Live updates from Day 2, level 12 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: Day 1A wrap | Day 1B wrap | Level 9 | Level 10 | Level 11
Blinds: 1,000-2,000-200
6.06pm: Refreshments
With that we say goodbye to level 12, and hello to a 15-minute break. Don’t go away.
6.05pm: Gavin Smith slaughtered
Gavin Smith is busted in the most brutal of circumstances, perhaps the victim of his own loose aggressive image. He’d been serial raising the table he shares with Vanessa Rousso and Fatima De Melo, and yet another pre-flop bet to 14,000 got a call from Marc Etienne McLoughlin.
On the 2♣ 4♠5♥ flop, McLoughlin made it 20,200 and Smith moved all in for around 110,000 more. Call!
Smith: K♣ K♦
McLoughlin: 6♦ 6♣
Great news for Smith, who was covered by McLoughlin, but the cruel blow waited right until the death when the turn came 2♦ and the river… 6♥ .
Smith only just managed to hold in a massive yelp of pain, before walking straight away from the table, up the center aisle and out of the Imperial Ballroom even before his stack was moved over to McLoughlin’s side of the table.
He later posted on Twitter: “Absolutley brutalized in a 300k pot KK goes down to 66 with 6 on the river, demoralized!”
6:05pm: Nuts for Wasicka
You know what’s a good time to flop the nut flush? When one opponent has aces and a short-stack has top pair. The pocket aces managed to fund a fold, but top pair did not. Wasicka had nothing but a bad day up until this point, but he’s edging back up near average.
6pm: Barbero burned
Juan Ignacio “Nacho” Barbero is out. He was in the big blind with J♥ 5♥ and saw a flop of 7♥ 5♦ 2♣ . Bet, call from Barbero. The turn was 8♥ and Barbero moved all in over another small bet. His opponent had pocket queens and Barbero missed on the river.
5.59pm: Bye-bye Byers, bye-wait!
We’ve been missing PokerStars Passport winner Philip Byers for some time now, and because he was down to 20,000, we just sort of assumed he was down and out. We are happy to report Byers is very much alive and much happier after grinding his way back to up to 115,000, a lot of which came by way of flopping a set against two-pair.
5.56pm: Negreanu down some more
On a board showing 3♥ 4♦ 7♣ Jâ™ 6â™ and after betting along the way there was 25,000 in the middle when Nick Petrangelo made it 12,800 to play. Daniel Negreanu was still in the hand, arms crossed looking vaguely frustrated. He’s seen his stack descend in value today after a series of hands and this one was proving no exception. Negreanu passed.
“You have a jack?” asked Petrangelo.
“You think I’d fold a jack?” joked Negreanu.
“You had a four?” chipped in someone else.
“Close…”
STOP PRESS: Negreanu doubles. Just as the above was being written, Negreanu had jacks against nines and doubled back up to around 50,000.
5.55pm: Bansi’s brilliant day
Praz Bansi is on an absolute tear today. He’s now up to about 360,000 when he got to a flop of 6♦ 4♦ 9♦ holding 2♦ 3♦ . No one saw the pre-flop action, but his opponent was Jose Severino, whose pocket nines were difficult to put down on that board.
5.52pm: Tweet from Suharto
“busto to Jeff Madsen,,, lost my AhKh vs AJo,, all in on the flop with Jh9h8d.”
That’s the end of Darus Suharto.
5.50pm: Deeb strays into Hershiser’s yard
Freddy Deeb raised to 5,500 from the cut off and Orel Hershiser called from the small blind. The flop came J♣ K♣ 9♥ and they both checked. The turn was 5â™ and they both checked, as they did when the river came 9♦ . “I have a five,” said Hershiser. “So do I,” said Deeb. They were chopping when Deeb showed 4♣ 5♣ and Hershiser showed 5♦ 6♦ . “Get out of my neighbourhood,” said Hershiser.
5.48pm: Time’s up for Timex
Mike “Timex” McDonald lost his entire stack in two hands. First, on a 4-10-Q-5-4 board, he called Daniel Doering’s 55,000 all in. McDonald had A-Q but was aghast to see Doering with K-K.
Down to just 14,000 now, he open pushed the very next hand with 2-2 but was looked up by Bryce Yockey with 7-7. Not only was he behind, but the 7 on the turn put him in an impossible position. Mike McDonald is out.
5.46pm: Team Pros fighting
Two Team PokerStars Pros in the shape of Florian Langmann and Johnny Lodden are sitting next to each other and holding no punches. Langmann made it 4,700 pre-flop, Lodden made it 13,800, Langmann made it 41,000… Lodden folded.
5.45pm: Heading in the right direction
Fatima De Melo, the Team PokerStars SportStar, is having a nice run. Stuck on a tricky table with the likes of Vanessa Rousso, Gavin Smith and Marc Etienne McLaughlin, who came 30th in the 2009 WSOP Main Event for $253,000, she’s holding her own on about 111,000.
On a 5♠8♠10♥ 2♥ board her 14,000 bet was enough to haul in another 8,000 or so.
5:43pm: Passing the time
Folding is boring. Really, really boring. Even some of the top players in the world have a hard time doing it over and over again. Witness Phil Ivey, who has done a lot of it today. How has he killed the time in between hands He had a long talk with Nelly (who stopped by to just make sure it got hot in here), played endlessly on his Blackberry, and, most recently had a long talk with the nearby Orel Hershiser about betting on the college national championship football game (that’s proper American football, for those keeping score).
Across the room, Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren has been seen with an endless stack of reading material. She spent some time picking at a corssword puzzle before diving into the classified ads of some rag she was reading.
5:30pm:Who dat? WhooooKidd!
Just a quick tip of the hat to out buddy David Baker who is still running hard into today’s event. He’s a little below average and sitting at a tough table (next to Justin Bonomo and near Robert Mizrachi), but still alive. Go, Kid.
5.25pm: Froelich also in the leading bunch
Eric Froelich has also emerged as very much among today’s chip leaders. The multiple bracelet winner has about 350,000 and is on the same table as Daniel Negreanu.
5.20pm: Frying pan to fire
Praz Bansi is comfortably in the top ten tournament poker players in the UK, and that’s just as well because today has been a tale of doom table following doom table. He was a very active member of the Minieri/Bonomo/Chorny/Aguair/Chan bunch earlier, and once that mob were separated, he found his way to the same slab of felt as Phil Ivey and Nicolas Levi. Ivey has about 160,000; Levi has 180,000 and it’s a measure of Bansi’s acumen that he has 190,000. Oh, and just as I’m typing this, word reaches that Ivan Demidov has just been moved to that table too. Phew.
5.15pm: Van Der Hoff ups
Robin Van Der Hoff, the PokerStars qualifier from Holland who got his seat here with just 1,000 Frequent Player Points, is up to more than 100,000 thanks to a set of sevens. He got all his money in on the K♠6♥ A♠7♣ board with 7♥ 7♠and was called by the man in seat one with A♣ K♦ . No ace or king on the flop, and the Dutchman soared up the leaderboard.
5.10pm: Daniel down
Nick Rampone opened for 4,700 from middle position. Daniel Negreanu called next to him before Geoff Brite raised to 16,300 from the big blind.
“Sir, how much do you have behind?” asked Rampone. Brite said nothing, as is his right, but lined up his chips – 45,000.
Rampone then moved all-in, getting a fold from Negreanu who then let out a staccato expletive when Brite did the same.
Brite was not done there. On the next hand he called Negreanu’s pre-flop bet of 4,800 for a flop of 5♥ 2♥ 9♦ . Both checked for a 8♣ turn. More checking to the 4â™ river card. Now Brite bet 11,800 which slowed Negreanu down a little. He looked at his cards again and raised. At least he thought he’d raised. Brite moved all-in before someone pointed out Negreanu hadn’t made a full raise.
“I didn’t see the other five,” said Negreanu, paying up. The all-in was another 30,000 but Negreanu wanted no more of it. Daniel now left with around 45,000.
5:05pm: Chickens before they’ve hatched and such
You might remember from our 4:20 update that we pretty much spelled the end of PokerStars qualifier Eric Levesque who was crippled after trying to make a move into aces. You also might remember we told you to consider him KIA if you didn’t hear anything else.
“Tell them I’m back,” he said moments ago when we wandered by his table to see he now has a playable stack again. Keep it up Eric, and we’re going to give you a new nickname that rhymes with Jazarus.
4.55pm: Big stacks
The PokerStars Blog Chip/Coffee Runner/Intern (that’s his publishable name) has saved his job by bringing us the four biggest stacks in the room. Here they are:
Wayne Bentley – 400,000
Oyvind Groeneng – 320,000
Dario Minieri – 302,000
Alejandro Del Puerto – 300,000
4.50pm: It’s that time
It’s my favourite time, it’s your favourite time, it’s everyone’s favourite time of the day. It’s the full nationality breakdown stats at the 2010 PCA Main Event.
USA – 739
Canada – 164
Germany – 100
Netherlands – 59
UK – 58
France – 43
Brazil – 37
Spain, Sweden – 27
Argentina, Italy – 21
Norway – 18
Russia – 17
Denmark – 16
Hungary – 15
Belgium – 12
Finland – 11
Mexico, Portugal, Romania – 9 each
Australia, Austria, Switzerland – 8 each
Ireland – 6
Unknown – 6
Poland, Slovakia – 5 each
Costa Rica, Estonia, Greece, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela – 4 each
Czech Republic, Israel, Lebanon – 3 each
Bulgaria, Iceland, Malta, Ukraine, Virgin Islands (U.S.) – 2 each
Belarus, Belize, Bermuda, Chile, Croatia, Egypt, India, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Monaco, Puerto Rico, Slovenia, Turkey, Turks and Caicos Islands – 1 each
It’s great to see so many making the journey here from Unknown. That’s a long way through treacherous weather in Unknown at the moment.
4.45pm: Big stacks
The new level is under way, and our chip-counting friend Alex Villegas has a new job: it’s to determine the tournament chip leader. There are 490 players left and I expect someone will have close to 400,000. It’s Villegas’ job to find out, and he’s fired if he doesn’t.
Certainly one of the challengers at this stage – as he has been throughout the entire tournament – is Wayne Bentley. After a poor start to the day, he has 350,000 or thereabouts again.
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