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European Poker Tour - PokerStars Caribbean Adventure - Day 1A
by PokerPages LIVE Tournament Coverage - 2007   
Saturday, 05 January 2008


PCA Atlantis Resort, Paradise Island, Bahamas - Day 1A

232 players of the 556 that started day 1A made it to the end still holding on to some chips. Here they are, sorted by chip counts, with their day 2 table and seat assignments. They will return Monday at noon to join the survivors of day 1B for day 1. Notables on this list: Steve Paul-Ambrose, who won this event in 2006, is 2nd in chips. 2007 Player of the Year David 'the Dragon' Pham is above average with 73,325 chips, as is 2003 WSOP Main Event Champion Chris Moneymaker with 58,600. David Wells, a lefty and one of only 17 pitchers to throw a perfect game, will return on day 2 with 88,150. Rumor has it that he got personal coaching from Daniel Negreanu over drinks in the bar the night before play began.

PlayerTableSeatChips
Ryan Collett472176,450
Steve Paul-Ambrose511170,925
Diego Pérez77169,100
Stephan Kjerstad501144,575
Eric Lynch528141,675
Joshua Ewing371137,875
Johan Til78137,225
José Cuenca51129,950
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier509123,825
Allisen Connor262121,000
Johan Bergqvist527120,075
Dmitriy Kirin303118,325
Josh Arieh441109,800
Tore Lagerborg177103,950
Adam Bragar63101,025
Andrew Teng46399,600
Stuart Taylor37499,375
Raúl Lleida12498,550
Dave Scatchard3795,975
Allan Puzontyan20795,400
Michael Martin20295,025
Robert Weiss6292,500
Charles McCrink10789,275
Richard Geyer4689,125
David Wells7288,150
Stanislav Zavoyskiy35486,250
Christian Harder36986,025
Alex Michaels14685,000
Roger Tichenor48785,000
Ryan D'Angelo8684,775
Olvedo Heinze55482,450
Irina Liepina13782,125
Rhett Butler21581,800
Jonas Egeberg47580,725
Randy Dorfman19679,875
Simon Munz18579,200
Bill Ezzo36779,100
Harold Fitzpatrick41678,775
Peter Jetten17676,775
Mauro Stivoli59376,400
Justin Rollo21975,450
Rohr Philippe28374,775
Kevin Schaffel45274,650
Daniel Burke28673,675
David Pham10273,325
Joseph Elpayaa21772,800
Kristoffer Edberg12571,350
Eric Liu54770,075
Craig Hopkins4769,925
Zev Roher41369,875
Joseph Dimartino34168,700
Kristian Kjondal41468,675
Anthony Cousineau23768,525
Nicolas Levi11768,175
Michael Cooper16366,225
Tony Calvin Burton3564,850
David Lacoste14164,775
Garrett Adelstein15964,225
Frank Nielsen50863,425
Mark Venegoni49762,800
Pierre Neuville49262,550
Daniel Smith10862,100
Noah Schwartz8762,000
Chris Crawford9660,700
Sander Braaksma25259,925
Brian Hawkins41959,400
Jason Levine40559,175
Jon Neyir22158,650
Chris Moneymaker19358,600
Eric Van der Burg4858,400
Valdemar Kwaysser60758,225
Don Mullis33158,200
Thierry Van Den Berg26358,150
Sean Gardiner57957,300
Andre Akkari11657,275
Alexander Eriksson31157,250
Glen Chorny49356,375
Richard Furay49856,350
Christian Toboc54355,650
Paul Holub46255,250
Robert Ford57255,000
Humberto Brenes59754,875
Greg Smith42853,725
Jonathan Screeney10953,625
David Benefield21853,550
Christophe Benzimra6753,200
Stephen Murphy2853,200
Minaya Manelic51652,600
Wilhelmina Detz39352,200
Benjamin Reed49652,075
John Zioulas15451,350
Eugenio Carmoneto30451,300
Victor Escudero46749,600
Jeffrey Papola18349,225
Johnny Lodden32148,900
David Héon-Althot44448,275
Fredrik Andersson3348,225
Jonathan Drane40148,200
John Roveto13348,175
Aleksander Bolotin52447,950
Christopher Andler32247,175
Daniel Shiff24346,675
Nick Niergarth9846,225
Jeremy Harkin47346,075
Brent Bibby13146,000
Ville Mattila51744,475
James Wisemiller16844,300
Mikael Hogbom11143,850
Keith Tilston43443,450
Hans-Ari Varsi12343,425
Rosamelia Ferreia39443,050
James Ferguson11443,000
Robert Wisiak19443,000
Christopher Walsh37742,975
Emil Henriksson46842,875
Michael Ries1742,550
Ted Lawson11242,000
Samuel Lehtonen12141,975
Freddy Sumanth43241,650
Travis Klein16441,550
John Dibella47640,650
Chad Batista28739,250
Ian Prevost39139,200
Rodney Pennington51537,750
Robert Delaney5237,475
Regent Lacroix37837,350
Jonathan Rozema37237,350
Lionel Nazarian46536,500
Justin Smith18435,875
Gregory Byard30735,175
Eric Benhamron56434,925
Jonathon Mercer51334,700
Derek Vandamme50434,625
Thomas Santoli32934,400
Abraham Rosenkrantz55634,325
Robert Preston34634,175
Joris Jaspers30633,825
Guy Sitbon4533,475
Dale Pinchot16532,600
Mark Levy32632,250
Eric Ladny38832,000
Jakob Brekken27131,800
Jesse Rockowitz13831,800
Patrick Kelly1131,700
Dov Shiff9331,625
Elton Tsang27631,625
Michael Katz30931,400
David Schultz24931,175
Christian Pereira11329,600
George Lusby55729,500
Bill Campbell25729,200
Thomas Dekker25829,000
Joseph Hammerman14228,675
Brett Levitzke46628,575
Thaddeus Wolff29127,650
Federico Stivoli19827,600
Stuart Paterson20427,500
Reid Walker53827,200
Peter Chan13927,100
James McCrink46427,100
Saul Ivan17826,625
Jospeh Aronesty11526,500
Louis Cohen15125,900
Thithi Tran,14925,850
Eugene Katchalou44725,550
William Pilossoph7125,425
Tomas Brolin12825,000
Julien Wellhoff28424,550
Chris Leveroni49524,200
David Baker16924,025
Grayson Phystor44923,725
Michael Melin40623,500
Stefan Katz2323,275
Eric Tomberlin13223,225
Evan Tindell37323,175
Bourbonnais Maurice15522,950
Bryan Shaffer18822,850
Hans Eskilsson5622,575
Davide Sciabbarrasi58522,075
Ben Grise57821,925
Arthur Van der Meeren38921,450
Gary Newman5921,400
Björn Lindblom15821,275
Michael Gaubert47721,075
Jim Cleveborg16621,000
Peter Gould24520,850
Arnaud Mattern37620,375
Robert Bradley8320,350
John Phan10620,050
Gerald Banach17919,800
Anton Talle55118,100
Carter Gill56817,900
Tyler Dickinson20317,700
Ray Sukkar38717,350
Thor Hansen54517,300
Victor Ramdin8117,300
Mikhael Saakian8817,200
Julian Thew6616,950
Dang Trai40716,425
Thomas Mørland20116,400
Chris Grigorian49416,275
James Lampropoulos17415,975
Hunter Frey39715,950
Danny Stiegler39515,875
Jacques Zaicik46915,700
Otto Richard30115,475
Joseph Michael55315,450
Raymond Thomas Jr.47915,425
Steven Tabb30514,550
Lars-Egil Nielsen34414,500
Chris Lee56914,000
Guillame De La Gorce49913,950
Trevor Williams51213,775
Eric Tracy30213,175
Sean Bruder21412,850
Peter Busch35512,700
David Colclough45912,650
Robert Emond47812,025
Andrew Lichtenberger48111,950
Justin Phillips17511,625
Kathy Liebert23311,175
Nicholas Schulman39211,000
Tom West51410,650
Andrew Schultz56310,300
Ed Bender26110,250
Andrew Boccia149,725
Jeremy Menard918,875
Mats Båtnes5628,800
Søren Nielsen5678,475
Craig Loucks5897,300
David Morgan5466,250
James Crockett194,400
Total chips in play (1A)11,120,000
Players remaining (1A)232
Avergae stack (1A)47,931


Saturday, 05th of January 2008 09:23 PM

Play has concluded for tonight with 30 minutes remaining in level 7. Somewhere around 250 players remain and will return Monday at noon for day 2. They have begun the bag & tag process. Once the chip count list is available, it will be posted here.  (Because of the size of the field, the media was advised not to expect the list until morning.)

Ryan Collett is my best guess as to the end of day 1A chip leader, approaching 200k in chips.

Sunday at noon the second starting flight will get underway with another 500+ hopefuls.

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 09:07 PM


 
 
Ryan Collett

260 players are still alive as they begin the 15 minute countown to the end of play. Ryan Collett has extended his lead to about 186k chips (average is ~43k).

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 08:44 PM

Level 7: Blinds 500/1,000 with 100 antes. Play has resumed for the final time tonight.

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 08:33 PM

Level 6 has expired. Following this break, they will play 45 minutes of level 7, then call it a night.

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 08:24 PM

With the board showing Q 8 6, (two diamonds) Eric 'Rizen' Lynch gets his short-stacked opponent all in. Eric is way out in front with pocket Queens for top set. His opponent showed A 7 for the flush draw. "That's the hand I didn't want to see" says Eric. But the flush was not the problem. The last two cards came 4 5, giving the short-stack a runner-runner straight to double through.

Andreas Krause ran pocket Kings into Ted Lawson's pocket Aces and was busted. Shannon Shorr sucked out on his opponent, making a gutshot straight on the turn, only to suffer the re-suckout when his opponent boated on the river. Shannon is history.

Ryan Collett has vaulted into the chip lead with about 167k.

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 07:45 PM


 
 
Stephan Kjerstad

John Racener got his last chips in with A K against two callers, who held pocket Tens and T 8 . The pocket pair held up and John, fresh from his win of the WSOP Circuit Event at Harrah's in Atlantic City, gets the rest of the week off.

Stephan Kjerstad is now the chip leader with ~137k.

33 tables reamain, so fewer than 300 players are still in the mix. Average is ~37,500.

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 07:24 PM

Level 6: Blinds 400/800 with 100 antes. Play has resumed.

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 07:11 PM


 
 
Diego Perez

Adam "Roothlus" Levy ran his pocket Jacks into pocket Queens and was jacked right out of this tournament. Chad Brown made a desperation play with his last 4k in chips and was dispatched by Steve Paul-Ambrose.

Level 5 has concluded and another break is in progress. Diego Perez has moved into the chip lead with about 115k in chips.

333 players remain (at most) making the average stack somewhere in the neighborhood of 33,400.

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 06:11 PM

The Dragon is making a comeback. I arrived at showdown with the board reading 9 4 3 J J. David Pham tabled pocket Jacks for quads to take the pot, bust his opponent, and increase his stack to about 35k.

Joe Sebok had been circling the drain for a while. He told me earlier that he had been zigging when he should have zagged all day today. Folding JT instead of moving in with it, then seeing the flop of Q 9 8 was the example he gave me. His final hand was moving in over the top of a raise with K9. His opponent held Jacks and Joe was toast.


 
 
Tony Cousineau

David Wells has lost some ground and is down to about 80k. Tony Cousineau is moving chips in the right direction. His stack is up to about 90k.

378 players remain making the average stack almost 30,000.

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 05:53 PM

Level 5: Blinds300/600 with 75 antes. Players have resumed the business at hand.

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 05:43 PM

Dario Minieri was eliminated when his suited A4 failed to improve over Tuan Lam's pocket Tens. Steve Billirakis ran his pocket Kings smack into pocket Aces and he has also departed. Danny Wong flopped two pair and got his chips in the middle, only to run into top set. Tuan Lam got his turned straight cracked by a boat on the river and was crippled, only to bust out a few hands later.

That's the end of level 4 and time for break.

Today's number is official: 556 players sat down at the felt today. Tomorrow's number should surpass that.

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 05:22 PM

David 'the Dragon' raised 2k from the big blind after Dmitry Kirin limped late. Dmitry called and the flop was A J 5 . The Dragon checked, Dmitry quickly declared all-in, putting David to the test again. He had 13,250 left in front of him and went into the tank for a bit, then mucked. Dmitry made the in-your-face-show of T 9 (no pair, no draw). The Dragon was looking a bit frustrated. Dmitry was up to about 90k after that pot, good for second place.


 
 
David "Boomer" Wells

The current chip leader is David Wells, who has about 96k. If that name is not familiar to you, check out Google or Wikipedia. David "Boomer" Wells is 44 years old and has been a professional baseball player for 21 of those years. He is a lefty and one of only 17 pitchers to have pitched a perfect game (May 17, 1998 for the Yankees against the Twins). David finished the 2007 season with the Dodgers and applied for free agency.

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 04:47 PM

We are experiencing some 'challenges' with the internet access here today, so it has been a while since my last post. They are about 20 minutes into Level 4 with 200/400 blinds and 50 antes.

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 03:39 PM

On the turn, the board showed A T 5 7 and seat 5 check-raised David 'the Dragon' Pham's 5k bet enough to put David all-in. The 2007 Player of the Year was put to the test and went into the tank for several minutes. Eventually he surrendered his hand rather than putting his tournament life at risk. David was left with about 10k in chips.


 
 
Frank Nielson

Lucano Pagano flopped top set and got all in on the turn against a player with nothing but a flush draw with gutshot. Of course the flush card landed on the river and the Team PokerStars pro was felted.

Tuan Lam, 2007 WSOP Main Event runner-up, doubled through Dario Mineri when his 8-high straight bested Dario's 7-high straight.

It appears that Frank Nielson is the chip leader with about 65k. Ben Reed is close on his heels with about 62k and Tony Cousineau close behind with ~60k.

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 03:00 PM

Level 3: Blinds 100/200 with 25 antes. Play has resumed.

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 02:50 PM

End of level 2 and players are taking a break. They have started to break tables now, so the pace of eliminations has picked up.

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 02:41 PM

I got the scoop on how Jonathan Drane sent Norm McDonald to the rail. Jonathan limped under the gun and then called a raise from Norm to take a flop of J 9 3. After a raising war, all the chips went in the middle. Norm tabled pocket Queens, but Jonathan's pocket 9s had flopped a set and left Norm drawing to two outs, which did not materialize. Jonathan is now up to about 46k.

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 02:20 PM

Norm McDonald is no longer in the house. His chips have migrated across the table to Jonathan Drane's stack, who is sitting on about 40k. Trying to find out what happened to Norm. Erik Seidel has also been dispatched. Andreas Hoivold flopped a straight and was crippled when his opponent rivered a flush. Andreas was busted soon after when his pocket Tens lost a race to Big Slick.

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 01:30 PM

Level 2: Blinds 100/200. Play continues.

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 01:02 PM


 
 
Barry Shulman - not!

Norm McDonald is in the house, keeping a low profile at the opposite end of the table from a Barry Shulman look-alike, who is sporting some very high profile sunglasses. My pick for table to watch is the table with Chad Batista, one of the top ranked online players, in the 2 seat and John 'the Razor' Phan in the 9 seat. In no particular order, here are the folks I've recognized: Matt Glantz, Jonathan Little, Tony Cousineau, David Grey, Chris 'Armenian Express' Grigorian, Mimi Tran, Thor Hansen, Mike Gracz, Jan von Halle, Eugene Todd, Alex Vuong, Katja Thater, Humberto Brenes, Joe Brooks, Nick Schulman, Josh Arieh, Steve Paul-Ambrose, Chad Brown, Isaac Haxton, Juha Helppi, Bill Chen, Victor Ramdin, Michael Farris, Erik Seidel, James Mackey, Frank Vizza, Tom McCormick, John Racener, David Tran, Chris Moneymaker, Kathy Liebert, Adam 'Roothlus' Levy and Shannon Shorr.

I'm also getting my first look at some of the top European players. These folks are in today's field: Andreas Hoivold, (EPT season 3 Dortmund winner) Arnaud Mattern, (EPT season 4 Prague winner) Julian Thew, (EPT season 4 Baden winner) Kristian Kjondal, (two EPT final tables) Patrick Bruel, (French actor and recording artist, 1 EPT final table) Soren Kongsgaard, (EPT season 3 Grand Final 3rd place) and Rhynie Campbell, (WPT Turks & Caicos winner).

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 12:16 PM

Level 1: Blinds 50/100. Cards are in the air.

The first order of business today will be to eliminate the 10 seat so that all tables are 9-handed.  As players bust out, the 10-seat will be removed.  No tables will be broken until all are down to 9 players.

The plan is to play 6 levels plus 45 minutes of level 7 without a dinner break, in hopes of getting down to about 290 players.

Saturday, 05th of January 2008 11:34 AM

The action will kick off shortly after noon today with the first of two starting flights. This field is so large they have to divide it over two starting days. 650 players will start today and they expect another 600 tomorrow, making this the largest EPT event by far.

The buy-in is $7,800 + $200 and players will begin with 20,000 chips. Levels are 75 minutes long.

This field will be chock-full of poker pros, a veritable who's who in the poker world.  I'll give you an idea who is playing day 1A in just a bit, once cards are in the air.


 

Kaelaine Minton Reporting

Kaelaine is one of the hardest working reporters on the tournament cicruit, and she can play poker, too!  She won the 2007 World Poker Open Media Tournament at the Goldstrike in Tunica, besting a field of 50 to win the event and the WPO gold bracelet!   Her motto is "will do anything poker-related for money".



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