Calvin Anderson Bags a Top Stack After Day 1b of $25,500 MILLIONS World
It was a much busier day inside the convention center at Baha Mar Resort in the beautiful Bahamas for Day 1b of the $25,500 MILLIONS World. The players came out in waves for what could be one of the biggest Super High Rollers ever and it's all happening at the Caribbean Poker Party. There were over 200 entries throughout the day, capping out at 205 and just 134 players surviving.
When all the dust settled, Calvin Anderson emerged as one of the big stacks heading into Day 2 with 3,700,000 chips. The sudden jolt up the leaderboard came on the backend of a double knockout where he eliminated Sorel Mizzi and Ognjen Sekularac. Anderson had the big blind special, nine-deuce, and made a full house against two premium hands to take over the lead. He sailed to the finish from there and will be in a great position when Day 2 fires up.
The American's three biggest scores have all come at the World Series of Poker with two of those being gold bracelet victories. A deep run in this high roller event could be an impressive score to add to his resume of over $2.1 million in career earnings.
Anderson also had to deal with Geraldo Cesar at his table and both players held two of the bigger stacks of the tournament heading into the last level. They battled it out in a couple of hands with Cesar coming out on top both times and taking over the chip lead. Cesar is a bit unknown to the poker world and especially the high roller scene, with just $40,000 in career earnings. Most of his tournament cashes have come here in the Bahamas or in his home country of Brazil. Cesar will take the overall chip lead into Day 2 with 4,315,000 chips.
There was a much bigger buzz in the building when the action got underway with over 40 players taking their seats at the start of play. That number continued to rise at a rapid pace and within no time, the field for Day 1b escalated over 100 entries. Ali Imsirovic broke out into the early chip lead with some dominating poker and had accumulated over faltered chips at one point. However, he faltered in the latter half of the day and will head into Day 2 as one of the short stacks.
One of the most exciting hands of the day came in the result of King's Casino owner Leon Tsoukernik. There was a three-way all in on the flop with Tsoukernik on the short stack. Tsoukernik's three-four suited turned a straight and he held on for a triple up. That gave the high-stakes businessman all the confidence he needed to build a healthy chip stack of 3,005,000 heading into tomorrow.
Some other big names to make it through include Mike Leah (2,775,000), Matt Berkey (2,640,000), Seth Davies (2,625,000), Rainer Kempe (2,510,000), Ryan Riess (2,415,000), and Richard Seymour (1,100,000). A couple of the partypoker pros who found success at the table were Joni Jouhkimainen (1,350,000), and Sam Trickett (1,000,000).
Late registration will remain open for the first four levels of Day 2 to give any of those that were eliminated a couple more chances to run up a stack. The chips are expected to be flying around a rapid pace right from the get go with everyone given the opportunity of potentially two more buy-ins tomorrow. There are a total of 282 entries from the Day 1 flights and with a massive $10 million guaranteed prizepool looming, it provides a great incentive for many players to take a shot at glory.
The action is scheduled to get underway at 12 p.m. EST again and the PokerNews live reporting team will be here to bring you more coverage of some high roller action.