Deeb Leads Stacked Final Table in 2013 PCA $25,000 High Roller
The 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $25,000 High Roller continued on Sunday with Day 2 action from the Atlantis Resort and Casino on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. After a full day of play, the returning field of 79 players was whittled down to the final table of eight. Leading the way is Shaun Deeb, who bagged up 2,536,000. He will be joined by Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst; Day 1 chip leader Vladimir Troyanovskiy, who also made the final table of the $100,000 Super High Roller; and €50,000 Majestic High Roller champion Mike Watson.
| Place | Player | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shaun Deeb | 2,536,000 |
| 2 | Vladimir Troyanovskiy | 1,625,000 |
| 3 | Ole Schemion | 1,227,000 |
| 4 | Mike Watson | 1,620,000 |
| 5 | Bryn Kenney | 484,000 |
| 6 | Micah Raskin | 389,000 |
| 7 | Tobias Reinkemeier | 876,000 |
| 8 | Vanessa Selbst | 1,512,000 |
The 2013 PCA $25,000 High Roller drew 198 entries on Day 1, but only 158 of them were unique players. That’s because the tournament featured one optional reentry, of which there were 44. Throw in some late entries at the start of Day 2, and registration officially closed with 204 entries—which created a prize pool of $4,998,000.
Dozens of hopefuls were looking to finish in the top 24 and claim a portion of the prize pool, but many of them left empty handed. They included Phil Hellmuth, Erik Seidel, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Marvin Rettenmaier, Ben Lamb, Jason Somerville, Dan Smith and Vivek Rajkumar, just to name a few. Likewise, Team PokerStars Pros Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Jason Mercier, Jonathan Duhamel, Isaac Haxton and Daniel Negreanu all fell short of the money.
When just 25 players remained, the money bubble was in full effect and it didn’t take long to burst. On just the fourth hand of hand-for-hand play, a short-stacked Nicholas Petrangelo moved all in under the gun for 79,000 holding 
and he cleared the field all the way around to Shawn Buchanan, who woke up with 
in the big blind. The call was made, and immediately the cameras, media and other players surrounded the table to watch.
Petrangelo was in need of a nine to keep his 2013 PCA $25,000 High Roller hopes alive, but it just wasn't in the cards as the board ran out an uneventful 
. All things considered, Petrangelo seemed to take being the bubble boy in stride.
From there, the in-the-money eliminations began to mount. They included Jeff Gross (23rd-$54,980), Ty Reiman (19th-$59,980), Christian Harder (16th-$69,980), Nick Schulman (14th-$79,960) and PokerStars Team Online Mickey Petersen.
Petersen’s elimination actually came at the hands of Selbst, his fellow PokerStars Pro. In the hand, Petersen opened for 32,000 from the hijack only to have Selbst three-bet to 74,000 from the big blind. Petersen thought long and hard before moving all in, and Selbst snap-called.
Selbst: 
Petersen: 
The online pro got it in as a huge favorite, but Selbst pulled closer to even when the 
flop delivered her a flush draw. "That a good flop for you," Petersen said. No sooner had he completed the sentence then the dealer burned and turned the 
. Selbst had hit her flush to leave Petersen drawing dead.
"Nice hand," Petersen said as the dealer put out the meaningless 
on the river. "Good luck, guys." Despite busting, Petersen immediately took to Twitter to express his excitement for 2013:
Busted 13th with AKs vs @VanessaSelbst AQs for 80k I think, gl to her and the other heroes still in. Great start to the year :) #firstofmanyJanuary 13 2013Follow
As far as Deeb is concerned, he got his chips in the last level of the night in a huge pot with Micah Raskin. It happened with just nine players left in Level 21 with the blinds at 10,000/20,000/3,000 when Deeb opened for 45,000 from early position and Ole Schemion called from middle position. Raskin then three-bet to 95,000 from the button, and after both blinds folded, Deeb four-bet to 295,000. Schemion quickly got out of the way, Raskin called, and the two saw a flop of 
.
Deeb continued for 255,000, Raskin made a quick call, and the dealer burned and turned the 
. "You've only got one move," Raskin said as Deeb, who had 687,000 behind, spent some time in the tank. Eventually he emerged by going all in and Raskin snap-called with 
. Deeb then showed and was a huge favorite to double; in fact, Raskin needed either a five or six on the river win. The dealer burned one last time and put out the 
. Deeb doubled into the chip lead while Raskin was left with just 125,000.
The final table will start at 13:00 EST on Monday, but it won’t be live streamed until 14:00 EST. Of course you can watch the live stream right here on PokerNews while following along with our live updates. Until then, good night from the 2013 PCA $25K!