The final table is set in the $100,000 buy-in Super High Roller Event at the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA). Seven players will vie for the top prize of $1.5 million and, amazingly, the field is not yet in the money, as only the top five will walk away with cash in tow. The tournament originally drew 38 players.
A double elimination ended play on Friday, resulting in the seven-handed final table instead of the customary eight. On the final set of hands, PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu moved all-in with K-10 of hearts on a board of J-Q-6-8 with two of the suit for flush and straight draws and Bryn Kenney called all-in with pocket jacks for a set. The river was a blank and Kenney doubled up.
The hand against Negreanu effectively stamped Kenney’s ticket to the final table. Then, Durrrr Challenge contestant Dan “jungleman12” Cates ran into Kenney’s pocket eights on his final hand to depart the six-figure buy-in poker tournament.
At the same time on the other active table, online poker pro James “Andy McLEOD” Obst moved all-in with 9-8 of diamonds, but the suited connector ultimately fell to the K-Q belonging to Costa Rican sensation Humberto Brenes. An eight hit on the flop to give Obst, a Victory Poker pro, the temporary lead in the hand, but Brenes spiked a lady on the turn to take the advantage back.
Just before the double elimination to end play at the Atlantis Resort and Casino in the Bahamas, a three-way all-in resulted in two players exiting stage right to trim the field from 11 to nine. Nick Schulman picked up pocket aces and had both Day 1 chip leader Tobias Reinkemeier and online poker pro Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar covered. Reinkemeier held A-J, while Rajkumar held pocket tens, and neither player improved when the board ran out 2-9-8-5-7. All in all, the final two levels in the Super High Roller Event on Friday made for an extremely memorable finish.
Among those who won’t be making a final table appearance in the tropical paradise is PokerStars pro Jason Mercier. The Floridian, who has been red hot on the tournament circuit as of late, ran pocket queens into Schulman’s pocket aces to seal his fate. Mercier owns the #2 spot on the ESPN poker rankings dubbed “The Nuts.”
Four countries are represented among the final seven players in the $100,000 buy-in tournament: the United States, Hungary, Canada, and Costa Rica. Here’s how the field stacks up entering Saturday’s final table, which will be filmed for airing on ESPN2. When play resumes, the blinds will be 12,000-24,000 with an ante of 3,000:
1. Nick Schulman – 2,990,000
2. Daniel Negreanu – 2,166,000
3. Eugene Katchalov – 1,476,000
4. Bryn Kenney – 1,390,000
5. Humberto Brenes – 756,000
6. Sandor Demjan – 379,000
7. Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger – 373,000
Schulman was fourth in chips entering Day 2 and will now take the lead into Saturday’s final table. However, all eyes will be on Negreanu, as, according to the PokerStars Blog, the Canadian could overtake Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey as poker’s all-time money leader with a win. The festivities will get underway at 1:00pm ET from the Bahamas.
On Friday, the field whittled down from 23 players to seven. Here’s how the Day 2 survivors finished, although only the top five players will cash:
8. James “Andy McLEOD” Obst
9. Dan “jungleman12” Cates
10. Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar
11, Tobias Reinkemeier
12. Bryan Colin
13. Ciao Pimenta
14. Jason Mercier
15. David Benyamine
16. Matt Glantz
17. Andrew “good2cu” Robl
18. Shawn Buchanan
19. Antonio Esfandiari
20. Mike “timex” McDonald
21. Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi
22. Phil Laak
23. Justin “Boosted J” Smith
Visit PokerStars for full details.
