Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier just lost back-to-back pots near the end of the night. The first hand was lost to Jose Manuel Nadal, but it was the second that would hurt a bit more.
On the first, Mercier raised to 4,000 from the hijack seat and received a call from Nadal, who was acting out of the big blind. After Nadal checked the flop, he checked and Mercier bet 3,700 with the flick of his wrist. Nadal called, and the turn was the . Both players checked, and then checked the river card. Nadal showed the for a pair of jacks, and he won the pot. Mercier mucked.
On the very next deal of the cards, Mercier opened from middle position to 4,000. An unknown opponent called on the button, and everyone else folded.
The flop was , and Mercier continued with a bet of 3,600. His opponent raised to 11,200, and Mercier called. The turn was the , and both players checked to see the pair the board on the river. That's where Mercier checked and his opponent bet 23,000. Mercier tanked for a bit, before finally tossing in the call. His opponent showed a flopped straight with the , and Mercier mucked his hand.
Team PokerStars Pros Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Jake Cody took questions on switching from online to live poker this morning, as the PokerStars Blog reports.
After two Day 1 flights, the remaining players in the 2015 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event all sat down in the same room for Day 2, with over 500 players to start the day. Following five 90-minute levels, Walter Fisher emerged as the leader when he bagged 497,000 in chips. Fisher holds a slight lead over Hugh Drummond (456,800) and Juan Martin Pastor (446,000).
Fisher, an amateur player, said most of his poker consists of playing cash games in Los Angeles. He came to the PCA with a trio of recognizable names (Bill Perkins, Jeff Gross, and Sorel Mizzi), and said he had the good fortune to hit a few sets against fellow big stacks holding aces. Despite his excellent early position, Fisher is taking the long view.
"I'm trying to get rest and keep myself nice and calm because it's only Day 2 and there's so many days," Fisher said. "I've seen so many of my friends go through it with monster stacks and end up being massively upset because they punted away their chips."
As for Drummond, he won a monster pot late in the day when Sebastian Von Toperczer shoved over his 47,000 reraise for about 150,000 during Level 13 (1,000/2,000/300), the last of the night. Drummond snapped it off with , and his bullets held up against Von Toperczer's .
Surviving were 175 players to advance to Sunday's Day 3. Other notables to advance included Pratyush Buddiga (357,900), Jim Collopy (342,000), Daniel Negreanu (295,600), Liv Boeree (247,100), Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (212,400), Ole Schemion (192,600), Olivier Busquet (190,700), Mike Leah (185,400), retired Brazilian footballer Ronaldo (146,300), former World Series of Poker Main Event champ Jonathan Duhamel (77,700), and Jason Mercier (49,000).
One player who failed to make it through was defending champion Dominik Panka. Last year, the Polish player defeated Mike McDonald heads up to capture the title and more than $1.4 million in prize money. Panka fell at some point during Level 10.
Faraz Jaka, Jacob Bazeley, Vanessa Selbst, pro golfer Sergio Garcia, David "Bakes" Baker, Jake Cody, Tony Gregg, Dan Kelly, 2003 Main Event champ Chris Moneymaker, Shaun Deeb, Randy "nanonoko" Lew, former PCA winner Harrison Gimbel, and 2014 WSOP Player of the Year George Danzer were also among those eliminated during the course of play.
Gregg had a big stack for much of the day, but found himself short during the last level of the night. Following a flop of , the man many refer to as "End Boss" was all in for about 22,000 with the against the held by German superstar Ole Schemion. Despite Gregg flopping a full house, Schemion caught the turn to take the lead and further improved to quads with the river to deliver a painful end to Gregg's tournament.
Play will resume at noon local time on Sunday for Day 3, and PokerNews will continue to provide live coverage. Meanwhile, check out the latest episode of Ivey Stories.