It was a three-bet pot with Pedro Gois Neves in the small blind against Mikita Badziakouski in the hijack.
The pot was 15,200 heading to the flop of . Neves continued for 3,800 and was called by Badziakouski.
The was the turn and Neves bet 7,600. Badziakouski called.
The river came the and Neves moved all in for 22,700 effective. Badziakouski went deep into the tank, cracking his knuckles. After several minutes, he called for his tournament life. Neves turned over for an overpair, beating Badziakouski's (top pair) and eliminating him from the tournament.
Bruno Volkmann raised it up to 4,000 out of the small blind and that sizing stunned Jamil Wakil in the big blind for a few seconds. He stared at his table neighbor and then came along to see a flop of on which Volkmann check-called a bet worth 3,000.
After the turn, Volkmann went for a check-raise from 3,500 to 11,500 and Wakil came along after pondering his decision for a couple of seconds. Once the river paired the board, Volkmann checked and Wakil sighed before checking behind.
Volkmann revealed the and Wakil smiled as he raked in the pot with the for a superior flush.
James Rose opened from under the gun before Lex Veldhuis jammed for 12,500 from the big blind. Rose called to put the PokerStars ambassador at risk of elimination.
Lex Veldhuis:
James Rose:
Veldhuis was in bad shape as both of his suits were covered and he was drawing to two immediate outs.
No nine appeared on the runout and confirmed Veldhuis' exit.
In a pot of just 14,000 and a board of , Sam Greenwood opted to check. Guillaume Nolet bet 7,500 on the button, then Greenwood check-raised to 43,900 total with only 400 chips left behind.
Nolet tanked for two minutes then called and Greenwood revealed for a flush to drag in a very healthy pot in the late stages of Day 1a.
Prior to the river, both Clemen Deng and Romain Lewis had invested 3,500 chips each. The final bet by Lewis was then 15,000 and that forced a fold from Deng, as the Frenchman increased his stack without showdown.
One table over, Kitty Kuo was spotted on her way out. Her cards were already mucked by the dealer as her stack and the one of Andre Akkari were counted. On a board of , the of Akkari were the best hand and his 45,000 also covered Kuo to reduce the field by one.
The first of two starting days of the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) $10,300 Main Event has concluded and a field of 166 entries has been cut by more than half after completing eight levels of play. After a hiatus of three years, the operator returned to The Bahamas and switched locations to the luxurious Baha Mar Resort, which has already been home to large live poker festivals throughout the last few years.
In the flagship Main Event, it was Portugal's Andre Marques who topped the leaderboard with 197,500 in chips after a late surge to surpass Maximilian Silz (182,500). There is a significant chip gap to third-place Alberto Meran (155,900). The overnight top ten also includes some of Brazil's poker finest as Andre Akkari (136,900) and Yuri Dzivielevski (130,900) advanced with top five stacks.
Other familiar faces of the international poker scene such as Chance Kornuth and Steve O'Dwyer enjoyed a successful start as well.
2023 PCA Main Event Day 1a Top 10 Counts
Place
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Andre Marques
Portugal
197,500
165
2
Maximilian Silz
Germany
182,200
152
3
Alberto Meran
Dominican Republic
155,900
130
4
Andre Akkari
Brazil
136,900
114
5
Yuri Dzivielevski
Brazil
130,900
109
6
Chance Kornuth
United States
127,000
106
7
James Harvey
United States
113,100
94
8
Steve O'Dwyer
Ireland
104,800
87
9
Diego Ventura
Peru
103,300
86
10
Thomas Muehloecker
Austria
103,000
86
Akkari was one of several PokerStars ambassadors to enter the competition and he climbed into the top ten on the leaderboard in the final level of the night. This was in large part due to the elimination of Kitty Kuo, who ran into the pocket aces of Akkari, before the Brazilian further increased his stack before bagging and tagging.
The only other PokerStars ambassador to advance was Sam Grafton (53,400), while Parker Talbot and Alejandro "Papo MC" Lococo both failed to advance. Veldhuis was among several players to fire two bullets but found no fortune as his dominated pocket pair failed to improve in the final level of the night.
Many other notables joined the rail throughout the eight 60-minute levels including Anthony Zinno, Dario Sammartino, Michael Wang, Alexandros Kolonias, Chris Oliver, Chris Hunichen, Pascal Lefrancois, Dylan Linde, Mustapha Kanit, Mikita Badziakouski, Nicholas Marchington, Pablo Brito Silva, Rodrigo Seiji, Fabiano Kovalski, and Artur Martirosian to name a few.
All those and many more of poker's biggest names are likely to join the action for Day 1b, which is slated to kick off at noon local time on Tuesday, January 24, 2023. A large turnout is expected for the second and final starting day. Whether or not the 865 entries of the 2019 edition will be reached and surpassed remains to be seen. Late registration for the 2023 PCA Main Event closes after the end of level 10 on Day 2 at approximately 3:40 p.m. local time on January 25.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor throughout this major live poker event and several other marquee events of the 2023 PCA series including the second-ever PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold'em Championship.