January 08 2012, Rich Ryan

Day 1b of the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event is in the books and after nine hours of play, 342 entrants survived with Alex Venovski (193,000) leading the way. The second flight of the PCA Main Event attracted 654 entrants, bringing the total field for the event to 1,072, and creating a total prize pool of $10,398,400. Players who finish 160th or higher, are guaranteed a minimum of $15,000. Final tabling will earn players at least $101,000 and the player who runs white hot and wins the 2012 PCA Main Event will pocket a cool $2 million.

Venovski, a U.K. native, jumped out to a lead of 180,000 before dinner break and never looked back. After adding a few small pots during the last three levels of the day, Venovski bagged 193,000, making him the Day 1b chip leader. Ironically, Venovski will start Day 2 at Table 19, Seat 3. There were a handful of other players who crossed the century mark Sunday, including Chino Rheem (182,900), Jonathan Jaffe (182,000), Phil D’Auteuil (170,800), and Luca Pagano (136,300).

Rheem played a very bizarre pot to end the day. After a series of preflop raises against Tyler Kenney, all of the chips were in the middle and the two were battling for 120,000 chips. Kenney tabled two kings, and Chino said, “aces,” but flipped over . Rheem, who apparently misread his hand, was very perplexed, but an ace on the river saved him, and eliminated Kenney from play.

Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis flew out of the gate, doubling in the first half hour of the day. The Dutch pro flopped a set of sevens on a king high board, and was all-in on the turn against a player with top pair-top kicker. After a meaningless river, Veldhuis had doubled to 60,000. He peaked at around 90,000 during the middle of the day, but cooled off and finished the day with just 40,000.

Veldhuis may have started off hot, but no one ran hotter than fellow Team Pro Arnaud Mattern. In a ten-minute span during Level 3, Mattern was dealt aces twice and rocketed his stack to over 150,000 chips. After treading water for the next six levels, Mattern bagged up 139,300 chips, and is among the chip leaders.

Team PokerStars Pro was well represented on Day 1b, but unfortunately, a number of them were eliminated, including 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Pius Heinz, Martin Staszko, Jason Mercier, Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Rousso, Eugene Katchalov, and Nacho Barbero. Other notables who failed to survive the day include, Olivier Busquet, Peter Jetten, Amit Makhija, Dan Shak, and Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy.

Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, who won the Super High Roller and over $1.25 million Saturday night, late registered and made a $10,000 last-longer bet with Harry “UgotaBanana” Kaczka. Kaczka won the bet without much of a sweat –- Blom busted in Level 5 when he lost a race with against an opponent’s .

Both Day 1 starting flights combine on Monday for Day 2. The action kicks off at 1200 EST (1700 GMT), and PokerNews will be on the floor providing all the live updates.

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Follow Rich Ryan on Twitter – @RichTRyan

January 08 2012, Chad Holloway

The World Poker Tour Ireland continued on Saturday as the final 36 players of a 338-player field returned for Day 3 in pursuit of a “202,680 first-place prize. The Citywest Hotel in Dublin played host to the tournament as the remaining field, all of whom were in the money, were reduced to five. Leading the way with 6,155,000 in chips is Dave Shallow, who is the overwhelming chip leader.

Shallow, known as “CrabMaki” on PokerStars, played solid throughout the day but really showed his worth on the final table bubble when he scored a double elimination. According to the World Poker Tour Live Reporting Team, Shallow opened for 85,000 from early position, Steven Moreau reraised to 220,000, and Shaun Conning moved all-in. Shallow then moved all-in over the top for 2.4 million and Moreau snap-called. Shallow had both players covered.

Showdown
Shallow:
Moreau:
Conning:

It was a crazy hand at a crucial point of the tournament, and the flop seemed to indicate Moreau would win; however, the spiked on the turn to give Shallow a commanding lead. The river changed nothing and Shallow took down the huge pot, consequently sending Conning and Moreau home in seventh and sixth place respectively.

The action was fast and furious as half the field was eliminated in just four levels of play. Eliminations included Sam MacDonald (35th – $7,217), Con Collins (32nd – $7,217), Mike Hill (29th – $7,217), Tim Farrelly (25th-$8,192), and Dermot Blain (22nd – $8,192).

Blain, who finished in fifth place at this year’s World Series of Poker Europe for $367,362, was eliminated when Stuart Fox raised from early position only to have Blain move all-in. The rest of the field cleared out and Fox made the call.

Showdown
Fox:
Blain:

It was a bad spot for Blain and he was in desperate need of a ten. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t catch anything as the board ran out .

The middle stages of the tournament saw even more players fall including Franck Boyer (20th – $8,192), Jan Larsen (18th – $9,154), David Nicholson (13th – $10,116), and Daniel Smyth (11th – $11,079). With just four eliminations to go until the final table, perhaps the most notable player left in the tournament was sent packing.

It happened when Charles Chattha raised on the button only to have Ross Boatman move all-in from the small blind for approximately 300,000. The big blind got out of the way, Chattha insta-called, and the cards were turned on their backs:

Showdown

Chattha:
Boatman:

Boatman was dominated and watched as the flop came down , putting out some chop outs. The added to those chop outs, and Boatman could still hit a five to win, but it was not meant to be as the blanked on the river. Boatman was eliminated from the tournament in 10th place and earned $11,079 for his deep run.

From there, Stuart Fox (ninth – $16,384) and Robert Brull (eighth – $22,625) were eliminated, followed by the aforementioned double elimination of Conning and Moreau, putting a halt to the action as the official final table was reached – with just five players. Day 4 gets under way at 1500 GMT (0900 EST) on Sunday as the WPT Ireland will crown its first-ever champion.

World Poker Tour Ireland Final Table

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*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

Follow Chad Holloway on Twitter – @ChadAHolloway