Mateos Uses Second Bullet to Bag Chip Lead in $10,000 High Roller
Another day at the Baha Mar Resort in the Bahamas meant another day for a high roller tournament to get underway. Today, it was the Caribbean Poker Party $10,000 High Roller with a $1,000,000 guaranteed prizepool and the attendance was fairly substantial.
A total of 80 entries took to the felt on Day 1 and with late registration staying open for the first four levels on Day 2, reaching the guarantee shouldn't be a problem. After eight levels were completed, Adrian Mateos finished on top of the leaderboard with 4,015,000 chips. He will lead the remaining 53 players into Day 2 along with any new entries that wish to join the field.
For Mateos, things got off to a rough start as he blasted through his first 1,000,000 chips before the first break. It wasn't long before he was back on the felt and he made good use of his second bullet, running up a stack to over four times what he started with. One of the bigger hands the Spaniard played was with fellow high roller Jake Schindler where Mateos bet all three streets and finally made a straight on the river. Schindler also put chips in the bag but will be returning as one of the shorter stacks.
Things got off to a slow start with only three players registered at the scheduled start time. The tournament staff decided to postpone the start until at least eight players were registered which happened about one hour later. However, the numbers started to escalate quickly as more players dropped out of the $5,300 Main Event that is currently taking place.
Through the first four levels, the action was held to a minimum and nobody was able to really distinguish themselves as a chipleader while the blinds were still small. It wasn't until the fifth level that Ali Imsirovic boasted a stack of over 3,000,000 as the field broke the 50 entry barrier. Joseph Cheong made an appearance at the top of the leaderboard in the sixth level, surpassing Imsirovic and he continued that momentum to the end of the day, bagging up 3,730,000 chips.
Some other notables to make it through the opening day with sizeable stacks include Guillaume Diaz (3,825,000), Dominik Nitsche (3,220,000), Sam Soverel (2,745,000), Timothy Adams (2,495,000), and Justin Bonomo (2,405,000). Once again, the field had its fair share of partypoker members scattered throughout and four of them found a bag at the end of the night. Isaac Haxton (2,725,000), Kristen Bicknell (1,535,000), Roberto Romanello (1,300,000), and Anatoly Filatov (855,000) will all be back for Day 2.
The cards are expected to be back in the air at 1 p.m. local time tomorrow for another 10 levels of play. As mentioned before, late registration will be open until the end of the dinner break which occurs after the fourth level. The blinds will begin on level 9 at 10,000/25,000 with a 25,000 big blind ante. The PokerNews live reporting team will be back to bring you coverage throughout the day.