If it is the first week of the calendar year, it means that the crème of the tournament poker world has flocked to the sunny climes of Paradise Island in the Bahamas for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. This year’s event, the thirteenth running of the tournament, will have something for everyone as 104 different tournaments will be conducted over the next week (when people will sleep is another story). While it concludes on January 14 with its European Poker Tour $5000 Main Event final table, the festivities got off to a start with one of the biggest tournaments in the world, the $100,000 PCA Super High Roller.
Looking to get off to a good start for the tournament poker year, 43 of the deepest pocketed poker players on the planet came out to do battle, each putting up $100,000 in the rebuy tournament to end all rebuy tournaments. In fact, six re-entries were registered over the course of the first eight rounds of the tournament (bringing the total entry numbers to 49) with the numbers expected to go higher as late registrations and rebuys will be accepted until the start of play on Thursday. For those that came out on Wednesday, it was a mixed bag of fortunes.
Bill Perkins was on one end of the spectrum with the Super High Roller as one of the most active players in the tournament. He wouldn’t be rewarded for that aggression, however, as he left early after losing most of his chips holding A-6 on a 2-A-8-10-5 board to Justin Bonomo’s A-J. Perkins pulled another $100K stack from his hip pocket and sat back in, but he would burn through that one rapidly as well. On his third bullet, Perkins would make it making it almost to the end of the night’s action, his Q-J falling victim to defending champion Steve O’Dwyer’s Q-10 when O’Dwyer paired his kicker on an 8-Q-4-K-10 board. Even $300K in the hole (meaning he’d probably have to finish in the top three to make a profit), Perkins stated to the table he’d be back on Thursday for another shot.
Making the most of her efforts (and her $100,000) on the felt was Kathy Lehne, who steadily worked her stack upwards throughout the day. Locked into a particularly tough fight with Isaac Haxton on a 10-10-9-J flop and turn, Haxton would check the action to Lehne, who fired off a 75K bet. Haxton responded with an all-in move, but an undaunted Lehne immediately made the call, tabling her 10-9 and revealing her excellent trap with her flopped full house. Haxton, with a chance of a straight flush on the river to come from behind, instead saw a four on the river to eliminate him on Wednesday. Lehne, the Chief Executive Officer of Sun Coast Resources who has two World Poker Tour Alpha8 final tables to her resume, would use that hand to rocket to the top of the leaderboard and remain there for most of the day.
On the final hand of the night, both Mustapha Kanit and Bonomo gave up their short stacks to Ankush Mandavia – Mandavia’s pocket Jacks standing over Bonomo’s A-10 and Kanit’s 3-2 – on a nine-high board, meaning they will probably be back on Thursday to take a final shot at the tournament. Meanwhile, Talal Shakerchi stayed under the radar for the most part in finishing the night as the chip leader after Day One of the Super High Roller:
Talal Shakerchi, 805,000 Nick Petrangelo, 800,000 Kathy Lehne, 783,000 David Peters, 772,000 Joe McKeehen, 732,000 Christoph Vogelsang, 708,000 Ankush Mandavia, 610,000 Bryn Kenney, 573,000 Vanessa Selbst, 531,000 Dan Shak, 498,000
All totaled, there are 32 players remaining in the $100,000 Super High Roller, but that number will probably rise on Thursday prior to the start of action due to late registration. The plan on Thursday is to play down to the final table (which could be an audacious task, considering the number of players still in the hunt), with the champion crowned on Friday. That person will join the likes of Eugene Katchalov, Viktor Blom, Scott Seiver, Fabian Quoss and O’Dwyer on the rolls of the Super High Roller champions.