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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October 06 2011, Donnie Peters

Day 2 of the 2011 PokerStars.com European Poker Tour London Poker Festival £20,000 High Roller wrapped up on Thursday. The event is down to the final eight players who are all in the money. Leading the way is Igor Kurganov with 854,000 in chips. He has a sizable lead over Robert Akery, who sits in second place with 622,000.

To start the day, 30 players remained from the original starting field of 75. Team PokerStars Pros Joe Hachem, Jonathan Duhamel and Eugene Katahclov all made it to Day 2 but failed to advance to the final.

According to the PokerStars Blog, Hachem was sent to the rail by Michael Tureniec. Hachem’s pocket twos failed to win the flip against Tureniec’s . Duhamel was sent off by Adrian Bussman and Katchalov was dished to the sidelines by Andrey Bondar.

On Katchalov’s final hand, Bondar bet 20,000 with the board reading . Katchalov moved all-in and Bondar made the call holding for a turned two pair. Katchalov held but the river didn’t help and he was eliminated.

Sam Stein held the lead when Day 2 began. He took a hit early on after doubling up Byron Kaverman. The money went in on a flop with Kaverman holding to Stein’s . The turn brought the and the river the to give Kaverman the winning flush.

On his final hand, Stein moved all-in against Olivier Busquet on an flop. Busquet made the call with for second pair against Stein who was holding . The turn and river allowed Busquet to win the hand and send Stein out the door.

Other notable eliminations during Day 2 included Isaac Haxton, Anton Ionel, Mike Watson, McLean Karr, Mike McDonald, Phil Collins and James Bord. Collins was bounced in 11th place by Kurganov and then Kaverman went out in 10th. From there, there was a save made for the player finishing in ninth position. The payouts were adjusted so that ninth place could collect £25,000, making Kaverman (10th) the official bubble boy. Bord fell in ninth place to officially set the final table.

Final Table Chip Counts

If you recognize the names of a few of these high rollers from previous events, it’s because many have had plenty of success in big buy-in events on the EPT. The chip leader, Kurganov, placed second in last season’s EPT Grand Final “10,000 High Roller Turbo and third in this season’s EPT Tallinn “10,000 High Roller. Akery placed 13th in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $25,000 High Roller. Bussman came eighth in the EPT Deauville “10,000 High Roller last season. Busquet was second in the EPT Grand Final “25,000 High Roller in 2010. Philipp Gruissem won the EPT Barcelona “10,000 High Roller at the last stop on tour and Tureniec won last season’s EPT Copenhagen Main Event.

The third and final day of play kicks off at 1200 BST (0400 PDT) on Thursday. Because of the ninth-place save, first place has been adjusted to £511,300. That’s still a heck of a lot of money and PokerNews will have the recap after play is complete.

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Follow Donnie Peters on Twitter – @Donnie_Peters