The lone woman remaining in the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event is its chip leader after four days of play. Spain’s Ana Marquez built a stack of 3.8 million on Wednesday to lead the way, although she only edges out 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker by 40,000. Needless to say, it’s shaping up to be a lively end to the $10,000 buy-in tournament, whose winner will be named on Saturday.
Twenty-two players will return for action today at the Atlantis Hotel and Casino in the Bahamas. The tournament was scheduled to play down to 24 on Wednesday, but three eliminations at the gun trimmed the field even further. In the first, Nicholas Kamen open-shoved pre-flop with A-2 and was ahead of the K-Q belonging to Galen Hall. The flop fell 10-8-6, which kept Kamen’s PCA Main Event title hopes alive with ace-high, but a nine on the turn gave Hall a gutshot straight draw. Needing to spike paint on the river to send Kamen home, Hall watched in glee as a queen came. Kamen finished in 25th place for $66,000.
On another table, Timothy “highland” Finne was ousted in 24th place after getting it all-in pre-flop with K-10 and running into Moneymaker’s A-9. The flop came 5-A-Q, giving Moneymaker top pair and Finne a Broadway draw, and the board filled out 5-2. Finne’s exit was worth $75,000.
The third table in action also had an all-in at the buzzer. This time, Josh Bergman 4bet shoved for his tournament life with pocket queens and wound up in a classic race situation against Bryan Colin’s A-K. The flop of 3-5-8 was no help to Colin and a four on the turn kept Bergman’s double up hopes alive. However, a cowboy hit on the river to end his tournament and officially wrap up Day 4. Bergman took 23rd place for the same $75,000.
Former PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau Main Event champion Edward Sabat was eliminated on Wednesday by online poker pro Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers. Sabat was all-in pre-flop with A-K and Sowers made the call with pocket eights. The window card of the 8-Q-K flop gave Sowers a set and a six on the turn left his opponent drawing dead to the river. Sowers, who has been near the top of the chip counts for much of the tournament, will take the fifth largest stack into Day 5 at 3.1 million.
Marquez built her lead in part from a set-over-set situation early in the day. On a board of A-6-J-9, Marquez doubled up to 2.5 million after calling all-in with pocket jacks. Her opponent, Philippe Plouffe, had 4bet all-in with pocket nines and quickly saw he was behind. The river was a ten and Marquez zoomed up the chip counts. According to the Hendon Mob database, she has one live cash to her credit, a $5,900 haul in a $1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event during the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza in Las Vegas last June.
Without further delay, here are the 22 survivors who will take to the felts today for Day 5:
1. Ana Marquez – 3,805,000
2. Chris Moneymaker – 3,765,000
3. Dmitriy Stelmak – 3,340,000
4. Chris “Gettin Daize” Oliver – 3,275,000
5. Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers – 3,180,000
6. Sam “KingKobeMVP” Stein – 3,085,000
7. Bolivar Palacios – 2,875,000
8. Philippe Plouffe – 2,480,000
9. Marty Mathis – 2,385,000
10. Galen Hall – 2,305,000
11. Michael Pesek – 2,260,000
12. Rafael Golka – 2,220,000
13. Bryan Colin – 1,925,000
14. Anton Ionel – 1,670,000
15. Walid Bou-Habib – 1,665,000
16. Gregory Baksic – 1,415,000
17. Grayson Ramage – 1,160,000
18. Calvin Anderson – 980,000
19. Max Weinberg – 860,000
20. Shayne Khanna – 720,000
21. Joel Patchell – 650,000
22. James St. Hilaire – 600,000
When play stopped for the night, the blinds were at 25,000-50,000 with an ante of 5,000. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest PCA Main Event headlines.