March 21 2011, Matthew Pitt

After a smaller than expected field of just 180 walked through the doors of the picturesque Alpine Palace Hotel in Saalbach-Hinterglemm Sunday afternoon for Day 1a of the PokerStars.net European Poker Tour Snowfest you would be forgiven for expecting another compact field for Day1b. How wrong you would be though, as a field of 302 players exchanged €3,750 for 30,000 tournament chips and the dream of becoming a EPT Champion.

While 302 players bought in, the truth is is that there were only 301 of them present for the first few hours of the day, since Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier missed his flight to Austria and turned up to the tournament six hours late. Amazingly, despite having his stack blinded off during that time, he still managed to sit down with a rather healthy stack of 25,000 chips. He managed to turn that stack into 60,000 at one point, but with his loose-aggressive style he lost them all by the time play came to an end.

There were plenty of Monsieur Grospellier’s PokerStars team-mates in the field today too including the de Meulder twins Mattias and Christophe, Dario Minieri, Sandra Naujoks and Julien Brecard, the latter was celebrating his 32nd birthday but the poker gods failed to bring him any extra luck, and he and all the above mentioned Pros were eliminated by the end of the day. A number of Team PokerStars Pros did make it through to Day 2, including the man who has cashed a record 17 times in EPT events – Luca Pagano. Max Lykov and Liv Boeree also made it though and Boeree will return to nurse a stack of 19,000, though she says she is happy with that total, considering the cards she was dealt throughout the Day 1b proceedings.

Along with the vast team of PokerStars Pros, there was a very talented field packed tightly into the tournament area including the likes of Fabian Quoss, who made the final table of the EPOT London High Roller event, John Eames who finished third at the recent EPT Copenhagen Main Event, and Anton Wigg who won EPT Copenhagen in 2010. As is usually the case when there is a pro heavy field, a so-called “Table of Doom” forms, and Monday was no different as, ironically, Table 13 was the home to a whole host of familiar faces. First EPT San Remo Champion Liv Boeree took her seat and she was sandwiched between Luca Pagano and James Sudworth. At the opposite end of the table sat EPT Berlin winner Kevin MacPhee and a few minutes into play, EPT Tallin Champion Kevin Stani sat down in seat five. As far as tough tables go, this was one of the toughest we’ve ever seen.

Throughout the day, there was not one person who looked as if they were going to become a runaway chip leader, but a couple of hours from the end, Michael Tureniec went on a mini-heater and he went from under-the-radar, to flashing brightly on it, with over 200,000 in chips. A large percentage of his stack was won in a hand with Sandro Ruegg. In the hand, Tureniec called a 12,200 bet on a board reading before seeing Ruegg bet another 16,500 when the peeled off on the river. This last bet sent the reigning EPT Copenhagen Champion deep into the tank for around two-and-a-half minutes and he finally made the call, turning over which was enough to beat the of Ruegg. Tureniec could not keep the momentum going right up to the end of the day, though he did finish with 186,800, a more than respectable total.

The man who everyone will have to catch Tuesday is Vladimir Geshkenbein, who managed to turn his 30,000 starting stack into a colossal 253,700 during the eight levels of play Monday. He burst onto the live poker scene in 2009 when he won the APPT Macau High Roller Event for $266,705 and will be looking to go deep in this event over the next four days.

Play resumes at 2:00 p.m. local time on Tuesday, when the 102 survivors from Day 1a combine with the 166 from Day 1b, all hoping to make it through to Day 3 where they will have a chance of making it into the money or even walking away with the €390,000 first-place prize for winning the PokerStars.net EPT Snowfest.

Be sure to keep it locked to the PokerNews Live Reporting Page for all the action, and as always, follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

2011 January 10, Mickey Doft

The 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure resumed on Monday with 645 players remaining from the starting field of 1,560 to battle it out on Day 2. Six levels were played today and when it was all said and done, 173 players are left in what was a fast and frantic day of poker. Just about everybody was surprised how quickly eliminations came today and the players are well into the money as a result. Ending the day at the top of the counts is Adam Geyer with 909,000. Following him are Ilan Rouah with 795,000 and Chris Oliver with 792,500.

Among those that failed to make it to the money today were Team PokerStars Pros Liv Boeree, Joe Cada, Nacho Barbero, John Duthie, and Dario Minieri. Joining them on the rail was 2010 PCA Champion Harrison Gimbel, unable to recover from the short stack he started the day with.

The hand that had everybody sweating today was the bubble hand. Action folded to Marco Johnson in the small blind and he moved all in for a total of 26,000 at the 2,500/5,000/500 level. William Reynolds was in the big blind and instantly called. Players and media swarmed the table as Johnson’s elimination would guarantee a pay day for everybody. When the cards were turned over, it looked like that would be the case:

Johnson:
Reynolds:

The flop came , not bringing much help to Johnson. He had some hope when the hit the turn, giving him a flush draw. However, the river brought the and Johnson was out in 233rd place.

Eliminations were fast and furious after that as 59 players busted after the money was reached to leave us with our returning field of 173 for Day 3. Some of the players that will return tomorrow are Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker (650,500), Dave Sands (617,000), Dwyte Pilgrim (489,000), and Faraz Jaka (447,000).

The top ten chip stacks heading into Day 3 are the following:

1. Adam Geyer – 909,000
2. Ilan Rouha – 795,000
3. Chris Oliver – 792,500
4. Harry Kaczka – 687,000
5. Chris Moneymaker – 650,500
6. Eric Buchman – 648,500
7. Oleg Perepletchikov – 641,500
8. David Sands – 617,000
9. Josh Bergman – 610,000
10. Bahbak Oboodi – 596,500

Play is scheduled to pick up at 12 p.m. EST tomorrow. Be sure to follow along right here as the PokerNews Live Reporting Team brings you all the action, eliminations, and drama from the 2011 PCA at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. Good night!