PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Day 1a: Wayne Bentley Leads
Over 650 players turned out for the first of two Day 1 flights in the 7th annual PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event. At day's end, amateur Wayne Bentley had more chips than any of the other players who survived the day in the Imperial Ballroom at the Atlantis Resort in The Bahamas.
During the seventh level of play, Bentley won a string of pots that catapulted him from 130,000 in chips to 260,000. In one such pot, with the blinds at 300/600 with a 75 ante, Bentley opened with a raise to 1,500 and was reraised by Alfonso Cammarota who made it 3,500 to go. Bentley made the call and the two went heads-up to an A♥9♥8♣ flop. Bentley checked, passing the first option to Cammarota who fired a continuation bet of 5,000. Bentley responded with a raise, making it 20,000 to go. Cammarota then instantly moved the remainder of his stack into the middle – about 35,000 – and Bentley made the call.
Cammarota tabled a pocket pair of nines for middle set, but Bentley was drawing very live with the 7♥6♥, good for open-ended straight and flush draws. The turn brought an inconsequential 7♦ but the river delivered the 10♣, completing Bentley’s straight and subsequently sending Cammarota to the rail.
After this hand, Bentley improved to 180,000 in chips and the rush was on. Bentley remained extremely active throughout the rest of the day, moving chips like a FritoLay conveyor belt. Your Day 1a chip leader bagged a whopping 329,500 in chips to wrap up the day.
The always dangerous Kevin Saul also managed to amass a big stack by day’s end, finishing with 175,500 in chips. Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu and Dennis Phillips put on respectable Day 1a performances, each finishing with over 100,000. Fellow Team PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein also had a good day, bagging 98,000 by day’s end. Also of note, last year’s main event champion Poorya Nazari is still alive and thriving in this year’s tournament. He’ll return to the felt for Day 2 action on Thursday with 89,300 in chips.
A few of the not-so-lucky pros who failed to reach the bag-and-tag stage of Day 1a included Kevin Stammen, J.C. Tran, Jonathan Little, Team PokerStars Netherlands Pro Joep Van Den Bijgaart, Daniel Alaei, Antony Lellouche, Tiffany Michelle, and Bill Edler.
Here’s a quick look at the top ten Day 1a chip leaders:
1. Wayne Bentley - 335,000
2. Kevin Saul - 170,000
3. Eric Froehlich - 165,000
4. Vivek Rajkumar - 112,000
5. Ben Lamb - 105,000
6. James Mackey - 104,000
7. Barry Greenstein - 98,000
8. Daniel Negreanu - 91,500
9. Dennis Phillips - 90,000
10. Dave 'Doc Sands' Sands - 80,000
PokerNews’ live coverage of the 2010 PokerStars.net Caribbean Adventure continues Wednesday at noon EST when an anticipated field of 800+ takes to the felt for Day 1b. Follow all of the action direct from the tournament floor right here.
