Niclas Thumm open-shoved a stack of 4,400,000 in the small blind and Nacho Barbero quickly called in the big blind.
Niclas Thumm:
Nacho Barbero:
Barbero took a massive lead on the king-high flop of though Thumm picked up a wheel draw on the turn. Unfortunately for “Flushiisback," the bricked out for him on the river and the Platinum Pass winner was eliminated in sixth place for a career-high $1,001,200.
Aliaksandr Shylko limped in from the small blind with and Pedro Marques checked the big blind with . The flop came and both players checked through to the on the turn and the on the river.
Shylko finally threw out a min-bet of 300,000 and Marques looked him up with ace-high to win a small pot.
On the next hand, Marques limped in from the small blind with and Philipe Pizzari checked the big blind with . The flop came and Marques led out with a bet of 300,000. Pizzari raised to 675,000 with a straight draw and Marques was forced to give up his hand.
The PokerNews Live Reporting Team has been on-site to offer live updates from a slew of PCA tournaments. Here’s a look at five of the more interesting hands captured in our live updates from the PSPC, including one that happened at the final table not long ago and could very well cost one player millions of dollars.
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Pedro Marques raised it up to 600,000 in the hijack with and Nacho Barbero just called in the small blind with . They went heads-up to a flop of which slowed the action as both players checked.
The turn brought the and they checked it through to the on the river. Barbero checked for the third time and Marques knuckled the table to claim the pot with his pair of queens.
Aliaksandr Shylko opened to 500,000 on the button with and Philipe Pizzari defended out of the big blind with .
Pizzari checked on the flop and Shylko continued for 250,000. Pizzari called. Pizzari checked again on the turn after making his straight and Shylko checked back.
Pizzari led out for 900,000 on the river and Shylko laid it down.
Philipe Pizzari limped the small blind with and Niclas Thumm checked his option in the big blind with . The flop came and Pizzari led out with a bet of 250,000 which Thumm called.
The turn brought the and both players checked to the on the river. Two more checks and Thumm tabled his hand which led to Pizzari folding the best hand, not realizing that he had a pair of fours.
In case you didn’t know, PokerStars is back in the United States. It actually has been for quite some time in New Jersey as well as in Michigan and Pennsylvania, though each was a segregated market. At the start of the New Year, PokerStars hit the ground running by becoming the first online operator to merge their NJ and MI player pools, instantly making it the largest online poker network in the US.
One man responsible for making that happen was Managing Director of North America for PokerStars Severin Rasset, who helped usher in a similar liquidity merge in Europe.
“We had similar things happening in Portugal, which was operating as a closed liquidity for a while,” he explained. “Portugal has about 14 million inhabitants. So, very similar to the size of New Jersey or Pennsylvania. Then Portugal joined with Spain, which was a big, dynamic change to the market.”
He added: “I've been through quite a lot of these changes in the regulatory and so just using this experience while getting the most out of the team in the US and plugging my experience in with their expertise and their own experiences, I think we're gonna have a really good mix.”
Rasset recently spoke to PokerNews at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in the Bahamas about recent developments concerning PokerStars US including the reveal that they’re offering $1 million in guarantees each week, updates on Pennsylvania and Nevada, and the potential return of live events in America.
Nacho Barbero opened to 525,000 from early position holding and Pedro Marques called in the small blind with . Philipe Pizzari also came along from the big blind with .
Marques and Pizzari checked on the flop of and Barbero bet 600,000. Marques folded and Pizzari called. Pizzari checked again after making two pair on the turn and Barbero checked back.
Pizzari checked again on the river and Barbero bet 1,200,000. Pizzari quickly called and Barbero saw the bad news and let out a sigh after the less than optimal start to the day.