On Thursday, the first ever $100,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Super High Roller Event will kick off the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. The inaugural running of the tournament has attracted nearly 30 players so far and Saturday’s final table will be filmed for coverage on ESPN2.
In a press release sent out by PokerStars on Thursday, the names of 26 entrants appeared, including a variety of members of Team PokerStars Pro. Among those who will take to the felts in the richest tournament in PokerStars Caribbean Adventure history is Daniel Negreanu, whose Twitter spat about Prahlad Friedman’s rumored signing with UB.com has taken center stage in recent days. Negreanu owns four World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets, the most recent of which came in 2008 in a $2,000 Limit Hold’em tournament.
The hottest player on the tournament circuit right now, Jason Mercier, will also participate in the $100,000 buy-in Super High Roller Event starting tomorrow in the Bahamas. Mercier is firmly entrenched in the #2 spot on the ESPN poker rankings dubbed “The Nuts” and recorded five in the money finishes at this year’s WSOP. Mercier final tabled the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Los Angeles Main Event for $84,000 in November and won the tour’s Mohegan Sun Bounty Shootout for $475,000 earlier in 2010. Mercier is a former European Poker Tour (EPT) champ and WSOP bracelet holder.
The 2010 CardPlayer and Bluff Players of the Year will also head to the Bahamas for the six-figure price tag tournament. Tom Marchese and Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi are both listed among the 26 entrants so far. Marchese is six weeks removed from a win in a $1,000 No Limit Hold’em preliminary event during the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic and claimed CardPlayer’s 2010 Player of the Year honors. Mizzi, who earned the 2010 Bluff Player of the Year title, won two preliminary tournaments during EPT Snowfest in March 2010 for a combined haul of $140,000, just enough to cover tomorrow’s buy-in.
Bryn Kenney, who drove deep in the 2010 WSOP Main Event, will be part of the festivities at the Atlantis Resort and Casino, as will Scott Seiver. Other players who will make up the extremely talented field include Lex Veldhuis, Unabomber Poker front man Phil Laak, former “Big Game” player Bill Perkins, Humberto Brenes, Eugene Katchalov, Dan Shak, Bill Chen, Bryan Colin, Justin “Boosted J” Smith, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, Andrew “good2cu” Robl, DoylesRoom pro Hoyt Corkins, Victory Poker’s Antonio Esfandiari, Masa Kagawa, Nick Schulman, Matt Glantz, James “Andy McLEOD” Obst, Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar, Shawn Buchanan, and Ashton Griffin.
Needless to say, there won’t be any soft spots in the field. The 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure schedule features 48 tournaments that span a 10-day period.
On his way down to Nassau for the tournament series, Negreanu posted on Twitter on Wednesday morning, “That’s random. Three bums sit right behind me on my flight and they look very much like Antonio Esfandiari, Jonathan Duhamel, and Sorel Mizzi.” Before that, Negreanu remarked that he was taking advantage of the in-flight internet offered aboard Delta Airlines: “I love Delta; you are beautiful baby. Wifi on my flight to Atlanta means I can get some VPPs on PokerStars.Headed to PCA, obv, traveling solo.”
On January 15th, the final table of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event will air on ESPN3.com and ESPN2. You can catch the action beginning at 5:00pm ET that day on ESPN3.com on a one-hour delay. Five hours later, ESPN2 will join the telecast in progress. Hole cards will be shown during the broadcast, which will make for a unique experience for viewers unable to make the trip to the Bahamas.
Visit PokerStars for more details on the 2011 Caribbean Adventure.
