January 11 2012, Donnie Peters

For the returning 64 players, it was just another day at the office in the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event on Wednesday. The day was short but action-packed, and at the end, 24 players remained. Leading the field is Faraz Jaka with 4.114 million in chips.

Jaka leads the rest of the field by nearly 1.5 million chips, and Alex Fitzgerald sits in second with 2.709 million. Behind him are Phil D’Auteuil with 2.28 million, Anthony Gregg with 2.142 million and Byron Kaverman with 2.136 million. Gregg is closing in on a familiar place at the PCA final table. In 2009, he placed second to Poorya Nazari and earned $1.7 million.

Jaka entered the day third in chips with 1.22 million. Just about everything that could go Jaka’s way did on Day 4, and that allowed him to add nearly 3 million more chips to his pile by day’s end.

One of the big, key hands Jaka played was against Martin Jacobson. With around 300,000 chips already in the pot on an board, Jaka fired an overbet of 500,000. Jacobson tanked and tanked before he eventually made the call. When he did, Jaka tabled for a flush and Jacobson mucked. That put Jaka up to nearly three million.

Another big hand Jaka won was when he eliminated Lawrence Greenberg. The two got all of the money in on a board with one card to come. Greenberg held and Jaka . The river landed with the and gave Jaka a straight to win the hand. Jaka also eliminated Sam Chartier, Eddy Sabat and Team PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein on the day.

Galen Hall, the defending champion of this event, returned for Day 4 but was the first player eliminated on the day. Just a few hands into the day, Hall was all-in preflop with up against Jacobson’s . The flop, turn and river ran out , sending Hall on his way home.

Spanish professional golfer Sergio Garcia also saw his tournament life come to an end on Day 4. After raising to 25,000 preflop, with blinds at 6,000/12,000/1,000, Garcia called all-in for 232,000 against William Luciano. Garcia held and Luciano . Even though Garcia picked up a big flop when it fell , the turn and river couldn’t give him what he needed to stay alive.

Other notable eliminations on the day included three Team PokerStars Pros in Arnaud Mattern, Jan Heitmann and Luca Pagano. Joining them on the rail were Erik Cajelais, William Reynolds, Chris Klodnicki, Casey Kastle and Yevgeniy Timoshenko.

Play will resume Thursday at 1200 EST (1700 GMT), so be sure to follow along right here as the PokerNews Live Reporting Team brings you all the action, eliminations, and drama from the 2012 PCA at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas.

Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

Follow Donnie Peters on Twitter – @Donnie_Peters

January 10 2012, Rich Ryan

The 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event resumed on Tuesday, and after a little more than four levels, Phil D’Auteuil leads the way with 1.472 million chips. Sam Greenwood (1.401 million), Faraz Jaka (1.22 million), Alex Fitzgerald (1.154 million), Anthony Gregg (1.129 million) and Kyle Julius (1.019 million) are biting at D’Auteuil heels, however – all having seven-figure stacks, too.

The day began with 183 players, just 23 short of the money, and the bubble burst during the first level of play. Faraz Jaka entered play as the chip leader, and never fell out of the top five in the chip counts. Despite doubling a couple of players, including Team PokerStars Pros Barry Greenstein and Javier Dominguez, Jaka was able to pick up plenty of pots to finish the day with 1.22 million chips. Jaka is a very dangerous player and an absolute nuisance for his opponents when he has chips.

D’Auteuil was in the middle of the pack at the beginning of Day 3, but he quickly ascended to the top of the ranks. In one particular hand, he had Esteban Ripamonti all-in and at risk with the board reading . D’Auteuil held , Ripamonti had , and the turn and river brought the and respectively. D’Auteuil raked in the massive pot, pushing his stack above 700,000 chips and soon crossed the million-chip mark.

The last woman standing, Xuan Liu, also went on a heater towards the end of the day. After floating around the 200,000-chip mark, she eliminated Mikhail Shikhworich to eclipse 600,000 chips. Shikhworich three-bet jammed 242,000 with and Liu, the original raiser, called with . Her hand held as the board ran out . She ended the day with 680,000 chips.

Pat Pezzin, Robert Rosen, JC Alvarado and David Inselberg were among the two-dozen players who failed to cash, but plenty of notables made trips to the cage, including Shane “Shaniac” Schleger, Leif Force, Liv Boeree, Randy “nanonoko” Lew and 2011 November Niner Phil Collins.

A couple of Team PokerStars Pro members are still fighting for the 2012 PCA Main Event title. Greenstein went on a big heater in the middle of the day, peaking at 550,000. He lost a hand to Jaka late in the day, however, and bagged up 379,000 chips. Dominguez, Luca Pagano, Jan Heitmann and Arnaud Mattern also survived the day, as did Spanish professional golfer Sergio Garcia.

Last year’s champion, Galen Hall, is also still in the hunt to defend his title. He won $2.3 million last year, came in third in the $100,000 Super High Roller this year for $470,400 and is still alive in the final eight tables of this field. Hall will only return with 168,000 in chips (well below average), but he’s still got nearly 17 big blinds and plenty of fight left in him.

Play will resume Wednesday at 1200 EST (1700 GMT), so be sure to follow along right here as the PokerNews Live Reporting Team brings you all the action, eliminations, and drama from the 2012 PCA at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas.

Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

Follow Rich Ryan on Twitter – @RichTRyan