There are just a couple days left in the 2016 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event and as has been the case all week, it is Leonardo Pires leading the field. Pires was the chip leader after Sunday’s Day 2, lost the lead for a while on Monday but ended with a dominant chip stack in the end, and is now head and shoulders ahead of everyone again after Day 4.
With 4.566 million chips, Pires has over 2 million chips more than his nearest competitor, Randy Kritzer, who has 2.385 million. Pires basically has as many chips as the numbers two and three players combined. After Pires it is a bit of a logjam, with Kritzer, Fabian Ortiz, Timothy Ulmer, Phillip McAllister, and David Eldridge all separated by fewer than 300,000 chips.
Also amongst the 19 players still alive in the tournament are Stephen Chidwick, Matt Waxman, Tony Gregg, Ami Barer, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Fedor Holz, and Taylor Paur.
As mentioned yesterday, Pires has won just $30,349 in his live tournament career on three cashes. By virtue of being one of the last 19 players in the field, he will now at least double that earnings total, as the minimum payout at this point is $32,360.
One of the most amazing hands of Day 4 did not involve Pires (this can’t be ALL about him, after all). According to the PokerNews live report, during Level 22, Paul Tedeschi raised to 36,000 pre-flop and was called by McAllister and Fabian Chauriye. On the flop of Q♥-8♣-4♣, it checked around to McAllister, who bet 48,000, a sum which was called by the two other players. It checked again to McAllister with the J♥ on the flop and he bet 136,000. Chauriye called, but this time, Tedeschi moved all-in for another 388,000. Both McAllister and Chauriye stayed in to bring on the river of the A♥. Chauriye bet 300,000 into McAllister, but McAllister shoved, forcing Chauriye to fold after five minutes of thought.
Tedeschi had a good hand: pocket Queens for top set. McAllister, though, revealed K♥-T♥, which meant that he had hit a runner-runner royal flush.
Day 5 is about to begin at the Atlantis Resort & Casino in the Bahamas. The plan for today is to play down to the final table, but as always, schedules are fluid, so we’ll just have to wait and see how it all sorts out.
2016 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event – Day 4 Chip Counts
1. Leonardo Pires – 4,566,000
2. Randy Kritzer – 2,385,000
3. Fabian Ortiz – 2,309,000
4. Timothy Ulmer – 2,200,000
5. Phillip McAllister – 2,152,000
6. David Eldridge – 2,100,000
7. Stephen Chidwick – 1,428,000
8. Toby Lewis – 1,396,000
9. Ken Demlakian – 1,394,000
10. Matt Waxman – 1,228,000
11. Tony Gregg – 1,091,000
12. Martin McCormick – 1,012,000
13. Mike Watson – 952,000
14. Paul Gooley – 705,000
15. Ami Barer – 679,000
16. Vladimir Troyanovskiy – 612,000
17. Fabian Chauriye – 513,000
18. Fedor Holz – 453,000
19. Taylor Paur – 400,000
