January 05 2012, Mickey Doft

The 2012 poker season unofficially kicked off in the Bahamas Thursday with the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. The Atlantis Resort and Casino on Paradise Island is once again host to the PCA festivities, now in its ninth year.

Leading off the docket was the $100,000 Super High Roller. A field of 30 paid the six figures and after two players opted to re-enter, an official 32 entries created a prize pool of $3,136,000 and a first-place prize of $1,254,400. Isaac Haxton is on top of the counts after eight levels on Day 1, leading the way with 1,240,000.

Haxton jumped out of the gate fast and took the early chip lead during Level 2. The blinds were 1,200/2,400 with a 300 ante and Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom started the action with a raise to 2,600 from the hijack. Haxton, in the small blind, three-bet to 10,500, but Jonathan Duhamel four-bet to 24,200 from the big blind. Blom ducked out of the way, but Haxton had other plans and five-bet to 42,200. Duhamel six-bet all-in for about 205,000 and was met with a call from Haxton, who was holding to Duhamel’s . The board came down , giving the pot to Haxton and sending Duhamel to the re-entry desk.

Haxton further increased his stack toward the end of Day 1 when he eliminated Justin Smith. From the hijack, Smith made it 10,000 to play at the 2,000/4,000/500 level. Haxton three-bet to 30,000 from the small blind and Smith four-bet shoved for about 246,000. Haxton was quick to call with , having plenty of chips to spare. Smith tabled , but found no help from the board. That hand gave Haxton about 930,000 before he ultimately ended the day with 1,240,000.

Leading the way for Team PokerStars Pro are the aforementioned Blom (875,000) and Duhamel (729,000) sitting in second and fourth, respectively. To nobody’s surprise, high-roller studs Erik Seidel (753,000) and Jason Mercier (514,000) had excellent starts to their tournaments as well. Others returning on Day 2 include Mike “Timex” McDonald (577,000), reigning PCA Main Event Champion Galen Hall (380,000), Scott Seiver (365,000), and Daniel Negreanu (346,000).

Among those who will not be returning on Day 2 is defending Super High Roller champion Eugene Katchalov. In a heads-up pot against Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Katchalov was faced with a decision after Timoshenko four-bet all-in with the bigger stack. Katchalov called for his tournament life with , but trailed Timoshenko’s . A board ended Katchalov’s day, guaranteeing a new champion would emerge.

Also failing to make it through Day 1 were Matt Glantz, Shawn Buchanan, Philipp Gruissem, David Benefield, Terje Augdal, Alexey Repik, Bill Perkins (twice), Sandor Demjan and Masa Kagawa.

Here is the Day 2 table and seat draw:

Play resumes at 1200 EST (1700 GMT) Friday, so be sure to keep it here at PokerNews for all of the exciting action as we will be providing live coverage throughout the $100,000 Super High Roller, Main Event, and $25,000 High Roller.

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December 26 2011, Mickey Doft

To achieve what has been dubbed poker’s Triple Crown requires a player to win a tournament on the European Poker Tour, World Poker Tour, and at the World Series of Poker. The list of players to accomplish this feat is short, as the WPT was launched in 2002 and the EPT was created in 2004.

Several players were one leg away from joining this list and over the course of the 2011 poker schedule, two of them made it happen.

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier

Ever since Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier’s 2008 eruption onto the live tournament scene, the poker world was waiting for his WSOP breakout party. Unfortunately, with only five combined cashes at the 2009 and 2010 WSOPs and WSOPEs, Grospellier was unable to shine on the world’s biggest poker stage.

However, that all changed this summer.

“ElkY” finally hit it big this summer at the WSOP, and captured a WSOP bracelet to go along with his January 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (EPT) victory and his October 2008 Festa Al Lago (WPT) win. He was already among the best players to have never won a bracelet and it was only a matter of time before he did so. However, it was in what event he won his bracelet that many find most impressive.

Prior to his win, Grospellier raised a few eyebrows in the event he played immediately before his bracelet win. It was the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball World Championship and with an 11th-place showing, Grospellier notched his first live non-hold’em cash on record. On the heels of that result, Grospellier entered the $10,000 Seven-Card Stud World Championship. What happened from there? He defeated a top-notch field of 126 players to earn his first bracelet. Here was his day-by-day path leading to the final table.

Although Grospellier scored only one elimination at the final table, it was the one that counted. To even be in position to do so was quite the achievement, one that he will no doubt always remember. He began heads-up play against Steve Landfish at a modest 1.5:1 chip disadvantage, but Landfish had the upper hand for the beginning portion of the heads-up duel and increased to a whopping 24:1 chip lead at one point. However, a resilient and determined Grospellier stormed back to join the short list of Triple Crown winners.

Lynn Gilmartin caught up with “ElkY” following his win:

Jake Cody

In January 2010, Jake Cody burst onto the live poker scene when he won the Main Event at EPT Deauville. For being an unknown at the time, Cody defeated a very skilled final table that included Mike “Timex” McDonald, Craig Bergeron, Peter Eastgate, and Grospellier (who bubbled in ninth place). Later that year, Cody won WPT London in his home country to quickly close in on claiming the Triple Crown. At the 2011 WSOP, he wasted little time doing so, winning the $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Heads-Up Championship which began on the first day of the Series. Here was his path to capturing the bracelet:

Facing Gus Hansen in the final four, Cody captivated the audience with a dominating performance against “The Great Dane.” Each player began the match with 800,000 in chips on the table, along with two 800,000-chip add-on bullets behind. Cody worked Hansen’s stack down before each Hansen reload. It took less than two hours for Cody to take Hansen’s entire 2.4 million.

His match against Yevgeniy Timoshenko in the finals didn’t go quite as quick, but three hours was all Cody needed. Each player began the match with 1.6 million in chips on the table with two add-ons behind. Once again, Cody didn’t need more than his starting stack to to claim victory.

Here is Lynn Gilmartin with Jake Cody after his victory:

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