$25,750 High Roller Day 1 | 2017 PokerStars Championship Bahamas

01-13-2017 00:31 UTC-4

Bernard Lee Tries to Drown Mike Watson on the River

Chad Holloway

Level 10 : 800/1,600, 200 ante

With a board reading , 2016 PCA champ Mike Watson got his last 14,800 all in and was at risk against Bernard Lee.

Watson:
Lee:

Watson was ahead with a pair of kings, but Lee was drawing to both an ace and hearts. The dealer burned one last time and put out the . Lee missed and Watson doubled through.

Player	Chips	Progress
Mike Watson	44,000 23,000	23,000

Bernard Lee	40,000 -35,300	-35,300

Tags: Mike Watson Bernard Lee

01-13-2017 00:57 UTC-4

Kurganov and Kanit - The Best of Frenemies

MrPaulSeaton

Level 10 : 800/1,600, 200 ante

Mustapha Kanit and Igor Kurganov pictured earlier on this trip to the PokerStars Championship Bahamas. Both of the High Rollers made Day 2 of the $25,000 buy-in event.

Igor Kurganov had been eliminated, that was the headline. All-in with against Tim Adams' and no luck on the board. Goodnight, Igor. Except for Kurganov, whose girlfriend Liv Boeree claimed "hasn't stopped talking for six days!", a few more words were called for. Words such as 'Where can I buy back in?'.

Kurganov's second entry came with the clock paused just seconds later, and six more hands announced. On the fourth of those hands, poker pandemonium broke out.

Kurganov was sat to the direct right of good friend Mustapha Kanit, who had plenty of chips, around 70,000 and easily enough to bust his pal. When Kurganov moved all-in with and Kanit called with , the pair of them were up and down like a pair of puppets. They were racing not just for a 97,000 pot, but bragging rights too.

The flop of saw Kurganov on his feet, with an 'Eh!' to his friend Kanit. However, the on the turn sent Kanit into raptures.

"Eh!" he cried jubilantly. Kurganov covered his friends eyes from the river card.....of the !

"Ehhhh!" yelled Kurganov, as his hand improved to a full house. He flipped Kanit's cap from his friends head and wore it triumphantly like a crown.

"I deserve to wear this now. You are a loser. Mathematically, you've only had one buy-in yes? - OK - Mathematically, you should shove any two next hand."

As it happened, Kanit did so, piling his remaining 17,500 into the middle and being snap-called by Anthony Zinno. Zinno had , but Kanit was racing again, holding the almost-identical-to-his-last-hand .

The flop of offered little hope. The turn of didn't improve the actual odds dramatically. But the on the river gave Kanit a runner-runner straight and he jumped back up, took back his hat and cried 'Who's the boss? Who's the boss?!"

To be fair to Kurganov and Kanit, and with deference to the everlasting good humour of Zinno, all of it happened with riotous sense of good humour and the trio were all happy to progress to the next day. Kurganov, Kanit, Zinno and of course Boeree and other friends by now on the rail who were watching the drama unfold all burst into peals of laughter at the conclusion the two hilarious hands of poker.

Player	Chips	Progress
Igor Kurganov	97,000 47,000	47,000

Mustapha Kanit	40,000 -40,000	-40,000

Anthony Zinno	33,800 -26,200	-26,200

Tags: Igor Kurganov Mustapha Kanit

01-13-2017 00:58 UTC-4

End-of-Day 1 Chip Counts (full)

Chad Holloway

Level 10 : 800/1,600, 200 ante

Player	Chips	Progress
Nick Petrangelo	290,600 180,600	180,600

Sam Greenwood	276,800 36,800	36,800

Byron Kaverman	272,800 177,800	177,800

Rocco Palumbo	267,700 124,700	124,700

Oleksii Khoroshenin	265,000 5,000	5,000

Sergio Aido	250,700 35,700	35,700
Davidi Kitai	189,000 -21,000	-21,000

Fabrizio Gonzalez	170,200 98,700	98,700
Iago Leonelli	168,100 168,100	168,100
Richard Seymour	165,000 -4,000	-4,000
Sergi Reixach	159,200 59,200	59,200
Mark Radoja	151,700 1,700	1,700

Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier	140,300 140,300	140,300

Lucas Greenwood	140,300 140,300	140,300
Justin Bonomo	139,700 -300	-300

Vojtech Ruzicka	137,200 47,200	47,200
Salman Behbehani	135,900 -4,100	-4,100
Timothy Adams	134,000 -41,000	-41,000

Andjelko Andrejevic	127,500 12,500	12,500

Jonathan Jaffe	125,400 8,400	8,400

Jason Koon	115,200 -49,800	-49,800

Michael Rocco	113,100 113,100	113,100
Daniel Negreanu	104,600 -25,400	-25,400

Kenneth Smaron	103,700 103,700	103,700
Andrew Chen	102,000 70,000	70,000

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01-13-2017 01:16 UTC-4

Nick Petrangelo Bags Big; Day 1 of 2017 PokerStars Championship Bahamas $25,750 High Roller Draws 151 Entries

Chad Holloway

Level 10 : 800/1,600, 200 ante

The 2017 PokerStars Championship Bahamas $25,750 High Roller started off slow with just two tables, but with a single re-entry options and late registration open all day, that number swelled. After 10 one-hour levels of play, the field had grown to 115 unique entrants who accounted for 36 re-entries to bring the total field up to 151 entries. It could go up even more as registration will remain open up until the start of Day 2.

At the end of the night, Nick Petrangelo bagged the biggest stack among the approximately 75 survivors with 290,600, though several other players were hot on his heels including Sam Greenwood (276,800), Byron Kaverman (272,000), Oleksii Khoroshenin (264,000), and Sergio Aido (250,700).

Petrangelo is a regular on the high roller circuit and has total live earnings of nearly $6 million. That includes $1,015,335 for finishing second in the 2015 WPT Alpha8 Bellagio High Roller, taking third in the EPT12 Barcelona €10,000 High Roller for $669,12, and winning the EPT13 Barcelona €10,000 High Roller for $464,154. Petrangelo also finished sixth in this very event two years ago, good for $301,500.

Others who advanced are former NFL player Richard Seymour (165,000), Daniel Colman (100,400), Bryn Kenney (66,8000), Phil “The Unabomber” Laak (54,900), and Bernard Lee (27,200). They will be joined by Team PokerStars Pros Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (140,300), Daniel Negreanu (104,600), Liv Boeree (43,000), Andre Akkari (40,600), and Jake Cody (32,800).

On the flip side, not everyone was as fortunate. Among those to fall twice on Day 1, meaning they don’t have a re-entry option to use tomorrow, were 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event champ Joe McKeehen, the UK wunderkind Charlie Carrel, 2016 Aussie Millions champ Chance Kornuth, and last year’s runner-up Sean Winter.

Shortly after re-entering the tournament, Winter found himself on the bad end of a cooler. He had flopped trip queens with a king kicker, but Khoroshenin had flopped threes full of queens. The chips went in, and Winter failed to get there. As for Carrel, he busted after getting his short stack in with ace-four and falling to the pocket eights of Greenwood.

Day 2 will kick off at Noon local time on Friday. Once again PokerNews will bring you updates straight from the tournament floor, so be sure to check back then. While you wait, check out this video of Seymour talking about joining Twitter, making a bet with Negreanu, and more.

Tags: Nick Petrangelo

$25,750 High Roller

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$25,750 High Roller

Day 1 Completed