Monday night featured the final action from the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) on ESPN2. This time, the High Roller event at the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure took center stage. The $25,000 buy-in poker tournament, which played out in January, featured German Tobias Reinkemeier holding the chip lead entering the final table.
The broadcast featured an inordinately large amount of Latin from ESPN poker commentator Norman Chad, making for a particularly educational two hours. Russia’s Dimitry Stelmak, who was the short stack entering the eight-handed final table, was the first player ousted. He shoved with K-10 pre-flop, but ran into Reinkemeier’s A-10. For his efforts, Stelmak earned $66,000.
The next to go was Matt Marafioti, who was coincidentally rooming in the Bahamas with fellow Canadian and High Roller final table member Will Molson, whose family owns the world-famous beer brand of the same name. Marafioti came out on the short end of a race with pocket sevens against William Reynolds’ A-K after Reynolds spiked an ace on the turn. Reynolds noted, “Barry Greenstein does it with an ace on the river. I do it with an ace on the turn.”
Over the first 48 hands of play, Reynolds sported a VPIP (Voluntarily Put Money into the Pot) of 38%, well above the norm. He delivered the final blow of the first hour of coverage on ESPN2 by sending Reinkemeier to the rails. Reynolds was a 4:1 favorite heading to the flop with pocket kings against the German’s pocket eights and the board ran out J-4-7-A-Q. Reinkemeier picked up $108,000 from the Bahamas. He proceeded to take down the European Poker Tour (EPT) Monte Carlo Grand Final High Roller event in April for $1.2 million.
The reigning World Series of Poker (WSOP) ladies’ champ, Lisa Hamilton, was bumped in fifth place from the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller tournament for $133,000. Like Marafioti, her pocket pair could not hold up against two overcards and she exited stage right from the Atlantis Resort and Casino. Then, Netherlands pro Michiel Brummelhuis found the rail after open-shoving with Q-9 and running into Reynolds’ pocket aces. The board fell 10-6-3-J-7 and sealed Brummelhuis’ fourth place finish, worth $154,000.
The lone amateur at the final table, Adolfo Vaeza, defended his big blind constantly, leading Chad to remark, “You would need a court order to get Vaeza to give up his big blind.” His stubbornness was ultimately his undoing, however. This time, he defended with 5-3 of clubs against Reynolds’ A-K. The action flop came 4-6-A and Vaeza’s chips went into the middle. Reynolds called and a running J-5 sent the amateur packing.
Reynolds entered heads-up play against Molson up 2:1 in chips. The beer namesake scooped a pot of 1.2 million early after both players rivered trips on a J-K-3-9-J board. However, Molson’s Q-J trumped Reynolds’ J-8. Then, Reynolds doubled up with pocket sevens against Molson’s A-3 for a pot of 3.1 million. In the final hand, Molson’s K-8 could not overcome Reynolds’ A-10 of diamonds and Reynolds, one of two Americans at the final table, took down the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller event for $576,000.
Two vignettes featuring PokerStars pros broke up the poker grind. In the first, Andre Akkari, Victor Ramdin, Hevad Khan, and Joe Cada competed in speed slide races at the Atlantis. Perhaps due to his fearless nature, Khan came out on top after defeating Ramdin in the finals. Then, near the end of the two-hour program, Cada bested fellow WSOP Main Event champ Peter Eastgate in a best-of-three sumo wrestling match inside a hotel ballroom.
No coverage of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event aired. In case you missed it, ESPN2 will air the High Roller event again tonight at 8:00pm ET. The program is also available in sparkling high-definition.