The Money Bubble Bursts on Day 2; Pierre Calamusa Takes Commanding Lead
After six 90-minute levels on Day 2, the 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) $10,300 Main Event has burst the bubble and just 79 hopefuls remain in contention for the top prize of more than $1.5 million at the Atlantis Resort & Casino. The registration remained opened until the cards went back in the air and thanks to 19 late entrants and no-shows, a field of 865 entries emerged.
The field consisted of 623 unique players and 242 re-entries, creating a prize pool of $8,390,500 and the top 127 spots were paid with a min-cash of $17,620, the trophy and top prize of $1,567,100 are reserved for the winner. Pierre Calamusa tops the counts and has an advantage of more than the current average stack over his nearest followers, putting the Frenchman in prime position to better his 5th place in the 2016 EPT Monte-Carlo Main Event for €233,800. Calamusa started the day in the middle of the pack and dropped to as low as 50,000 before going on a rampage.
Along the way, Calamusa sent Niall Farrell and Bruno Lopes to the rail after the bubble had burst and won a big pot off Sam Greenwood, who bet all but one chip in the last hands of the night and was caught bluffing with king-high. Greenwood spun up the 5,000 to 57,000 and will be back for Day 3.
"I floated the flop and made top pair on the turn, and on the river he made a huge overbet. I didn't block any of his draws, and figured out he might be having a lot of bluffs. I made the hero call and it is always good to hear "you got it." Calamusa said in a short interview after bagging and tagging.
Farrell had his aces cracked shortly after the money burst when Calamusa called a three-bet with queen-jack suited and check-called two streets with top pair, then improved to a runner-runner flush. Lopes bluffed into his fellow countryman with eight-high as Calamusa rivered top pair with ace-queen before the big pot against Greenwood was the cherry on top.
"I have just been running like crazy all day, picking up hands all the time. When I bluffed, everyone just folded, when I value bet everyone called. Everything went my way and it was just one of those days where I couldn't lose."
Calamusa will start Day 3 with an astonishing 250 big blinds at 3,000/6,000 and a big blind of 6,000. Only one further player has crossed one million in chips and that is Spain's Vicent Bosca with 1,138,000. Other big stacks include Enrico Camosci (980,000), Matthias Eibinger (894,000), Pavel Veksler (808,000), Brian Altman (746,000) and Joao Simao (734,000).
Down to the last 10 tables, there are still dozens of notables left such as the PokerStars Ambassadors Andre Akkari (390,000) and Randy Lew (134,000), Scott Clements (591,000), Chino Rheem (437,000), Mike Leah (316,000), Matt Berkey (306,000), and Maria Ho (79,000). Former EPT champions still in contention include Dzmitry Urbanovich (366,000) and Arsenii Karmatckii (167,000), 2017 PokerStars Championship Macau winner Elliot Smith advanced with 176,000.
The money bubble burst soon after the dinner break and in spectacular fashion. There were four all ins at four separate tables two off the money and Stanley Lee, as well as Luc Greenwood, would leave empty-handed, while Kristen Bicknell and Matt Glantz doubled.
Once the min-cash had been secured, the floodgates opened and plenty of big names headed to the payout desk including Sam Grafton, Niall Farrell, Bryn Kenney, Joe Cada, Shaun Deeb, Ivan Luca, Kenny Hallaert, Davidi Kitai and Ryan Riess. Pavel Plesuv was ousted in the biggest pot of the tournament so far when he flopped a set of sevens in a three-bet pot against Pavel Veksler over on the feature table. Plesuv got his stack in after the turn only to run into the set of jacks of Veksler.
Almost two third of the players that returned to their seats in the Imperial Ballroom had to leave empty-handed without anything to show for. Among those to bust before the money were $25k PSPC champion Ramon Colillas, runner-up Julien Martini, Joe McKeehen, John Dibella, Steve O'Dwyer, Martin Finger, Mustapha Kanit, and Rainer Kempe. Defending champion Maria Lampropulos bowed out after she ran with fives into the pocket jacks of Gianluca Speranza.
The Red Spade suffered heavy losses as the PokerStars ambassadors Daniel Negreanu, Aditya Agarwal, Jeff Gross, Jake Cody, Liv Boeree, and Barry Greenstein all missed out on the money. For Negreanu, the day was over after just a few minutes when his nutflushdraw couldn't get there against flopped trips on the feature table.
All remaining 79 players will return at noon local time on Monday, January 14th, 2019, to make one further step towards the final table in two days time, and the PokerNews team will be on the floor to provide all the action.