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Live updates from Day 1B, level 5 of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event brought to you by Stephen Bartley, Howard Swains, Brad Willis, and Simon Young.

Click refresh to see the latest updates below. Click through to the chip count page for selected notable chip counts, updated regularly throughout the day.

Previous coverage: Level 1 | Level 2 | | Level 3 | Level 4

Blinds: 150-300-25

5.40pm: That’s that
Level five is now in the books. Anyone feel like level six?

5.35pm: Montel Williams shows
Montel Williams has escaped the attention of most spectators, hidden away in the far corner. The former marine, TV chat show and radio show host is up to about 50,000 after a hand against Badih Bounahra from Belize.

On a flop of 9â™  J♣ J♦ Bounahra checked to Williams who after a moment’s thought said “Make it 61” and placed 6,100 into the middle.

“Aces?” asked Bounahra, as Williams kind of shrugged. Bounahra promptly folded and Williams turned over A♦ A♥ .
“Do you get aces every hand?” asked one player at the table.
“No,” replied Williams, “just twice.”

5:32pm: Rousso rebound
As we’ve been reporting throughout the day, Vanessa Rousso made an early jump to 125,000. At the beginning of this level, she had falled back below 100,000. A quick stop by her table just now proved that was but a mere blip on the graph. She now sits on 130,000.

5.30pm: Another new addition
Team PokerStars Pro Italy is one of the strongest divisions, with the tyrant Dario Minieri leading the line alongside the EPT sensation Luca Pagano. Recently they were joined by Pier Paolo Fabretti, and it’s the newcomer who will be best pleased with his day so far.

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Pier Paolo Fabretti

Despite being seated to the immediate right of Stephen “stevie444” Chidwick (undoubtedly one of the least enviable spots of the day) Fabretti has amassed close to 80,000 chips so far, which will make that tough place much more comfortable.

5.25pm: Roland hard as Rock
Rock Cloutier just encountered the hard place that is Roland de Wolfe. Cloutier bet 4,300 on the turn, with the board showing 7♦ 6♣ 9♥ 3♣ , but De Wolfe bumped it up to 16,100. “You got a set?” said Cloutier, and folded, preserving his final 5,500 or so. “I’ve got a pair,” said De Wolfe. “Do you want to see it?”

De Wolfe showed his Aâ™  9â™  to a rueful smile from Cloutier.

5.20pm: Walking a tight line
Mike Kosowski, the man who won the jackpot playing Daniel Negreanu heads up on the PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge TV show, is walking a tightrope today.
When we reported on him earlier he was down to 15,000 chips, and now he has only around 6,500. Basically, he says he never recovered from an early blow.
“I turned the nut flush and then this guy rivers a full house. That was pretty brutal and I’ve been playing a shortstack as a result for the last three or four hours.”

5.15pm: Au revoir, Arnaud
Arnaud Mattern, the French Team PokerStars Pro, is out. All it takes is four nasty hands in quick succession, and you’re putting your coat on and heading for the exit…

Hand 1
Mattern loses a sizeable chunk when his pocket aces run into the flopped set of deuces belonging to fellow Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin.

Hand 2
Mattern flat calls with A-K and sees a K-10-7 flop with two clubs. He calls a bet, then calls again on the 5 turn, then calls again on the 9 river. His A-K had been rivered by his opponent’s Q-J.

Hand 3
With just 8,000 left now, he makes it 750 from the cut off with 8â™  9â™  and is called by the blinds.

The flop comes J-10-8 with one spade and it’s checked around. The 5â™  turn gives him a flush draw as well as the straight draw. The small blind checked, Ramdin made it 1,000, which Mattern called, but then the small blind made it 3,600. Only Mattern called with his many outs. The flop was K♣ and when the small blind went all in, Mattern was forced to fold having missed all his outs.

Hand 4
This time it’s game over. The player in the hi-jack seat made it 700, and in the small blind Mattern pushed in his last 4,600 with pocket nines. The big blind re-pushes in a flash, forcing the original raiser to fold. Mattern was up against Q-Q and found no help.

5:08pm: Champion in our midst
As often happens in field that eclipse the 1,500 mark (and really, we don’t see a lot of those), we happened to overlook a VIP in the field today. That would be none other that one Aaron Gustavson. If you don’t immediately recognize the name, head back to the archives from EPT London. That’s where the American PokerStars qualifier beat Team PokerStars Pro Peter Eastgate heads up for the EPT London championship. Today Gustavson is sitting on about 25,000 and looking to get some traction as we prepare to head into the sixth level of the day.

5.01pm: From 80k to 22k
Walking past Jeff Sarwer’s table, he held two hands up, thumbs down. It’s all turned sour. After having flipped down to 40,000 he’s not down to 22,000 after turning two pair against a set. “Time to play tight,” he said, digging in.

4.58pm: Nice pair of Levi’s
On a flop of 4♥ A♣ A♥ there was three way action on Nicolas Levi’s table. The Frenchman was part of it in the small blind, checking, as did Brian England in the big blind. Under the gun was Josh Bergman-Turnbull who made it 1,300. Levi called but England raised to 3,600 prompting Bergman-Turnbull to fold. Levi hung around.
A Q♦ on the turn and Levi checked again. England bet again, 6,000 which Levi called for a 4â™  river card. Both checked, England turning over 6♦ 6â™  but behind against Levi’s Jâ™  J♣ .

4:55pm: Charles, Charlie, Chaz
From the Fan Files in the PokerStars Blog inbox, a request for one Charles Marchese. If you know him well, you can call him Charlie. Know him better, you can call him Chaz. No matter, he’s here and people want to know about him.

According to the people back home in Long Island, NY, Marchese is a hometown hero. Married with three kids, Merchese started playing a few years back to pass the time. Almost immediately, he started scoring big. That’s when he started getting serious. Since then, he’s picked up ten major cashes, including a final table finish at Foxwoods in season 7 where he won $337,256.

Marchese is here at the PCA on a $27 satellite.

Some advice to the players from his family back home: “Don’t let his quiet demeanor fool you…that’s how he masks his competitive fire!”

Oh, and Charlie, Marie saus, “Play good. Run better.”

4.50pm: Double Dutch Belgian
Team PokerStars Pro is an ever-expanding force and making their debut in the famous livery today are two Belgian players by the names of Matthias De Meulder and Christophe De Meulder. Not only do they share names and parents, they also share many facial characteristics. They’re twins is the short way of putting it.

Both are playing today, and have happily worn different coloured sweatshirts, to give us some way of identifying them.

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Matthias De Meulder

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Christoph De Meulder

4.45pm: The roller coaster ride of William Thorson
William Thorson has been on a characteristic roller coaster: up to 85, down to 30 and then to about 50,000. He lost a chunk, but probably the minimum, when he called on the button with 9♣ 6♣ and saw a flop of 9♦ 5♣ 4♣ . He sensed strength in his opponent, so only called a bets of 1,800 on the flop, then 4,000 on the 9♠ turn and then 16,000 on the 7♣ river. He was right to be cautious as his opponent had pocket fours.

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William Thorson

Thorson got some back, however, when his pocket nines were ahead all the way through a board of 8-7-4 | 6 | 5, making the big end of the straight on the end.

If it’s Thorson, there will surely be more fluctuations throughout the day.

4:37pm: By popular demand
If there is one player in the right now that has assembled a fanbase like a rockstar, it’s the guy known as Chiren80, aka Boumaaza Bachir. Not only is he a Supernova Elite on PokerStars, he is also one of the new Team PokerStars Online Pros.

If you’re unaware, he is basically an internet TV star who spent much of December playing tireless hours on PokerStars. In that time, his legions of fans started to rival some of the bigger real TV stars.

He’s playing today (not to mention wearing and carrying around t-shirts that feature, what else, his face). Last we checked his stack, he was on around 20,000.

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4:35pm: Antes!
In what might be the most exciting development of the next five minutes, the antes have kicked in!

Players are just returning from a break and will be playing for another four levels before breaking for the night. Incidentally, the night will end about an hour before The Cincinnati Kid will be played in the Atlantis movie theater.

While we wait for the players to take their seats, here is the top-running Team PokerStars Pro, Vanessa Rousso. She’s just short of the 100,000 mark right now.

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