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.

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December 11 2011, Brett Collson

The World Poker Tour will celebrate its 10th Anniversary with a bang on Sunday. The six-handed final table of the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic is loaded with heavy hitters that includes not only the event’s defending champion, but also a former November Niner and one of the world’s most accomplished female tournament players.

All eyes will be on Antonio Esfandiari when the televised final table commences Sunday evening. In last year’s Five Diamond World Poker Classic, Esfandiari bested a field of 438 players to win his second WPT crown and a prize of $870,000. He has a chance to do the unthinkable Sunday by going back-to-back at the Bellagio, an achievement that would tie him with Gus Hansen and Carlos Mortensen for the most titles (three) in the ten years of the World Poker Tour.

Esfandiari enters the final table fifth in chips with 1,255,000 and has quite a hill to climb in order to catch chip leader Soi Nguyen. The 2010 November Niner bagged 4,995,000 when play ended on Saturday, including the remaining chips of seventh-place finisher Larry Wells on the final table bubble.

According to the WPT Live Update Team, Nyugen min-raised preflop to 120,000 from under the gun and Wells called from middle position to see a flop of . Nguyen bet 130,000 and Wells called, and the turn brought the . Nguyen fired again, this time for 275,000, and Wells tossed in a call. The fell on the river and Nguyen moved all-in, having his opponent’s stack covered. Wells called and tabled for trip aces, but Nguyen revealed a straight with to win the pot and end play for the evening.

Others joining Wells on the rail Saturday were William Reynolds (13th place), Kyle Julius (12th), Rudy Maarek (11th), David Williams (10th), Anthony Yeh (ninth) and Braden Hall (eighth).

Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst will be looking to block Esfandiari’s road to history at Sunday’s final table. Selbst, who is fourth in chips entering Sunday’s final table, is the last player to repeat in a major live tournament; in April, she defended her title at the PokerStars North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun Main Event. Selbst also has major titles at the World Series of Poker and the Partouche Poker Tour, and can move closer to Kathy Liebert for No. 1 on the women’s all-time earnings list with a victory at Bellagio. Selbst currently stands roughly $1.4 million behind Liebert. A win on Sunday would net her more than $820,000.

Rounding out the Sunday’s final table lineup are Andrew Lichtenberger, James Dempsey and Vitor Coelho. Lichtenberger, 24, finished eighth in this event last year and boasts more than $1.4 million in live tournament earnings in his short career. Dempsey is a rising star in the game, having won his first WSOP bracelet in 2010 and making appearances on several televised poker programs in the U.K. in 2011.

Coelho won’t stand out among his famous tablemates but has found some recent success on the WPT. Last month, Coelho took fourth place at the WPT Jacksonville Main Event for $70,000, his biggest cash since winning a WPT prelim at Borgata in 2009 for $107,100.

Sunday’s final table kicks off at 1600 PST (0000 GMT) and will be live streamed with hole cards on a 30-minute delay by WorldPokerTour.com. Commentary will be provided by Tony Dunst, David Sands and Dan O’Brien.

Here’s a look at the seat draw for the final table:

WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Table Seat Draw

In addition to the WPT Five Diamond event, the Bellagio $100,000 Super High Roller tournament came to a close Saturday with a familiar face landing back in the winner’s circle. After coming to a three-way deal with David Sands and Isaac Haxton, Jason Mercier went on to beat Sands heads-up for the title and a $25,000 seat to the WPT World Championship in May.

According to Mercier’s post on Twitter, his share of the chop was worth $683,767, while Sands collected $619,000 and Haxton earned $582,000. The 29-player field drew big names like Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, Ben Lamb and Justin Bonomo to generate a prize pool of nearly $3 million.

*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

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