PokerStars Caribbean Adventure – The Road to the Final Table
(Credit: Fotodawg )
For the past four years, PokerStars has sponsored one of the greatest getaways of the entire WPT season, The Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure (PCA). The event is held at the lovely Atlantis Resort & Casino in the Bahamas. Many of the world's premiere players head to the Caribbean to take part in this event. The final table is set to begin Wednesday at 10 am EST. However, in an event of this magnitude, you've got to know that making the final table is not easy.
It's certainly eventful.
The buy-in for the PCA is $7,800 + 200, which is a bargain for a World Poker Tour event. Considering most players qualified online at PokerStars for much less, the PCA is truly an accessible and amateur-friendly event as well.
Day 1A got underway at 12 noon EST on January 5, 2007. Defending champ, Steve Paul-Ambrose, a young Canadian university student, lost a big pot early when his pocket rockets were cracked by an 8d, 6d. Ambrose's opponent made a lucky straight to deal him the bad beat. He lost nearly 10k in chips but was able to ride that terrible storm out to make it deep into the tournament.
Mimi Tran, Barry Greenstein's protégé, doubled up with a suited Big Slick a few hours into the action. About an hour later, Barry's son, professional player Joe Sebok was eliminated from the competition. Antonio Esfandiari, Mark Newhouse and Hollywood Poker's Mimi Rogers were other notable players eliminated on Day 1A.
Chris Moneymaker was in good shape after a double-up and Vanessa Rousso got a big K-O when she hit a lucky eight on the river and sent Thomas Wahlroos back to the beach. By the end of the night, there were about 210 players left from the Day 1A crew including Rousso, Ambrose, Tran, Katja Thater, Corey Cheresnick and Robert Willliamson III.
Day 1B had more than 500 entrants, including some of poker's biggest names like the Mizrachi brothers, Robert & Michael, Layne Flack, Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu, JC Tran, Nam Le, Jennifer Tilly and David Williams.
Negreanu got off to a great start, almost doubling up within the first playing level of the day. Jennifer Tilly didn't have such a good day. She was eliminated after pushing all-in on a flush draw. Her opponent held pocket kings and Jen didn't complete her flush. Layne Flack and Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy doubled-up at critical points. Humberto Brenes moved over to a table that also featured JohnnyBax, David Williams and Isabelle Mercier. At one point, Joe Hachem and Daniel Negreanu were also sitting next to each other. Now, that's some star-studded seating arrangements.
Unfortunately, Joe Hachem, Isabelle Mercier, Humberto Brenes, and JC Tran were all eliminated on Day 1B. By the end of the night, David Williams was in a great chip position. He was just one of 240 players left in the thick of the things.
On Day 2, the remaining 444 players shuffled up and dealt with 500/1,000 blinds and 100 antes. Nam Le busted out early on when his A,K ran into pocket queens. The board brought him no help. Barry Shulman moved way up into contention when his pocket rockets earned him a big pot.
Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo, Victor Ramdin and David Williams all doubled up when they needed to. Hand for hand play began with 182 players remaining. It didn't take long for the bubble to burst. Max Greenwood was the unlucky number 181 with an A,Q that couldn't catch a break against Shannon Shorr's pocket nines. 180 players made the money in the event, catching a share, however small, of the $7 million plus prize-pool.
By the end of the night Barry Greenstein, Mark Seif, Vanessa Ruosso, Michael Mizrachi, the aforementioned Shannon Shorr and Daniel Negreanu had all bid adieu to the competition. The chip leader was ZeeJustin and last year's PCA champ, Steven Paul-Ambrose was close behind. Victor Ramdin, Barry Shulman and David Williams were still in fantastic position.
Day 3 began with 121 players and would not end until only 18 people remained standing. Barry Shulman knocked John Phan out of the event almost as soon as action got underway with his dominating A,Q. Phan couldn't catch his live jack to win the pot and he hit the rails. Shulman would later lose a big part of his stack when his pocket kings failed to hold up to a nasty board that gave his opponent trip nines. He later went all-in with pocket queens and doubled up to 80k, but it wouldn't be enough. He was eliminated shortly thereafter.
David Williams busted out in 80th place, earning over $14,000. He went all-in with an A,2 against his opponent's A,Q. Nenad Medic, the winner of the WPT Foxwoods in 2006, was eliminated by Isaac Haxton. Medic held big slick in the pocket, which proved no match for Haxton's pocket nines.
Aaron Kanter, Victor Ramdin, and Steven Paul-Ambrose were among the notable eliminations during Day 3. By the end of the day, Isaac Haxton had hit over the 3 mil mark in chips and looked poised to make the final table without a problem.
Day 4 began with 16 players and would not conclude until the final six were left standing. Blinds started at 8k/16k with a 2k ante. Joe Marcal and Erik Riese went out in quick succession. Soon after, ZeeJustin took down a big pot against Robert Mizrachi. Unfortunately, ZeeJustin couldn't make it work. He was eliminated in 11th place, earning $77,702.
With ten players left, tournament officials stopped the action and moved the players to the final table and redrew seats. After the break, blinds were 10k/20k with $3,000 antes. Paul Lui moved all-in with a king-high gutshot straight draw. He never caught his jack to complete it and Ryan Daut raked in Lui's remaining chips. Play slowed down quite a bit at this point. Everyone was being conservative. Isaac Haxton, who had over 6 mil in chips by this time, took down a big pot against Robert Mizrachi, leaving the latter with only ½ mil in chips. Luckily, Mizrachi doubled up soon afterwards. A few hands later, Haxton would win a pot off of Robert Ford that would give him over 8.3 mil in chips, which is about half the amount of chips in play. Wow!
Jon Friedberg, Scott Clements and Antonio Ribeiro headed to the rails and set the stage for the final table. It should be an interesting one considering that Haxton holds a commanding lead. I can't wait to see if he can hold onto it!
Here are the seat placements and chip counts for the final table:
1) Robert Mizrachi - 1,450,000 2) Isaac Haxton – 9,216,000 3) Robert Ford – 2,324,000 4) Frank Rusnack – 1,166,000 5) Jonathan Little – 2,366,000 6) Ryan Daut – 2,301,000