PCA Main Event Day 1 Recap

Both Day 1A and Day 1B of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event are now behind us. As predicted, 2011 has thus far been the biggest and most exciting year in PCA history. Day 1A brought in 647 players, and as usual Day 1B was considerably larger with a field of 913 competitors. That adds up to a total of 1560 entries for this year’s Main Event for a gain of 31 players more than last year’s field of 1529.

What’s especially remarkable about the PCA’s numbers this year is that they continue an upward trend that the event has sustained for seven solid years now, since the very first Caribbean Adventure back in 2004. The increased entries also mean more money, so this year’s Main Event is offering the biggest payouts yet with a total prize pool of $15,132,000. The winner alone will take home more than $2.3 million while the runner-up will also be a guaranteed millionaire with a second place payout of $1.8 million.

Who’s sitting pretty going into Day 2? Day 1A’s field was a little softer than usual, what with many of the tournament’s top players still over watching or participating in the Super High Roller event. The Day 1A leaderboard included quite a few unknowns and the chip counts were surprisingly close. Here were the top ten Day 1A stacks: 

1. Pieter de Korver – 245,300
2. Ryan Olisar – 227,700
3. Guillaume Gignac – 219,600
4. Owen Crowe – 213,000
5. Chad Eveslage – 203,500
6. Justin Scott – 203,300
7. Mathieu Martin – 199,500
8. Dmitry Stelmak – 186,500
9. Tyler Cornell – 183,800
10. Toby Lewis – 181,000

Day 1B’s action was even more exciting and unpredictable as pros like Daniel Negreanu, Sorel Mizzi, Bryn Kenney, Viktor Blom, Bertrand Grospellier, Vanessa Rousso and Antonio Esfandiari entered the mix. The record-breaking pack of 913 players was whittled down to 373, and while Blom fared well, blast from the past Chris Moneymaker was Day 1B’s most recognizable top ten finisher along with 2010 POY runner-up Dwyte Pilgrim. Despite having more chips to go around, the Day 1B stacks were even closer in size. Here’s how the second top ten panned out:

1. Walid Bou-Habib – 239,000
2. Timothy Finne – 225,100
3. Carol Ventura – 225,000
4. Ilan Rouah – 224,900
5. Tommy Vedes – 220,200
6. Chris Moneymaker – 217,600
7. Adam Gabor – 207,900
8. Redmond Lee – 205,000
9. Bruno de Oliveira Severino – 201,700
10. Dwyte Pilgrim – 199,200

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