Yervand Boyadjian opened to 1,400 from the cutoff before Mauricio Pais three-bet to 4,200 on the button. Action folded back to Boyadjian, and he put in the four-bet to 11,000 which Pais called.
Boyadjian then jammed as the big stack on the flop. Pais wasn't a fan of the spot but put in his last 28,700.
Mauricio Pais:
Yervand Boyadjian:
Boyadjian called for the but the turn and river confirmed the double up for Pais.
Jesse Lonis scored a double-up soon after sitting down and admitted he "got lucky with two overs and a flush draw" when the chips went in on the flop.
On a nearby table, fellow hot-running American pro Ethan Yau was also involved in the action as he took on a short-stacked Sylvain Loosli in the following preflop contest.
Sylvain Loosli:
Ethan Yau:
The board ran out and the pocket pair remained ahead all the way.
In a pot of some 33,500 to the turn, Dietrich Fast checked out of the blinds and Patrick Kennedy bet 9,500 in the cutoff. Some two minutes passed before Fast jammed all-in for around 25,000 and Kennedy beat him into the pot with a snap-call.
Dietrich Fast:
Patrick Kennedy:
Fast was crushed and found no miracle escape on the river as Kennedy further improved to the nut flush.
"Nice hand cuz, you got it all from him in two hands," Steven Buckner added in table chat. Baruch Forst added "it was even the same flop," to which Kennedy replied, "I made the nut flush again in clubs".
Buckner, who has been entertaining the table as usual with his very jovial chat, added "I am sure that was still in his head."
Yervand Boyadjian opened to 1,800 from early position before Mauricio Pais three-bet to 5,500.
Boyadjian and Pais had battled several times already on Day 1b, with Pais coming out on top on most occasions.
Boyadjian called although he said "I'm supposed to jam here. Okay, I'll check blind."
"You don't need to check blind, you play blind," quipped Mustapha Kanit which prompted the table to laugh.
Boyadjian called for 3,000 after Pais continued on the flop.
Boyadjian then check-called for 4,500 on the turn which brought in the river.
Boyadjian jammed for 27,000 and Pais snap-called. Boyadjian thought he had the winner with his , which was good for two pair. However, Pais had the for a rivered set and felted his rival.
"I just can't f****** beat this guy," said Boyadjian, who had his phone out to take a picture of the cooler.
The table tried to encourage Boyadjian to reenter but he claimed he was done for the day.
Action was caught on the completed board with 10,800 in the pot.
Roman Hrabec bet 9,000 from the cutoff and Ethan Yau promptly called from the button. Hrabec turned over his for nines and threes and Yau sent his hand into the muck.
The very next hand, Yau opened to 1,800 from the cutoff and was called by Leon Sturm from the big blind.
The flop checked through to the turn. Sturm led out for 2,700 and Yau made the fold.
Joining the action in a battle of the blinds between Isaac Haxton and Samad Rashid on a flop, it was Haxton who opted to check. Rashid bet 4,000 into 9,000 and Haxton then check-raised to 15,500.
While Rashid grabbed potential calling chips and pondered about his move, he accidentally hit a portion of his large tower of chips and a few of the T-100 denominations fell over to the front. Rashid then grabbed into his bigger chips and made it 40,500 to go.
Haxton had around 50,000 total at his disposal and moved all in a couple of seconds later for Rashid to snap-call.
Isaac Haxton:
Samad Rashid:
The $100,000 Super High Roller champion was on thin ice and found no escape on the turn or river, as Rashid dragged in a very healthy pot and became one of the biggest stacks in the room.
Taylor Paur opened to 2,200 from the hijack before Alejandro Lococo jammed for 6,400 from the button. Sergio Aido then four-bet to 10,800 from the big blind. Paur responded with another raise and made it 19,500 to go, which Aido called.
The flop checked through to the turn. Aido bet 25,000, leaving 14,200 behind. Paur, the bigger stack, then put Aido all in and was snap-called.
Alejandro Lococo:
Sergio Aido:
Taylor Paur:
Each player paired their ace, but Aido was ahead as he paired his jack as well for aces and jacks. The completed the board and Aido scooped in the massive pot while sending Lococo to the rail.
The final starting day of the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) $10,300 Main Event has concluded and a field of 474 entries was reduced to just 238 after eight levels of play. Following a hiatus of three years, this series 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.
Sergi Reixach managed to bag big as he ended the day with 196,900, closely followed by Michael Rocco (195,400).
Other notables who managed to bag big include defending champion Chino Rheem (141,200) along with high rollers Chris Brewer(140,300), Artur Martirosian (138,100), and Sergio Aido(124,700).
2023 PCA Main Event Day 1b Top 10 Counts
Place
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Sergi Reixach
Spain
196,900
164
2
Michael Rocco
United States
195,400
163
3
Mauricio Pais
Germany
171,700
143
4
Krasimir Yankov
Bulgaria
163,200
136
5
Laszlo Bujtas
Hungary
161,000
134
6
Elias Gutierrez
Spain
154,600
129
7
Anatoly Nikitin
Russia
148,500
124
8
Nenad Dukic
Croatia
148,000
123
9
Mitchell Halverson
United States
147,000
123
10
Chino Rheem
United States
141,200
118
Moreover, PokerStars ambassadors Benjamin Spragg (63,100) and Ramon Colillas (62,000) managed to bag two starting stacks each. They will each take their largest stack into play on Day 2.
Today's 239 survivors will join the 80 survivors from Day 1a at 12:00 p.m. local time Wednesday, January 25th, for Day 2. With the field attracting 640 entrants already this tournament has generated a huge prizepool of $6,246,800. That will continue to grow as players who have not yet made it to Day 2 can still register late in the first two levels of play until the start of Level 11.
Action of the Day
A big field started the day as players hoped to build a stack early. However, things didn’t go as planned for Chris Brewer, who busted in the first level of the day in a four-bet pot when he called off with overcards and a flush draw for his tournament life. Undeterred, Brewer fired another bullet and bagged a big stack at the end of eight levels of play, as mentioned above.
Davidi Kitai enjoyed success in the middle of the day as he managed to win a big pot when he triple-barrelled with pocket jacks on a nine-high board. His opponent, Boris Kolev, went deep into the tank before calling off Kitai’s overbet with ace-queen for a bluff catcher.
2023 PCA $100,000 Super High Roller champion Isaac Haxton couldn’t carry forward his success into the Main Event as he was eliminated in the last level of the day as his overpair ran into the set of sevens from Samad Rashid. All the chips went in on the nine-high flop, and Haxton was eliminated when no jack came to his rescue.
High Roller Aido managed to double up through Taylor Paur in a five-bet pot in the last level of the day. Aido flopped top two pair with ace-jack to defeat Paur’s ace-queen. PokerStars Ambassador Alejandro Lococo was eliminated in the process, ensuring he would not advance to Day 2.
Stay tuned to PokerNews as the live reporting team will be giving full coverage of the $10,300 PCA Main Event until a champion is crowned on Sunday, January 29th, as well as coverage of the second edition of the PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold’em Championship which kicks off on Monday, January 30th.