Reeves and Cortes Among the Leaders After Day 1 of the $25,000 PCA High Roller
The last high roller event of the 2019 PCA kicked off today and has easily surpassed the total number of entries from the previous year. The $25,000 PCA High Roller attracted all of the best players that made the trip to Atlantis Resort in The Bahamas and a very healthy field of 151 has turned up with more still possibly to come before the start of Day 2.
After ten levels on the opening day, Lucas Reeves managed to maneuver his way through the field to top the leaderboard of 65 players remaining. Reeves bagged up 247,000 chips, nearly five times the starting stack. Although the $25,000 Single-Day High Roller didn't go his way yesterday, Reeves returned today and found a different outcome.
Another familiar name near the top of the leaderboard is Jesus Cortes who is having a fantastic start to the year. Cortes has already accumulated nearly $1.1 million over the past week and with 239,000 chips in his bag, he may be on his way to another cash. Cortes finished third in the $100,000 Super High Roller and second in the $25,000 Single-Day High Roller. He will be looking to improve on those two results and finally lay claim to a title.
The day started rather slowly, like all of the high rollers do, and got off to a late start by about 30 minutes. Finally, there were enough players to open up two tables and the players took their seats. It didn't take long for the others to start strolling in as there were nearly 50 entries by the first break. With 60-minute levels and a 250 big blind starting stack, the structure allows for a lot of deep-stack poker to be played throughout.
Seth Davies and Sosia Jiang were the first couple of players to be forced to the rail, but with a single reentry option available, both were able to quickly jump back into the action. Unfortunately for both of them, their second bullet wound up with the same result. They joined the list of notables like Igor Kurganov, Scott Seiver, Steve O'Dwyer, Luc Greenwood, and Sylvain Loosli to fire off $50,000 without finding a bag.
Among the 65 players that will be returning tomorrow, some of the larger stacks to keep an eye on include Pablo Melogno (243,500), Pedro Marques (241,000), Thomas Boivin (227,000), defending champion Christopher Kruk (214,500), and Davidi Kitai (205,000). Liv Boeree was the only PokerStars Pro to bag up chips with 96,000 since Kurganov and Andre Akkari both went bust. More notably, Daniel Negreanu has not been seen on the tournament floor as of late and it's unsure if he will show up tomorrow.
The action is scheduled to get underway again at 12:30 p.m. local time and another 10 levels will be played. The blinds will resume at Level 11 at 1,000/2,000 and a 2,000 big blind ante. Late registration will remain open until the action gets underway and anyone that wishes to enter tomorrow will begin with 25 big blinds.
Keep it locked here as the PokerNews live reporting team will continue to bring you coverage of all the action throughout this three-day event.