The second of two starting days at the 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) concluded on Tuesday and leading the field was online poker pro David “Bakes” Baker, who held 740,000 chips. Sitting just behind Baker was Simon Muñoz Marin, who held 485,000. In third place was Team PokerStars Pro member and Italian poker sensation Max Pescatori, who came to Day 2 armed with chip stack of 450,000.
At the time of writing, 143 players remained in the hunt at the PCA, which is held annually at the Atlantis Hotel on Paradise Island in The Bahamas. The vacation destination plays host to a fleet of poker players, many of whom make the short flight from Miami, Florida to Nassau for the event. The tournament is a stop on the European Poker Tour (EPT), the only time that the tournament series ventures across the Atlantic Ocean. Atlantis’ famous “bridge suite” plays host to the rich and famous from across the globe.
The survivors from Days 1A and 1B converged upon the massive poker room for Day 2. At the time of writing, here were the top 10 chips stacks at the PCA, according to tournament coverage found on CardPlayer:
1st Place: David Baker, 610,400
2nd Place: Benny Chen, 428,700
3rd Place: Max Pescatori, 409,500
4th Place: Sergey Rybachenko, 403,200
5th Place: Daniel Heimiller, 362,900
6th Place: Mark Seif, 270,400
7th Place: Eric Liu, 265,700
8th Place: Rep Porter, 265,500
9th Place: Kris Kuykendall, 225,800
10th Place: George Danzer, 225,100
In October, David Baker won the Sunday 500 on PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker room. One month later, he dominated the talented field of the $100 rebuy on the same site for an additional $34,000, the latest of several wins for the young gun in that tournament. Max Pescatori, affectionately known as “The Italian Pirate” in the industry, is the proud owner of two World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets. The first came in 2006 by virtue of his win in a $2,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament for $682,000. The second came in 2008, when Pescatori landed at the top of the leader board in a Half Pot Limit Hold’em, Half Pot Limit Omaha event. He has a total of 24 cashes in WSOP and Circuit Events for $1.3 million.
Mark Seif is also a two-time WSOP bracelet holder. He won both of his prized possessions back in 2005. One was in a Limit Hold’em Shootout event, while the other bracelet was acquired by winning a No Limit Hold’em tournament. He has nearly $900,000 to his name by virtue of his play in WSOP events. Eric Liu, who is known as “p3achy keen” in the online poker world, is a senior at Duke University and an instructor for poker training site CardRunners. The story of how he boosted his poker bankroll is unique. Liu won the PartyPoker Bad Beat Jackpot for over $100,000, which allowed him to step up his poker game considerably. According to the CardRunners website, Liu’s success is partially due to the prodigy watching videos by Brian Townsend, also a pro for the training site.
The PCA will award a blistering $3 million to its winner. There were 1,347 entrants in the $10,000 buy-in tournament. Here are the top ten payouts in the event, which will crown a champion on Saturday:
1st Place: $3,000,000
2nd Place: $1,700,000
3rd Place: $1,100,000
4th Place: $750,000
5th Place: $550,000
6th Place: $400,000
7th Place: $300,000
8th Place: $234,000
9th Place: $175,000
10th Place: $150,000
We’ll have full coverage from The Bahamas for you right here on Poker News Daily.
