Kempe Continues Amazing Week, Tops Day 1b of 2019 PCA Main Event
The second of two starting days of the 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) $10,300 Main Event drew a sizable field of 486 entries over the course of ten levels. Together with the 356 that showed up for Day 1a, the field is up to 842 entries, outperforming last year's field of 582 by a wide margin, thanks in part to the PokerStars Players Championship earlier this week. Once late registration has closed, it will be the biggest prize pool at the PCA since 2014.
Around 200 players found a bag at the end of the night, led by German star Rainer Kempe (214,000). Kempe is already having an amazing week at the Atlantis Resort and won the $50,000 Single-Day High Roller on Wednesday for $908,100, as well as a fourth place in the $25,000 Single-Day High Roller the day before, winning $177,380.
The German high staker is followed by another high stakes specialist, Niall Farrell (202,000), Charles Furey (200,900), and Chino Rheem (197,900). The Red Spade saw Barry Greenstein (71,000), Daniel Negreanu (56,700), Aditya Agarwal (52,000), and Randy Lew (43,500) all advance to the second day.
Defending champion Maria Lampropulos had an uneventful day, but she managed to double up her starting stack and will come back with 59,600 for her title defense. Danny Tang (136,000), Michael Gathy (130,600), Steffen Sontheimer (115,600), Vojtech Ruzicka (81,500), and Davidi Kitai (71,000) were among the many notables that survived the second starting day.
It's the first time in history that two bullets are allowed in the Main Event, but even with an additional shot players such as Christopher Kruk, Brian Rast, Christian Harder, Rachid Ben Cherif, and Julien Martini failed to end the night with any chips.
Day 2 will resume on Sunday, January 13 at noon local time. Six levels of 90 minutes each are on tap, with the blinds returning at 800 / 1,600 and a 1,600 big blind ante. Late registration will be open up until the start of Day 2, and the prize pool and payouts will be announced shortly after the day has begun. Be sure to come back tomorrow for continued live PokerNews coverage of the 2019 PCA Main Event.
flop. Kamphues came along with the call before both players tapped the table on the 
turn.
river, Bicknell moved all in for around 20,000, much to the dismay of Kamphues. He scratched his head and pondered for minutes, seemingly unsure what to do. One of the other players at the table called the clock on him and shortly into the countdown, Kamphues flung his hand wildly into the muck.
and Nguyen, 
flop, Ruzicka got rid of Greenstein with a bet of 6,000.
turn nor 
against the 
and Negreanu was drawing dead on the turn.
turn, Bernabeu opted to lead for about one-third of his remaining stack, Hey stuck the rest in and Bernabeu called it off for about 20,000 total.
flop, Konnikova made it another 8,000 to go and Yu called before the 
turn brought a second barrel worth 13,000. Yu moved all in and Konnikova asked for the chips to be pulled in to see how much more it was to call.
on the river was a blank and Yu doubled, sending Konnikova all the way down to half the starting stack.
board was completed. Rachid Ben Cherif was in the small blind and checked to Mike Watson on the button, who bet 9,000. Ben Cherif responded with a check-raise to 30,000 and Watson went deep in the tank.
