2015 PCA Main Event Day 2: Walter Fisher On Top; Negreanu, Boeree Bag Big Stacks
After two Day 1 flights, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event field all sat down in the same room for Day 2, with 507 players to start the day. Following five 90-minute levels, Walter Fisher emerged as the leader when he bagged 497,000 chips. Fisher holds a slight lead over Hugh Drummond (456,800) and Juan Martin Pastor (446,000).
Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walter Fisher | 497,000 |
| 2 | Hugh Drummond | 456,800 |
| 3 | Juan Martin Pastor | 446,000 |
| 4 | Adam Reynolds | 378,500 |
| 5 | Diego Ventura | 362,800 |
| 6 | Jesse Rockowitz | 359,700 |
| 7 | Pratyush Buddiga | 357,900 |
| 8 | Jim Collopy | 342,000 |
| 9 | Carlos Chadha | 322,800 |
| 10 | Tim Reilly | 322,400 |
Fisher, an amateur player, said most of his poker consists of playing cash games in Los Angeles. He came to the PCA with a trio of recognizable names (Bill Perkins, Jeff Gross and Sorel Mizzi), and said he had the good fortune to hit a few sets against fellow big stacks holding aces. Despite his excellent early position, Fisher is taking the long view.
"I'm trying to get rest and keep myself nice and calm because it's only Day 2 and there's so many days," he said. "I've seen so many of my friends go through it with monster stacks and end up being massively upset because they punted away their chips."
As for Drummond, he won a monster pot late in the day when Sebastian Von Toperczer shoved over his 47,000 reraise for about 150,000 during Level 13 (1,000/2,000/300), the last of the night. Drummond snapped it off with AxAx, and his bullets held up against Von Toperczer's QxQx.
Only 175 survived to advance to Sunday's Day 3. Other notables to advance included Pratyush Buddiga (357,900), Jim Collopy (342,000), Daniel Negreanu (295,600), Liv Boeree (247,100), Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (212,400), Ole Schemion (192,600), Olivier Busquet (190,700), Mike Leah (185,400), retired Brazilian footballer Ronaldo (146,300), former World Series of Poker Main Event champ Jonathan Duhamel (77,700), and Jason Mercier (49,000).
One player who failed to make it through was defending champion Dominik Panka. Last year, the Polish player defeated Mike McDonald heads up to capture the title and more than $1.4 million in prize money. Panka fell at some point during Level 10.
Faraz Jaka, Jacob Bazeley, Vanessa Selbst, pro golfer Sergio Garcia, David "Bakes" Baker, Jake Cody, Tony Gregg, Dan Kelly, 2003 Main Event champ Chris Moneymaker, Shaun Deeb, Randy "nanonoko" Lew, former PCA winner Harrison Gimbel, and 2014 World Series of Poker Player of the Year George Danzer were also among those eliminated during the course of play.
Gregg had a big stack for much of the day but found himself short during the last level of the night. Following a flop of 6♠8♣6♣, the "End Boss" was all in for about 22,000 with 8♥8♠ against the J♣J♥ held by German superstar Schemion. However, Schemion caught the J♠ turn to take the lead and further improved to quads with the J♦ river to deliver a painful end to Gregg's tournament.
Play will resume at noon local time on Sunday for Day 3, and PokerNews will continue to provide live coverage. Meanwhile, check out Part 1 of our conversation with former Brazilian football superstar Ronaldo.
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