A long and grueling 14 hour day has come to an end on Day 1 of the $1,650 PCA National. Russian poker player, Aleksandr Nemtcov will carry forward the chip lead into Day 2 after bagging 297,800 chips.Nemtcov will lead the final 61 players when the action resumes tomorrow at 12:00 P.M. local time.
The day started out with around 50 players taking their seats inside the ballroom of the Atlantis hotel. That number quickly grew as players continued to enter and re-enter. Everyone was allowed a single re-entry, some of which took full advantage of. When late registration was closed after the dinner break, a total of 290 entries were tallied.
That made up a prizepool of $421,950 which would be distributed throughout the final 39 players. A min-cash will be worth $2,900 but everyone will be in search of the first-place prize of $84,600. Along with the title, the winner will also receive a Platinum Pass into the 2019 PSPC $25,000 event held next January.
Many notables have made their way to the Bahamas for the 2018 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and for many, this was their first tournament of the series. Some that fell by the wayside throughout the day include Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Joseph Cheong, Kevin MacPhee, and PokerStars Team Pros, Jake Cody and Barry Greeplentyn. There were also plenty of familiar faces that found a bag including Harrison Gimbel (189,000), Rex Clinkscales (179,000), Chris Moorman (120,100), Ryan Smith (103,600), PokerStars Team Pro Maria Konnikova (83,500), and Ari Engel (79,800).
The action will resume at 12:00 P.M. local time on Monday. The schedule is set to play another 11 levels, which will continue at 60-minutes in length. There will be a 20-minute break after every two levels and an 80-minute dinner break after the sixth level of the day. The blinds will resume at 1,000/2,000 with a running ante of 300. A winner will be crowned on Day 3 of the tournament, slated to take place on Tuesday.
Continue to follow along with the PokerNews live reporting team for all of the coverage throughout the event.