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.

Stay up to date on all the latest news by following us on Twitter and liking us on Facebook.

Follow Mickey Doft on Twitter – @mrdoft

December 18 2011, Donnie Peters

The 2011 World Poker Tour Venice had its final table on Sunday and the final six players were vying for the title plus “175,000 in first-place prize money. Leading the way into the last day was Michele Caroli, but he wouldn’t be the one walking away with the title. The man who claimed victory at the end of it all was Edoardo Alescio after he defeated Steve O’Dwyer heads-up.

Alexander Dovzhenko was the second-shortest stack coming into the final table, but ended up as the first one out. According to the WPT Live Update Team, during Level 23 with the blinds at 10,000/20,000/3,000, Dovzhenko raised from early position before action folded to O’Dwyer in the big blind. O’Dwyer reraised all-in and Dovzhenko made the call.

When the hands were revealed, it was Dovzhenko’s versus O’Dwyer’s . From there, the board ran out and Dovzhenko was eliminated in sixth place.

Next to go in fifth place was Andrea Benelli. He was very short-stacked, with just 76,000 in chips, when he moved all-in preflop. O’Dwyer made the call and then Caroli called as well. Both O’Dwyer and Caroli checked down the board before all three players opened their hands.

O’Dwyer tabled for trip queens, Caroli showed for king high and the at-risk Benelli showed for king high as well. O’Dwyer’s hand was the winner, eliminating Benelli and leaving four players at the table.

O’Dwyer also eliminated the fourth-place finisher, Andrea Dato, during Level 24 with the blinds at 12,000/24,000/4,000. Dato raised all-in preflop with 249,000 on the button and O’Dwyer called from the small blind. Dato held for a worse-but-live hand against O’Dwyer’s . The board ran out and O’Dwyer’s ace high held up to give him the win.

With three players left, Alescio was doing a lot of shoving, oftentimes over a raise from one of his opponents. Eventually, Caroli decided to make a stand and called holding . Unfortunately for him, Alescio held . The flop didn’t give much help to Caroli, and neither did the on the turn. The river also missed Caroli, and he was sent out the door in third place.

With the tournament down to just two players, O’Dwyer was pitted against Alescio for the title. This was the 12th final table of the year for O’Dwyer and a big one at that. In the previous 11 contests, he had made it to heads-up play a whopping five times, winning three of them. He went into the battle with Alescio holding a big lead in chips and even drew first blood, but things didn’t go his way from there.

After grinding back a bit, Alescio was all-in against O’Dwyer on the board with . O’Dwyer held and just needed to fade the river card in order to win the title. The dealer smacked the on the river, giving Alescio the winning flush he needed to spike a big double and take a two-to-one chip lead.

On the final hand, the blinds were 40,000/80,000/10,000 in Level 29. Alescio and O’Dwyer put all the money in preflop to flip it out. Alescio held and O’Dwyer . Although O’Dwyer hit an ace, Alescio also hit a five to seal the deal and walk away as the winner.

Final Table Payouts

*Winner also awarded a $25,500 WPT Championship Seat

*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

Follow Donnie Peters on Twitter – @Donnie_Peters