The $10,000,000 Guaranteed PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event has worked its way through Day Two with Pascal Lefrancois leading the remaining 215 players who will look to pop the money bubble on Friday.
At the start of yesterday’s action, overall Day One leader Shankar Pillai was ahead of the 632 players who made it out of the two Day Ones. Between those two Day Ones, 1031 runners came to the line; while it wasn’t the astronomical numbers that were seen for the 2013 PCA Main Event, the $10 million guarantee was topped (by $70,000), with 151 players set to earn a payday and the eventual champion of the 2014 PCA earning a $1.82 million bounty.
The players wasted little time getting their chips into action as they maneuvered through the Day Two battlefield. Dan Shak and Christopher Ulsrud locked up in a fight on a Q♥ J♣ 8♥ 4♥ 5♠ board with Shak, following a bet from Ulsrud, moving the action up to 40K. Ulsrud made a disciplined fold immediately, throwing his 3♥ 2♥ (baby flush) into the muck and, as he scooped up the chips, Shak showed that Ulsrud had made a great decision by turning up his A♥ 6♥ for the nut flush.
While Shak was chipping up, others fell by the wayside. Mohsin Charania, Mustapha Kanit, Josh Arieh, Dominik Nitsche, Philipp Gruissem and defending World Champion Ryan Riess would all fall before the end of the first level of the day as Lily Kiletto surged to the lead. As the second level played out, Shannon Shorr, David Vamplew and Peter Jetten would find their way to the rail as Pillai retook the lead.
As the action moved into the late afternoon hours, a new contender emerged for the PCA Main Event title. Lefrancois had quietly been building his stack through the early part of the day and, on an innocent looking A-Q-5 board, was able to bet his opponent out of the pot. With that pot, Lefrancois moved into the chip lead as Morgan Frederick Crosta joined him in a dual march up the leaderboard.
Kiletto, after her early success, began to drift downward while showing some (for her) unusual bravado. In a hand against former PCA champion John Dibella, the twosome saw a Q-J-Q-8-6 board that contained three hearts. After a Kiletto bet, Dibella pondered his action and asked her, “You make the flush?” Kiletto responded immediately, “You’re beat.” Dibella didn’t believe her, however (commenting, “I don’t think so”), and made the call. Kiletto stated that she had a pair, but Dibella did better in showing his Q-9 for trips to take the hand. At 150K in chips after that fight, Kiletto would be eliminated on the final hand of the night.
Lefrancois and Crosta would vie for the chip lead through the evening, but Crosta would hit some roadblocks that saw his chip stack fall from over 400K to less than 100K. Meanwhile, Lefrancois continued to slowly work his stack, maintaining his chip lead once the final hand was played to emerge as the Day Two chip leader:
1. Pascal Lefrancois, 412,000
2. Sam Greenwood, 402,500
3. Matthew Berkey, 372,100
4. Roger Teska, 369,700
5. Brian Altman, 362,100
6. Max Silver, 345,200
7. Keven Stammen, 342,500
8. Christopher Ulsrud, 338,600
9. Tyler Reiman, 331,800
10. Jason Helder, 328,000
Players in the Top 30 who are in prime positions to attack those further up the leaderboard include Vladimir Schemelev (11th, 313,500), Maria Ho (15th, 300,800), Rajesh Vohra (18th, 295,500), Dibella (20th, 293,600), Antoine Saout (22nd, 265,500), Jude Ainsworth (24th, 264,900), Matt Stout (29th, 257,900) and Jennifer Shahade (30th, 256,400).
When Day Three begins today, the players’ task will be to pop the money bubble. Of the 215 survivors still in contention, only 151 of them will earn the minimum cash of $17,600. From there, it will be on to the final table as the champion will be determined on Monday.