| Buy-In: | $25,000 + $500 |
|---|---|
| Prize Pool: | $3,626,000 |
| Entrants: | 148 |
You shouldn’t be reading this. At least not yet. No, it’s not because we’re breaking some 40 minute rule that embargoes the results of the high roller until the live stream has finished streaming. It’s because we expected the 56 remaining returning players to take all night, playing down to eight. After all, last year they played into level 20 and had to stop for the night, exhausted and with 12 players left.
But poker doesn’t always follow a schedule or a routine. Within half a level we’d lost seven players this afternoon. A level later seven more had gone. We were down to four tables soon enough but the steady flow of eliminated never ebbed, even when the tournament director, whose job it is to know these things, predicted it was going to clam up.
But it didn’t, not even at the bubble, and tonight, with the clock striking 9.20pm, the last player of the day was eliminated, leaving a final eight, led by Jason Koon with 1,646,000 chips.
Koon was swept into an early lead, sending various players to the rail to cement his advantage. The funny, always positive and courteous type, Koon impressed today without much stench of ego. It will be his biggest final table and he’ll tackle it with aplomb.
Behind Koon by just 116,000 chips is Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel, bagging up 1,530,000.
To say Duhamel is having a stellar PCA would be a gross understatement. The Canadian has played five events at the PCA and reached the final table in four of them; that includes winning the $5,000 side event. He’s playing like a man with something to prove, as some former World Champions do. If Duhamel needed vindication (he didn’t) he has it now. He may as well go on and win the whole thing.
At the opposite end of the chip count table is Team PokerStars Online’s Randy Lew. A World Record holder from earlier in the week, Lew arrived to play today as the short stack. Then his stack skyrocketed before easing off. Soon Lew was fighting a rear-guard all day and tomorrow will return as the short stack once more.
But before he’s written off remember this: When Lew reached the final table in Macau in the last weekend in November (his first time playing on the APPT), he was also the short stack. If you’re not familiar with how that turned out, Lew won it. Don’t write him off just yet.
Ahead of Lew will be Michael Telker and Govert Metaal.
The Dutchman Metaal is something of a high roller specialist having finished fifth in this event 12 months ago.
Isaac Haxton, himself no slouch, will also return. A player of infinite talent who is unlikely to allow his stack, half the size of Koon’s to be a hindrance.
Leonid Bilokur (quiet and stern looking) and Nicolas Fierro (quiet and thoughtful looking) complete the line-up, each with more than a million chips.
Here’s how they’ll line up:
Jason Koon — 1,646,000
Jonathan Duhamel, Team PokerStars Pro — 1,530,000
Nicolas Fierro — 1,181,000
Leonid Bilokur — 1,139,000
Isaac Haxton — 762,000
Govert Metaal — 545,000
Michael Telker — 397,000
Randy Lew, Team PokerStars Online — 197,000
A last word for the ninth-place finisher who brought the day to a close.
Nick Yunis had been one of the leaders as the likes of Barry Greenstein, Ville Wahlbeck, Jennifer Harman, Mike McDonald, Galen Hall and Elio Fox were eliminated, and should have been a welcome addition to the final.
A player passionate about his game, Yunis started the day as chip leader, lost the lead, then pulled most of it back to give the appearance of all being fine.
But, never afraid to take on the big stacks, Yunis clashed repeatedly with Jonathan Duhamel, using the determination you’d expect from a man who, after being eliminated from the high roller on day one, forced his way back in via satellite, before returning today as chip leader.
That resolve had not faded tonight when he took on Duhamel in a make-or-break pot, the type that can make a champion. Yunis grabbed it but Duhamel won it. The final table will be less interesting without him.
To find out the finer details of all that took place today, check out the links below. You can also find details of prize money on the relevant tabs on our live coverage page.
From 56 to 8 as high rollers return
The astonishing rise of Randy Lew
Who wants to be a millionaire?
Seats open here there and everywhere
Seeing is believing
Duhamel mauls Perkins and Wahlbeck on way to a million
Quiet bubble pop
The business end of the high roller event
It leaves one more day of play for the high roller and for the entire PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Like the main event today, the final table of the High Roller event begins at 12 noon (we’re told that it will be more likely 1pm) tomorrow, broadcast live on PokerStars.tv albeit with a 40-minute delay.
You’ve seen the line-up; you’ve seen what’s at stake. Only a exceptional finale would do for such a noteworthy poker festival. These guys are unlikely to disappoint.
Meanwhile there’s still more poker going on here with the World Cup of Poker, with Rick Dacey reporting, on the WCP VIII page. Just give yourself time to get to grips with the rules.
Until then, it’s goodnight from Atlantis.
All photography © Joe Giron/www.joegironphotography.com
This EPT is brought to you by PokerStars, the official sponsor of the European Poker Tour. Win your way into the biggest events Europe has to offer at Europe.
A total of 75 women registered today at the beginning of the PokerStars Women Live tournament here at the PCA in the Bahamas. Members of Team PokerStars Pro sat down at the tables including Vanessa Rousso, Vanessa Selbst, Liv Boeree, Fatima Moreira De Melo, and Ana Marquez. Team PokerStars Online’s Adrienne Rowsome rounded out the pro line-up. In addition, there were numerous other well-known players in the field. Jan Combes, the winner of the PokerStars Women Live event in London is here today, along with Kathy Hong, Allyn Shulman, our own Jennifer Shahade, and many others too numerous to mention.
The winner of today’s event will take home $25,460 and a trophy, along with memories to last a lifetime. For instance, there is the story about Johanna Nordberg and how she found herself here today. Her husband, pro Björn Nordberg wanted her to learn the game so he posted her entry fee for today’s tournament as a Christmas present. Johanna had never played a live event before today and normally plays micro limit tournaments on PokerStars. She has played the game mainly for fun and has never been serious enough about it to learn the nuances of betting and strategy. But today changed all that. She got an in-depth training session sitting on the left of Erika Moutinho (29th place in the 2010 WSOP Ladies Event) and Fatima Moreira De Melo.
When we talked earlier today she was struggling and told me that she had had some really good hands but none of them were panning out. She joked that maybe some bad hands was what she needed. A little before the break, her chip stack had improved and she was still in holding her own against some of the toughest competition anywhere. She must have started getting some of those bad hands because she is one of the remaining 39 players still in at the dinner break. Some of the players who have exited today include Fatima Moriera De Melo, Liv Boeree, and Erika Moutinho.
And then there’s the story of Liv Boeree’s exit and the prop bet that ensued. She and Vanessa Rousso agreed to a last longer bet that guaranteed the loser would sing the Star Spangled Banner over the intercom system before the end of the PCA. Details to come on this. All I can tell you now is that Liv didn’t look very happy when she was telling the media folks about it.
Play is now resuming after the dinner break and now seems to be a good time to announce the pay-outs for today’s tournament.
1. $25,460
2. $16,010
3. $9,460
4. $6,910
5. $5,090
6. $3,640
7. $3,270
8. $2,910
This EPT is brought to you by PokerStars, the official sponsor of the European Poker Tour. Win your way into the biggest events Europe has to offer at Europe.
If anyone thought he high roller event would be anything like the main – whereby all those short stacks feel nothing but gay relief and move all-in with reckless abandon — they were wrong.
For the high rollers there’s some comfort in a return for their money, but the real reason they put down $25,000 in the first place was to win the $1,134,930 first prize, and that’s what’s now coming into play.
As one observer noticed, the balancing with 16 left left most of the chips on one table.
Nick Yunis, Jonathan Duhamel and Jason Koon share the bulk of the chips on table one, leaving the short stacks to fight between themselves on table two.
It’s from here that Elio Fox would depart in 16th place. Had he had a getaway car parked outside the tournament room he wouldn’t have been able to get away fast enough. Then again he couldn’t even do that, called back as he was to provide ID for the pay-out staff.
Fox opened in late position against Terje Augdal in the big blind. On a flop of 6
2
9
Augdal led for 20,000 which Fox then raised to 42,000. Augdal called for a 4 turn card, and then led again for 65,000. Fox tanked, then shoved for 174,000. Augdal called, turning over 7
5 to Fox’s J8.
Fox’s jack high call was poised to reach hero status, but he’d have to dodge threes, fives, sevens and eights. The 3 on the river sent a shockwave through Fox who leapt from his seat and attempted his disappearing act. Heroes are successful, but then again even near-misses can have their merits.
Next to double-up was Dutchman Govert Metaal, railed by Fatima Moreira de Meolo, who 12 months ago finished fifth in this same event. While that kept him going the likes of Leonid Bilokur (who played this event and the World Cup of Poker at the same time last year) and Matt Marafioti, are among the players making regular checks of the clock.
Isaac Haxton was doing the same but he just shoved against Bill Perkins, who declined the option to call. A much needed boost for Haxton.
Perkins has been getting a massage since the start of play, meaning he’s been under the thumb for six and a half hours now. That’s about the same time it takes a massage therapist to turn a chair into minced meat.
We’re approaching the one hour dinner break. 15 players remain.
This EPT is brought to you by PokerStars, the official sponsor of the European Poker Tour. Win your way into the biggest events Europe has to offer at Europe.
When the bubble burst in the PCA Main Event on Tuesday, loud whooping and cheering swept the room. Some 160 players had just made themselves at least $15,000 and they were happy. For many, this was their biggest live score; a dream realised and a first return on a poker hobby that had eaten up so much of their leisure time back home.
That’s what happens in big poker tournaments; you may have seen similar scenes from EPTs or the WSOP on television. The relief for those in the money is not just real, it’s noisy. At the same time, the poor, unfortunate soul to go out on the bubble feels wretched.
Contrast the understandable reaction of these high-fiving, excited players with what we’ve just witnessed in the PCA $25,000 High Roller. Just now the bubble not so much burst, but popped gently. “Congratulations, players, you’re all in the money,” said the floor staff. No one cheered; no one so much as said a word. You see, for these guys, this is a living. Making a minimum cash—albeit a sizeable $58,000 minimum cash—means very little. It’s loose change in their gold-plated pockets. For them, it’s winning this thing and the $1,134,930 first prize that really matters.
Unless you were standing right by the last three tables during hand-for-hand play, and concentrating very hard, you may have missed it altogether. In fact, aside from seeing bubble boy Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald walking quietly from the tournament floor, only his nemesis Bill Perkins was a clue to what had just happened.
“Do I get $100 from all of you for getting you in the money?” he joked to the rest of his table. “You guys have to buy me a drink later.”
Among the 16 wealthy people remaining in this event, Perkins is perhaps the man who needs the prize money least. He’s made a fortune as a venture capitalist back home in Texas, but as the most inexperienced player here (he’s playing for kicks), he has every right to be the most excited. Or as we should say in England, chuffed.
For the record, he and McDonald had got it in pre-flop; A-K for Perkins, A-Q for McDonald. “Don’t get me,” implored Perkins. And McDonald didn’t. A polite shake of hands and the Canadian was off.
With each player now guaranteed at least $58,000, we now play on to a final table of eight.
This EPT is brought to you by PokerStars, the official sponsor of the European Poker Tour. Win your way into the biggest events Europe has to offer at Europe.
Just a month ago, PokerStars player David Bernstein was dreaming of making the big time. He loved the game, but as he had never so much as played a live tournament, his chances of success were somewhat slim. Then something rather cool happened. After finishing up work one day, he got entered into a free draw by Ukash, the payment services provider, and won himself a free seat into the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event, plus flights and accommodation at Atlantis.
Speaking to the PokerStars Blog at the start of this 10-day festival of poker, the largest outside of Las Vegas, Bernstein said that although the trip was a little surreal, he now wanted to win the PCA and take the money home to his family. With no disrespect to the 30-year-old salesman, who works in a brewery back home in Toronto, he didn’t really expect to make it deep enough to make any meaningful cash.
But after 1,072 players sat down to play, and the days passed and eliminations grew, things started shaping up rather nicely. Day 3 passed, and then Day 4 finished and Bernstein was still in the hunt, bagging up chips at the end of the night. Then, during yesterday’s Day 5 he kept his head made it through to today’s final table.
It was a dream come true, and even going out in seventh a short while ago was not too much of a disappointment. After all, he had just turned an investment of absolutely nothing into a prize of $260,000. That is a spectacular score in anyone’s book.
“It feels like a great accomplishment,” Bernstein said. "I think I played really well to get this far but that I made a small mistake at the end (pushing all-in with pocket fours against John Dibella’s aces). But it was a great ride, and because this was my first live tournament I am very happy with my performance.
“This has been some vacation for me. It’s been a super time against some great players and I hope to do it again.”
Bernstein won’t get carried away, however. He has a sensible head on his shoulders, and while saying he would like to gain more experience by playing some cash and more live tournaments, he will always treat his poker as recreational.
“This is just a hobby for me,” he said. “But I would like to improve my game.”
Congratulations, David, on a stellar performance here in the Bahamas.
This EPT is brought to you by PokerStars, the official sponsor of the European Poker Tour. Win your way into the biggest events Europe has to offer at Europe.
“My God!” someone exclaims. “I’ve never seen anyone’s fingers work so fast.”
Neil Stoddart and his assistant Kim Curtin have taken over the stage of the 2012 PCA main event. Every few seconds, a strobe flashes while Stoddart and Curtin measure the lights. This final table will not start until they have the shot. They have to work fast.
“I think we can build around Faraz,” Stoddart muses as chip leader Faraz Jaka allows himself to be pulled to the front of the table.
From there, Stoddart composes the shot like Jackson Pollack. The people are his paint, and he tosses them together in a way that looks random but comes out looking like art.
“Excellent from the back row,” Stoddart says to the players. “Mediocre on the front row.”
This is not meant as a rejoinder. It’s a joke meant to get the front row more in the mood. This is a shot that will live on in poker history. It has to be right.
Meanwhile, Joe Giron is darting between tables, crouching on the rail, and at times literally running across the room. Giron makes up the other half of the PokerStars Blog photography staff and today is on duty for the High Roller and World Cup of Poker. After a career in photojournalism with some of America’s biggest newspapers, Giron shifted to shooting just about every rock band and musician you’ve ever heard of. The bulk of his work came as the traveling photographer for metal great Pantera. Since 2005, Giron has worked in the poker industry and traveled all over the world capturing some of the most iconic moments of the game. Where many people who call themselves photographers shoot 40 snaps in a row in hopes of nailing one that looks right, Giron is a sniper from the days when digital images weren’t free and film was expensive. He can get the shot with a single tap of his finger.
Together Giron and Stoddart work to make sure every important moment of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is recorded for history. They are the undisputed kings of poker photography. Their work is in demand anywhere poker tournaments happen. For the past several years, both men have been the chief photographers for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. If you saw a good photo from the PCA over the last few years, it almost certainly has Giron and Stoddart’s fingers on it.
Back at the main event stage today, everyone is ready to get on with the business of making money.
“Last two,” Stoddart calls. “Make your mother proud.”
There’s a double click, a double strobe, and then there’s the shot of the final table. Satisfied, Stoddart lets the players go on about seeing who will win the $2 million today.
This EPT is brought to you by PokerStars, the official sponsor of the European Poker Tour. Win your way into the biggest events Europe has to offer at Europe.
Jonathan Duhamel has a lot of chips. Bill Perkins has not as much as he used to have. Duhamel’s stack is piled up neatly, a tower reaching to his face, which is smiling. Perkins’s stack is a mess, disorganised, all over the place and miserable looking.
The same could almost be said of Perkins himself.
No more chit-chat, no more energy. Perkins wobbles slightly to the waves of a massage but that’s it. He’s actually seen this coming, joking, as Duhamel arrived in the seat immediately on his left, that he wanted his money back. Now it could be he won’t get any of it back, having dropped form second in chips to below average. He’s a ruined man.
For Duhamel it’s the continuation of a successful PCA which started when he won the $5,000 side event, earning $239,830. And while Perkins was concerned at the site of Duhamel taking his seat it was the opposite for Duhamel who immediately tweeted:
“JonathanDuhamel: Having lots of fun on my new table with Bill Perkins on my right!”
That wouldn’t last and, with the departure of more players (among them Barry Greenstein) Duhamel was moved again, this time to a seat alongside Ville Wahlbeck. It would not be long before the pair tangled, fatally for Wahlbeck.
Wahlbeck opened from the button, Duhamel three-bet from the small before Wahlbeck four-bet shoved, showing pocket kings. Duhamel showed ace-king, which matched the ace on the turn. Wahlbeck let out a noise but was able to compose himself, receiving the commiserations from Duhamel and Jen Harman.
“We’re gonna have some fun boys,” said Duhamel stacking up around 1,2 million, before adding “and girls.”
This EPT is brought to you by PokerStars, the official sponsor of the European Poker Tour. Win your way into the biggest events Europe has to offer at Europe.
Life is good for Jason Koon. A short while ago he eliminated Pierre Neuville from the high roller to assume the chip lead, stacking up some 550,000 chips. Then, from out of nowhere, a friend brought him a drink of some kind, actually more a cup of pink gloop (later revealed to be banana and peanut butter based) which he gratefully received and began tucking into. A short while later he raised pre-flop. Everyone folded.
“I’ve lived a pretty good life,” said Koon, deadpan. “I saved a bundle of kids…”
By now he’d turned over his pocket aces. He could hardly believe it himself.
“Well played,” said Jonathan Duhamel next to him, equally sardonic.
Koon is enjoying his poker, although anyone will tell you the chip lead tends to help. And those at his table know it’s good natured so let him talk.
“Last night someone gave me a shot of Hennessey on the rail. That hurt,” he said, referring to a bottle of the cognac that was making the rounds in the closing stages of the main event’s penultimate day. “I had to take it. Had to be a gentleman.”
A few minutes later and it was all change, the table broken as more players departed. This tournament is moving fast. It’s only giving us false hope for a sensible finish according to Fernando of the tournament staff. I’d been trying not to believe him.
“I’m going to be like St Thomas myself,” said Fernando. “Seeing is believing.”
It’s round about now that he we are expecting things to clam up. The money isn’t exactly close but the dark skies on the horizon are growing lighter.
This EPT is brought to you by PokerStars, the official sponsor of the European Poker Tour. Win your way into the biggest events Europe has to offer at Europe.
Such has been the dramatic thinning of the High Roller field in the early stages that we’ve already lost half the players. From the 54 survivors who returned for Day 2 just three levels ago, only 28 remain across four tables. A $25,000 buy-in event it may be, but no one is clinging on for dear life; it’s all about chipping up or getting out.
Nick Yunis is one of those with a stack who likes to play a lot of hands. He just busted Chino Rheem, but it was the hand before which made this situation a little more noteworthy. Yunis had open raised to 8,500, only for Team PokerStars Pro Ville Wahlbeck to three-bet. Yunis, not a man who particularly enjoys folding, was forced to let it go.
Very next hand, and Yunis open-raised again, this time to 9,000. Now it was Rheem in the very next seat who three-bet to 27,000. Was Yunis raising light in an effort to reclaim instantly his losses to Wahlbeck? Did Rheem think this was the case and was trying it on himself? Both were entirely possible in a field like this. But in the event, neither was the case. Yunis moved all-in, covering Rheem, who looked a little concerned but made the call anyway for his remaining 98,000. His tournament life was on the line.
Yunis turned over AQ, and was in a race with Rheem who showed two red tens. Yunis shot ahead instantly on the 9-7-A flop. The turn was a 3 but now there were two spades on the board, meaning Rheem just had one out. A [10s] would not help him as that would make Yunis’ flush – and that’s exactly the card that fell on the river. At first, Rheem thought he had spiked a winning set, but then he realised he had been beaten by the nut flush.
So Rheem departed, none too chuffed, and the High Roller lost yet another powerful player. While this rate of elimination pleases us no end, things are sure to slow down as the bubble approaches. Sixteen players will be paid, with the lowest spot being $58,020. That’s quite an expensive bubble to explode in your face.
This EPT is brought to you by PokerStars, the official sponsor of the European Poker Tour. Win your way into the biggest events Europe has to offer at Europe.
A floral shirt sits in stark relief against the coffee-colored skin of the cocktail server. He’s holding up one finger at the strawberry blonde man with the goatee in the middle of the stage.
“One?” asks the server.
A look of seriousness—fierce, almost anxious seriousness—crosses the goateed man’s face. This is not a playground. This is not a nunnery. This is the Thunderdome. This is the main event of the one of the biggest tournaments in the world. This is not a place where “one” will do.
In a suit, lime green shirt, and striped tie, Robbie Thompson holds up a peace sign—wait…no, that’s not it. It’s a revision on his order.
“Two,” he says. There is not a hint of a joke in his voice.
The server nods and scurries away as if he knows just how important his job is.
Anyone who knows Thompson knows what will be on the tray when the server returns from his mission. In recent years, Thompson has become known simply as Red Bull Robbie, a final table announcer with the kind of appetite for Red Bull reserved for recovering methamphetamine addicts and fighter pilots. It’s a crime Thompson hasn’t earned an official sponsorship from the energy drink maker. Instead, that sponsorship belongs to some other Red Bull Robbie, an Australian stunt motorcycle rider who presumably doesn’t know a damned thing about poker or “shooting them into the muck.”
That last bit is the other important part about Thompson. It’s not only his maniacal consumption of Red Bull that distinguishes him from a small but worldwide network of final table announcers. Thompson also has a thick mental thesaurus and can describe the action of a player folding his cards in about 100 different ways. If he were a funeral director, Thompson might say, “Let’s us commit this man to the earth one last time. Let us shove him into muck for eternity.”
I sit in the back row of the audience, head pounding, eyes puffy, a wreck from a restless few hours of nightmares in between the end of work last night and the beginning of work today. Involuntarily, my mouth stretches into a long lion-like yawn. It’s the kind of yawn that makes one’s eyes water and jaw joints hurt. When it’s over and my eyes clear, I think I see Thompson looking at me. And I’m pretty sure I know what he’s thinking.
If only that tired writer had a Red Bull…no….two Red Bulls…he’d be just fine.
Thompson doesn’t speak. I may be imagining it all. Perhaps there is a part of me that wants to have the announcer’s energy and mental stack of synonyms. More than anything, there is a part of me that would just like to be really, really awake. But I also wonder if Thompson isn’t due some friendly warning. That is, will there come a day when Red Bull Robbie doesn’t really want to drink Red Bull anymore? What happens then? It is, I dare say, maybe something like a guy who develops a funny reputation for falling down all the time, but then one day decides, “Man, falling down really isn’t any fun.”
It’s a short-lived thought, because now the server is back, and sure enough, he has two cans of Red Bull on his tray. This is how it begins.
As if on cue, Thompson grabs his cans, grabs his microphone, steps on stage, and gets the show underway.
“This is… the maaaaaain event.”
As long as the server in the floral shirt doesn’t stray too far, Thompson will be good to go for the next 24 hours.
This EPT is brought to you by PokerStars, the official sponsor of the European Poker Tour. Win your way into the biggest events Europe has to offer at Europe.
| Career Winnings | Bracelets | Cashes | Final Tables |
| 1 |
Daniel Negreanu $22,796,598 |
|---|---|
| 2 |
Antonio Esfandiari $21,917,242 |
| 3 |
Phil Hellmuth $18,287,714 |
| 4 |
Justin Bonomo $17,819,209 |
| 5 |
Daniel Colman $17,413,655 |
| 6 |
Fedor Holz $15,683,806 |
| 7 |
Jonathan Duhamel $14,599,175 |
| 8 |
Ben Heath $14,335,683 |
| 9 |
Alex Foxen $14,205,643 |
| 10 |
Adrian Mateos $14,185,084 |
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