2014 PCA Main Event Day 1a: Dylan Hortin Grabs Chip Lead and Gilbert Arenas Busts
While Fabian Quoss was busy winning the $100,000 Super High Roller, Day 1a of the $10,000,000 Guarantee Main Event from the 2014 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure concluded on Tuesday. A total of 295 players came out to action for the first of two starting flights, and 184 of them advanced to Day 2. Emerging as the chip leader was Dylan Hortin. He bagged up an impressive 160,500 in chips and set the bar high for everyone else.
Several notables kicked off their poker year in this event, but for some of them, it didn't quite go as planned. Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis saw his hopes dashed early, as did fellow Team Pro Vanessa Rousso. PokerStars Team Online member Mickey Petersen was also eliminated on Day 1a.
Petersen fell during Level 6 with the blinds at 200/400/50. He was all in for roughly 17,000 with the A♣K♠, but unfortunately ran into the K♣K♥ for Shai Zurr. The board ran out 10♥9♣4♣4♠10♦, and Petersen's day was over.
Another player who busted was also arguably the most high-profile entry in this event thus far, and that was former NBA star Gilbert Arenas. The three-time NBA All-Star only lasted two full levels before busting at the start of Level 3. He was eliminated at the hands of the overnight chip leader, and that is where Hortin's building began.
With the blinds at 100/200, Hortin opened from under the gun to 600. Arenas tossed out two chips in an attempt to make the call, but the problem was, the two chips he tossed out were one yellow T1,000 chip and one black T100 chip, totaling 1,100. His action was ruled a raise to 1,100. Action then folded back to Hortin, and he made it 5,000 to go.
Arenas made a comment along the lines of, "Oh, you're going to do me like that? I still like my hand, though." He then moved all in for around 27,000, to which Hortin snap-called.
Hortin tabled QxQx, which had the suited QxJx for Arenas in bad shape. Despite being dominated, the Jx10x9x flop gave Arenas much more hope than anticipated. Following bricks on the turn and river, though, Arenas was eliminated from the tournament.
Of those who managed to survive were Calvin Anderson, Joseph Cheong, Eugene Katchalov, Liv Boeree, John Juanda, and the reigning World Series of Poker Main Event champion Ryan Riess. Riess got down to under 10,000 relatively early in the day, but turned things around a little bit and finished on 16,500.
Wednesday will be the second and final starting flight to this marquee event, and it is expected that around 700 players will be in the mix. If the event is going to hit the $10,000,000 guarantee, the Imperial Ballroom at the Atlantis Resort is going to have to be packed from wall to wall.
Day 1b will commence at 12 p.m. local time, and you can be sure to find all of your live updates right here on PokerNews.com.
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