Barny Boatman Leads Day 1a of the Caribbean Poker Party Festival MILLIONS Open
The first flight of the Caribbean Poker Party Festival $1,100 buy-in MILLIONS Open played out over eight 60-minute levels at The Level at Melia Caribe Tropical in beautiful Punta Cana. All told, 133 entries tried their luck in flight 1a and 73 bagged chips with Barny Boatman (7,415,000) at the head of the pack. Oskar Prehm (5,771,000), Jan Erlei (4,147,000), Maria Ho (3,870,000), and Santiago Soriano Ramos (3,868,000) round out the top five stacks.
Alongside the current leaders, quite a few other well-known players advanced to Day 2, including partypoker ambassadors Roberto Romanello (2,900,000), Natalia Breviglieri (1,645,000), and Joao Simao (2,081,000). They are joined by the likes of Iaron Lightbourne (3,627,000), Antoine Saout (2,539,000), and Samantha Abernathy (2,244,000).
Unfortunately, not all the fan favorites survived to Day 2. Three-time WSOP bracelet winner Michael Gathy, partypoker ambassador Anatoly Filatov, and partypoker Chairman Mike Sexton were among the fallen.
Flight 1b was scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. local time but did not run. Players can still try their luck winning the $1,000,000 Guaranteed event in the two flights scheduled to start Saturday at noon and 7:00 p.m. Late registration and re-entry will be available until the conclusion of level 12 on Day 2, which will begin at noon on Sunday.
Keep it here for continuing coverage of the MILLIONS Open and the rest of the Caribbean Poker Party Festival from the PokerNews Live Reporting team.
, partypoker ambassador Natalia Breviglieri checked from big blind. Her lone opponent, Enrique Bergemann, shoved to put Brevilgieri to a decision for the remainder of her 504,000-chip stack. She called after a few moments of thought and showed 
for a pair of eights which was good enough to win the pot, so she took the chips to double up.
, Antoine Saout checked from the small blind and his lone opponent, in the hijack, bet 70,000. Saout check-raised to 365,000, sending his opponent into the tank. He ultimately folded and Saout took the pot.
, Barny Boatman bet 300,000 from the small blind and Andy Bacon called from middle position.
and all three players checked. 
and Bacon checked. Filatov checked, Boatman bet 115,000, both of his opponents folded, and he took the pot.
and Ho bet 130,000. Her opponent called.
fell on the river and Ho checked. The button bet 255,000 and after a few moments of thought, Ho called.
