Chris Oliver got a little frisky and opened the pot with a raise to 215,000 from under the gun holding the . Anton Ionel made the call with the and Max Weinberg also called with the from the big blind.
The flop came down and Weinberg checked his pair of deuces. Oliver stayed aggressive with his gutshot, firing 330,000. Both his opponents folded and Oliver won the pot to move to 19.235 million in chips.
Chris Oliver opened to 225,000 from under the gun with and Sam Stein three-bet to 535,000 from early position with . Action folded back to Oliver who called and the flop fell . Both players checked.
The turn brought the and again both players rapped the table.
The river was the and Oliver checked a third time. Stein fired 855,000 and Oliver folded.
When are feed came in, Chris Oliver limped in with and Sam Stein raised with to attack the limp. Behind him, Philippe Plouffe moved all in with . Oliver folded and Stein made the call.
The flop came down and Stein was still behind the queens of his all-in opponent. The turn brought the and Stein still needed an ace or a king on the river. He couldn't hit a queen for a straight because Plouffe would hit a full house.
The river smashed the felt with the and nailed Stein's hand. The crowd left out a roar and applauding followed as Plouffe shook the hands of his opponents. He was eliminated in eighth place for $202,000. Stein moved up to second in chips with 7.9 million.
We're still waiting on the feed to come through to the projection screen here in the media room. Once we receive the feed, we'll be up and running with our updates. We apologize for the delays, but stay tuned and everything will be running shortly. In the meantime, read the player bios below and get to know each player at the final table.
The final table, it's players, their guests and the production crew have all been sequestered in the final table stage area for this 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event. The broadcast of the final table complete with access to the holecards will air on a one-hour delay on ESPN3 from 5:00-9:00 P.M. and from 9:00 P.M. onward on ESPN2.
PokerNews will be updating based on this feed as no media is allowed inside the sequestered area. Even so, you can join us on Cover It Live to chat about the PCA Main Event as it happens.
Welcome back to the beautiful Bahamas for Day 6 of the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event!
We have arrived at the final table of this marquee event, and after today one of the eight remaining players will be crowned the Main Event champion and bank $2.3 million. Play resumes at 4 p.m. local time, but because the final table is being broadcast live in a sequestered area we will be unable to provide live updates.
Chris Oliver enters the final table as our overwhelming chip leader with 19.76 million. His next closest competitor, Galen Hall, sits with 6.43 million chips, which is less than a third of Oliver's.
Next on the list are Sam Stein (5.855 million) and Mike Sowers (3.685), both of whom have impressive results. Stein has over $1.1 million in live tournament earnings including a second place finish in the $5,000 NAPT event at the Venetian for $522,306. Sowers has amassed over $1.5 million in tournament earnings including two World Series of Poker final tables.
Anton Ionel (3.52 million), Max Weinberg (3.35 million), Bolivar Palacios (2.445 million) and Philippe Plouffe (1.555 million) round out the group. Palacios' name may be most familiar because he has three LAPT final tables including a second place finish at Rosario in Brazil for $188,280.
The action is sure to be exciting today, and we hope that you follow us here.
Seven years ago, Rounders enticed Mike Sowers to begin playing poker. Sowers spent the next two years studying psychology and business at the University of North Carolina Charlotte, but he eventually abandoned that venture to focus solely on poker.
It would be hard to question that decision now. Sowers has already racked up more than $2.5 million playing online and is one of the most successful and feared tournament players in the online realm. Sowers' biggest score came in September 2009 when he took down the PokerStars WCOOP $10,000 High Roller event for $448,500. Sowers has also cashed for more than $1.5 million in live tournaments –- including five WSOP cashes and two WSOP final tables in the last three years.
In January 2008, he won the Borgata Winter Open for $399,000. About a year later, he finished third at the L.A. Poker Classic for $654,797. So far he’s made more money online than live, but he is already guaranteed $200,000 so far, and a third-place-or-better finish will push
his live earnings ahead of his online earnings to date.
Sowers is 24 from Thomasville, North Carolina and will enter the final table with 3,685,000 chips.
Max Weinberg initially studied psychology at Arizona State university, but then dropped out after one semester to start playing poker full time. Online he favors heads-up sit-n-gos in the $500 to $5,000 range, and believes he is up about $300,000 to date.
Weinberg came to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure with his friend Gabe Paul who qualified on PokerStars in a SuperNovas’ freeroll. Weinberg said about the PCA, “I’ve always looked forward to playing the World Series, and I turn 21 in April so this is kind of a warm-up. I’ve
had some luck to make it this far... in the first few hours of Day 1, I had pocket sixes
and was all in on a 7-8-9 flop against aces. I hit a 5 on the river for a straight.”
Weinberg is 20 from Chicago, Illinois and enters the final table third to last in chips with 3,350,000.
Chris Oliver will enter the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure final table with 42% of the chips in play. He is one of the highest-ranked online players in the world with nearly $500,000 profit to his name last year on PokerStars alone. He plays online tournaments from $5 buy-ins and up, but now wants to concentrate more on live events.
He’s already guaranteed $202,000 here and with a huge chip lead going in to the final table, he is the hands-on favorite expected to make much more than that. If he takes the $2.3 million top prize, he intends to buy a house.
Oliver dropped out of high school to play poker, a decision that his parents were not too happy about. Now, they are pleased with his decision and have been following his progress in this event online.
Oliver is 21 from Holiday, Florida and will enter the day as the overwhelming chip leader with 19,670,000 in chips.