PCA 2019: Rainer Kempe Tops Day 1B of Main Event, Team PokerStars Pro Aditya Agarwal Makes Day 2

It`s been an electrifying series so far in the Bahamas, as soon after the historic PokerStars Players NLHE Championship (PSPC) came down to story book ending with Platinum Pass Winner Ramon Collilas from Spain converting his free entry pass in the event into a life-changing $5.1 Million jackpot, the focus has since shifted to the 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) $10,300 Main Event that is well underway in The Imperial Ballroom at Atlantis Resort & Casino in the Bahamas.

The second starting day of the event attracted a massive 486 entries and adding the 356 entries of Day 1A, the field size stands tall at 842 entries with late registration still open till the start of play later today, crushing last year’s attendance of 582 entries by a huge margin. Last year, Maria Lampropulos had defeated Shawn Buchanan heads-up to lift the trophy along with a seven-figure payday.

Around 200 players found a bag at the end of the day’s play and leading the charge was German star and winner of the $50K Single-Day High Roller at the ongoing series, Rainer Kempe (214,000), with Niall Farrell (202,000), and Charles Furey (200,900) not far behind.

Team PokerStars Pro Aditya Agarwal was the lone Indian challenger who made it through to Day 2 and he bagged a stack of 52,000. Agarwal had an eventful day at the felts headlined by a bluff he caught with Ace-high that got him most of his surplus chips.

For the first time in PCA history, two bullets are allowed in the Main Event and with the late registration open till the start of Day 2, the tournament is already the biggest since 2014, which had generated a $10,070,000 prize pool from 1,031 entries.

Day 1B Recap

The who`s who of poker superstars and notables lined up to take a shot at the prestigious PCA Main Event title, the start of year extravaganza. The list of notables included PSPC winner Ramon Collilas, PSPC runner-up Julien Martini, PCA National event champion Ole Schemion, Alexandre Santo, Barry Greenstein, Vanessa Selbst, Shawn Buchanan, Indian-origin Shyam Srinivasan, Thomas Boivin, Tobias Peters, Lee Markholt, Dragos Trofimov, and Florian Duta.

The Red Spade brigade had a successful run with Barry Greenstein (71,000), Daniel Negreanu (56,700), Aditya Agarwal (52,000), and Randy Lew (43,500) all advancing to Day 2. Negreanu busted his first entry in the event early on, but he managed to find a bag on his second bullet.

Agarwal is the sole Indian challenger who has made Day 2 in the event. Platinum Pass winner Kavin Shah had fired a bullet on Day 1A but failed to make much headway.

Agarwal, who has played this event in the past, took a cautious approach early on and was around the starting stack with 26,000 in chips by the end of Level 3.

The “moment of the day” for India`s pioneering poker superstar came in Level 4 where he made an epic call with ace-high to catch Stefan Huber’s bluff. With open on the board, Huber fired a bet of 6,000 and Agarwal check-called to see the river . Agarwal had 16,100 behind and Huber who was covering him, moved all-in. Agarwal went into tank for half a minute before deciding to call at the risk of his tournament life. Huber turned over his for complete air and Agarwal took down the pot with for ace-high. With this, Agarwal’s stack catapulted to 50,000.

Agarwal kept the momentum going and by the end of Level 6, his stack peaked at 67,000, before dipping by 10,000 after the dinner break. He ended the day with 52,000 in chips (32.5 big blinds).

Some heavy hitters who were unable to make Day 2 include Isaac Haxton, Patrik Antonius, Christopher Kruk, Antoine Saout, Indian-origin Ajay Chabra, Martin Jacobson, Connor Drinan, Julien Martini, Stefan Huber, Florian Duta, Ramon Collilas, Sebastian Missalla, Pavel Ignatov, Rob Hollink and Calvin Anderson.

On the last level of the day, two big hands saw Raymond Roberty and Dario Sammartino’s dream run coming to an end. Roberty shoved with his set of sevens on the flop with Maria Lampropulos and Thomas Muehloecker both making the call. Lampropulos check-folded the turn and Muehloecker tabled pocket nines for a superior set to eliminate Roberty.

On another table, Sammartino ripped it in with and Jake Cody called off with pocket sevens. The board blanked, sealing Sammartino’s fate.

Steffen Sontheimer (115,600), Upeksha De Silva (110,000), Ben Yu (110,000), Dominik Nitsche (110,000), Maria Ho (90,000), Mustapha Kanit (85,000), Joe McKeehen (85,000), Davidi Kitai (71,000), defending champion Maria Lampropulos, Tobias Peters (47,000), Kristen Bicknell (43,000), and Julien Martini (19,000) are among the many notables who will be coming back on Day 2.

The shortest stack at the end of the day belonged to David Scatchard, who will be coming back on Day 2 in a chip and a chair situation with 5,000 in chips.

Top 10 Chip Counts At The End of Day 1B

1. Rainer Kempe – 214,000
2. Niall Farrell – 202,000
3. Charles Furey – 200,900
4. Chino Rheem – 197,900
5. Matthew Moss – 180,700
6. Jack O’Neill – 175,000
7. Jeremiah Williams – 166,700
8. Franz Ditz – 164,400
9. Simon Kaiser – 163,200
10. Chase Bianchi – 162,400

Image & Content courtesy: PokerStars/Pokernews

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