Petrangelo Overcomes Late Beat to Maintain Lead
Nick Petrangelo began Day 2 as the chip leader of the $25,000 High Roller at the PokerStars Championship Bahamas, and he finished there as well as the field narrowed from about 80 players to just nine. Those nine have drawn seats for the final table, with Petrangelo piling 1,960,000 into his bag. He'll have to contend with arguably the two hottest players in the tropical Atlantis Resort at the moment.
Byron Kaverman, who finished fifth in the $100,000 Super High Roller and third in the $50,000 Single-Day High Roller for about $450,000 apiece, is third in chips with 1,233,000 and will be seated to Petrangelo's left. Bryn Kenney won that $50K and an impromptu $25,000 High Roller, plus he got seventh in the $100K for over $1.6 million total. He's advanced to yet another final table here but will come in as the shortest stack with only 186,000, just over 10 big blinds.
Michael Rocco (1,533,000), Luc Greenwood (1,170,000), Mark Radoja (651,000), Stephen Chidwick (488,000), Nacho Barbero (411,000), and PokerStars Team Pro Daniel Negreanu (382,000) round out the field.
Petrangelo looked like he was going to sail to top billing again but lost a big pot to Kaverman late that cost him a chance to pull even farther ahead of the pack. He three-bet Kaverman's under-the-gun open holding aces and saw the board run out three-three-ten-five-jack. Unfortunately for Petrangelo, four of those cards were clubs and Kaverman held the queen of clubs to drag a pot worth over 700,000 at 5,000/10,000/1,000.
Still, it wasn't all bad news for Petrangelo as he won big flips to bust Mustapha Kanit and Anton Astapau a little after Igor Kurganov went out on the bubble in 24th.
Rocco also took a tough beat late when he lost kings to eights all in preflop to Greenwood, but a monster pot against another Greenwood rectified things. It was Sam Greenwood seeing a six-ten-ten flop against Rocco and check-raising to 160,000 when Rocco bet 60,000 at Level 20 (8,000/16,000/2,000). Rocco called and then called two more barrels, including a river shove, showing down tens for quads. Sam had flopped the underful with sixes.
Fratricide signaled the day's end when Luc busted Sam and Sergio Aido in a three-way all in with fives against ace-two of clubs and ace-nine, respectively.
Since it was time to draw new seats and just 16 minutes remained in Level 20, the tournament director decided to just bag everyone up. The final nine battle it out for over $900,000 in first-place money starting at noon local time on Saturday.
| Seat | Player | Stack |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nick Petrangelo | 1,960,000 |
| 2 | Byron Kaverman | 1,233,000 |
| 3 | Stephen Chidwick | 488,000 |
| 4 | Daniel Negreanu | 382,000 |
| 5 | Michael Rocco | 1,533,000 |
| 6 | Nacho Barbero | 411,000 |
| 7 | Mark Radoja | 651,000 |
| 8 | Luc Greenwood | 1,170,000 |
| 9 | Bryn Kenney | 186,000 |