherlands	94,500	79
4	8	Jessica Teusl	Austria	45,900	38

5	1	Yannick Cardot	France	160,700	134
5	3	Rajat Sharma	India	63,500	53
5	4	Paul Ephremsen	United Kingdom	76,600	64
5	5	Aurelie Reard	France	23,700	20
5	6	Tomislav Radisic	Canada	118,500	99
5	8	Vicente Delgado	Spain	139,000	116

6	1	Klemens Roiter	Austria	55,500	46
6	2	Guillermo Sanz	Spain	56,900	47
6	3	Ricardo Caridade	Portugal	23,500	20
6	5	Jonathan Little	USA	54,600	46
6	6	Allan Ribeiro	Brazil	111,700	93
6	8	Steven Walters	USA	20,000	17

7	1	Shawn Buchanan	Canada	93,700	78
7	2	Patrick Stacey	Canada	31,600	26
7	3	Davide Lamorte	Italy	56,100	47
7	4	Franco Spitale	Argentina	36,700	31
7	5	Lindsay Kido	USA	26,400	22
7	8	Sebastian Toro Henao	Colombia	33,600	28

8	1	Blake Anderson	USA	87,600	73
8	2	Felipe Boianovsky	Brazil	54,200	45
8	3	Christopher Day	United Kingdom	83,500	70
8	5	Martin Johnstone	United Kingdom	80,800	67
8	6	Renato Minicuci	Italy	41,600	35
8	7	Luc Lafontaine	Canada	95,900	80

9	1	Fabiano Kovalski	Brazil	42,200	35
9	4	Jolan Mancini	USA	43,300	36
9	5	Kelvin Kerber	Brazil	106,700	89
9	6	Julian Pineda Lozano	Mexico	64,800	54
9	7	Ana Marquez	Spain	35,400	30
9	8	Ricardo Mateo	USA	67,600	56

10	1	Matthew Hunt	USA	57,400	48
10	2	Mekhail Mekhail	Canada	192,000	160
10	4	Maximiliano Castagnini	Argentina	71,700	60
10	5	Andrei Spataru	Romania	69,800	58
10	6	Evgenii Tsatskin	Canada	73,600	61
10	7	Noel Datta	Canada	47,000	39

11	1	Philipp Gruissem	Germany	56,100	47
11	2	Jose Totel	Brazil	146,100	122
11	3	Ethan Yau	USA	61,300	51
11	4	Conor Beresford	United Kingdom	50,900	42
11	6	Blaz Zerjav	Slovenia	152,100	127
11	7	Nenad Dukic	Croatia	80,000	67

12	1	Johan Schumacher	Belgium	67,600	56
12	4	Jeffery Gagnon	Canada	131,600	110
12	5	Amauri Grutka	Brazil	54,800	46
12	6	Ricardo Nakamura	Brazil	44,500	37
12	7	Bela Toth	Hungary	10,200	9
12	8	Francisco Caballo Pena	USA	23,300	19

13	1	Steven Fandozzi	USA	73,900	62
13	3	Daniel De Sousa Custodio	Brazil	59,500	50
13	4	Eladio Alarcon	Canada	89,400	75
13	5	Stewart Chantler	USA	140,500	117
13	6	Lukas Chiciak	Canada	16,500	14
13	7	Joseph Drory	USA	59,600	50

14	1	Iliodoros Kamatakis	Greece	109,000	91
14	3	Graydon Kowal	Canada	266,000	222
14	4	Sean Jackson	Canada	112,000	93
14	5	Lewis Spencer	United Kingdom	79,000	66
14	6	Leandro Ruy	Brazil	26,700	22
14	7	Elliot Smith	Canada	184,300	154

15	2	Luc Greenwood	Canada	38,600	32
15	4	Robert Petronio	Canada	182,000	152
15	5	Luis Pinho De Faria	Portugal	62,500	52
15	6	Jeffrey Snook	Canada	49,800	42
15	7	Joshua Berry	Canada	82,600	69
15	8	Jun Choi	Brazil	29,200	24

16	1	Maria Konnikova	USA	111,900	93
16	3	Donald Lloyd	Canada	24,800	21
16	4	David "Chino" Rheem	USA	87,500	73
16	6	Fintan Hand	Ireland	73,700	61
16	7	Michio Kawasaki	Japan	46,400	39
16	8	Ehsan Amiri	Australia	46,200	39

17	1	Shiva Dudani	USA	50,900	42
17	2	Vladimir Vasilyev	USA	50,000	42
17	3	Keith Lehr	USA	159,900	133
17	5	Andrew Chen	Canada	141,100	118
17	6	Adrian State	Romania	88,000	73
17	8	Fady Habashi	Canada	13,700	11

01-23-2023 01:40 UTC-4

Day 1 Chip Counts (full)

Matt Hansen

Level 8 : Blinds 500/1,000, 1,000 ante

Player	Chips	Progress
Graydon Kowal	266,000
Brett Kennedy	232,700
Mekhail Mekhail	192,000
Elliot Smith	184,300	300
Paul Dewald	182,000	43,000
Robert Petronio	182,000	182,000
Yannick Cardot	160,700
Keith Lehr	159,900	400
Blaz Zerjav	152,100	29,100
Jose Totel	146,100	116,100
Young Eum	142,300	142,300
Andrew Chen	141,100	100
Stewart Chantler	140,500	98,200
Vicente Delgado	139,000	139,000
Jeffery Gagnon	131,600	131,600
Mateusz Moolhuizen	131,000	68,000
Tomislav Radisic	118,500	118,500
Sean Jackson	112,000	112,000
Maria Konnikova	111,900
Allan Ribeiro	111,700	111,700
Iliodoros Kamatakis	109,000	-41,000
Kelvin Kerber	106,700	106,700
Diego Cuellar	106,300	106,300
Fabio Muhr	106,100	106,100
Luc Lafontaine	95,900	71,500

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01-23-2023 01:21 UTC-4

A Few Assorted End-of-Night Chip Counts

Matt Hansen

Level 8 : Blinds 500/1,000, 1,000 ante

Player	Chips	Progress
Graydon Kowal	266,000	41,000
Brett Kennedy	232,700	76,700
Mekhail Mekhail	192,000	81,000
Elliot Smith	184,000
Yannick Cardot	160,700	30,700
Keith Lehr	159,500	78,000
Andrew Chen	141,000	73,000
Maria Konnikova	111,900	-6,600
Jessica Teusl	45,900	-10,100
Katie Lindsay	38,300	27,300

01-23-2023 01:09 UTC-4

Hoedemaker Sends Shylko to the Rail

Matt Hansen

Level 8 : Blinds 500/1,000, 1,000 ante

Aliaksandr Shylko got his last 60,000 into the middle and Micha Hoedemaker was the one to put him at risk.

Aliaksandr Shylko:
Micha Hoedemaker:

The board ran out and the aces held to eliminate Shylko from the tournament at the end of the night.

Day 1 has come to an end and players are now bagging their chips. Stay tuned to PokerNews for chip counts and a full recap.

Player	Chips	Progress
Micha Hoedemaker	100,000
Aliaksandr Shylko	Busted

Tags: Aliaksandr Shylko Micha Hoedemaker

01-23-2023 00:58 UTC-4

Four Hands Remaining

Andrew Knowles

Level 8 : Blinds 500/1,000, 1,000 ante

The tournament director just announced that there will be four more hands until the end of Day 1.

01-23-2023 00:53 UTC-4

De La Rosa Scores Double Up Before End of Day

Andrew Knowles

Level 8 : Blinds 500/1,000, 1,000 ante

Philipp Gruissem opened to 2,000 from early position and Michio Kawasaki next to act made the call. Julio de la Rosa slid in 13,800 from middle position, leaving himself roughly 2,500 behind.

It folded back around to Gruissem, who raised to 45,000 and Kawasaki mistakenly rolled over to signal a fold, not realizing De La Rosa had chips left. De La Rosa quickly called for his last few chips and the cards were on their backs.

Julio de la Rosa:
Philipp Gruissem:

With Kawasaki folding ace-jack face up the odds were not looking great for De La Rosa to stay alive. The board however ran out , and the turned ace scored the full double up for De La Rosa close to the end of Day 1.

Player	Chips	Progress
Philipp Gruissem	42,000	3,000
Michio Kawasaki	35,000	35,000
Julio de la Rosa	35,000	18,000

Tags: Julio de la Rosa Philipp Gruissem

01-23-2023 00:44 UTC-4

Johnstone Busts Dentale

Matt Hansen

Level 8 : Blinds 500/1,000, 1,000 ante

The PokerNews team picked up the action as time was called over on Table 1.

Action was heads up with a growing pot and on the board and Martin Johnstone had bet 15,000. Michael Dentale was deep in the tank and time had been called.

After some discussion over what constituted a reasonable amount of time, the 30-second clock started and Dentale went all in for his last 27,000. Johnstone called quickly and turned over . Dentale had .

The river was an and Johnstone secured the elimination with aces and tens.

Player	Chips	Progress
Martin Johnstone	97,000	97,000
Michael Dentale	Busted

Tags: Martin Johnstone Michael Dentale

01-23-2023 00:26 UTC-4

"It's Not an Angle, I'm Just Stupid"

Matt Hansen

Level 8 : Blinds 500/1,000, 1,000 ante

Benjamin Spragg raised to 2,200 from under the gun at a lively Table 1.

"In my big blind?" Maria Konnikova said.

Spragg has been making a habit of raising in Konnikova's big blind, and this hand was no exception.

Action folded around and Konnikova tossed in the chips to call.

The flop was and Konnikova checked. Spragg tossed out 3,000 and Konnikova check-raised to 12,000. Spragg tossed out a total of 7,000 to call and everyone was confused.

"It's 12,000," the dealer said.

Spragg shook his head and corrected the issue.

"It's not an angle, I'm just stupid. I promise."

The turn was and Konnikova continued for 23,000. Spragg went into the tank for a few minutes before he gave up the pot. Konnikova allowed him to choose one of her cards to show, and it was the .

Elsewhere in the room, Ethan "Rampage" Yau has taken his seat.

Player	Chips	Progress
Maria Konnikova	118,500	45,000
Benjamin Spragg	43,500	-14,000
Ethan Yau	30,000	30,000

Tags: Benjamin Spragg Maria Konnikova