2015 PCA $100,000 Super High Roller Day 1: Sam Greenwood Leads Record-Setting Field
Day 1 of the 2015 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100,000 Super High Roller has officially been put in the books. After eight full levels of play, Sam Greenwood emerged as the chip leader heading into Day 2 with 1.073 million in chips.
Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sam Greenwood | 1,073,000 |
| 2 | Mike McDonald | 749,000 |
| 3 | Andrew Robl | 734,000 |
| 4 | Christoph Vogelsang | 697,000 |
| 5 | Carlos Chadha | 683,000 |
| 6 | Vladimir Troyanovskiy | 637,000 |
| 7 | Bryn Kenney | 626,000 |
| 8 | Sorel Mizzi | 577,500 |
| 9 | Erik Seidel | 546,000 |
| 10 | Jason Mercier | 540,000 |
During Day 1 play, Greenwood amassed a vast majority of his chips by besting pocket kings with pocket aces not once, but twice. The first of these two confrontations occurred against Scott Seiver and resulted in the 2013 PCA Super High Roller champion making his way to the cage to reenter. Greenwood vaulted near the chip lead with this pot and never relented as the day progressed. Then toward the end of Level 7, Greenwood engaged in a preflop pot against Byron Kaverman where he once again held bullets against his opponent's cowboys. Kaverman was eliminated from play and Greenwood added to his chip lead, boosting his stack over 900,000.
While Greenwood bagged up the biggest stack of the day, his road to success is littered with obstacles in the form of the most elite poker players in the world. European Poker Tour champion and last year's PCA Main Event runner-up Mike McDonald finished the day second in chips with 749,000, and Andrew Robl rounded out the top three with 734,000.
Other notable faces to take sizable stacks onto Day 2 include Christoph Vogelsang (697,000), Vladimir Troyanovskiy (637,000) Bryn Kenney (626,000), Sorel Mizzi (577,500), Erik Seidel (546,000), Justin Bonomo (511,000), and Keith Lehr (501,000).
Team PokerStars Pro had a fair showing throughout the day was well with Jason Mercier (540,000), Daniel Negreanu (303,000), and Isaac Haxton (275,500) each moving onto Day 2. Vanessa Selbst was the only member of Team PokerStars Pro to be eliminated, falling from play late in the day.
Day 1 drew a grand total of 61 entries, with 48 unique entrants and 13 reentries. Dan Shak reentered twice and was eliminated from play twice. Bill Perkins is still thriving on his third bullet, with other players such as McDonald, Seiver, Cary Katz, and Daniel Colman taking advantage of the reentry option. Registration will remain open until the start of Day 2, meaning that this number is likely to increase before a final number and prize pool are announced.
Heading into this year's event, the record field size was 2013's 47 uniques entrants and 12 reentries for 59 total, meaning a new record has been set across the board with registration still open.
Despite this being one of the largest buy-in tournaments of the year, the day was certainly filled with several light-hearted moments. As expected, the players engaged in a rousing game of "Lodden Thinks" to help pass the time when not involved in hands. On top of that, a few high stakes prop bets were issued to McDonald throughout the day. First off, Perkins bet McDonald that he could not complete 300 air squats during a one-hour period (one level). McDonald proved him wrong and won the prize.
Here's a video with McDonald discussing the air-squat prop bet:
Unfortunately for McDonald, a few hours later, he failed at completing the necessary 350 push-ups in one hour to pocket another big payday. The EPT Season 4 Dortmund Main Event champion came close, however, clocking in a final number of 323.
Play will resume at 12 p.m. local time on Wednesday, where the super high rollers will return to the felt with the mission of making the prestigious final table. As always, be sure to keep your browsers locked to PokerNews for all of the latest live updates from the floor.
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