Canadians Afriat and Alibay Pacing Field on Day 1b of Main Event
Day 1b of partypoker's flagship event the Caribbean Poker Party saw 337 players buy in. 202 made it through the day and secrued themselves of a stack for Day 2 on Tuesday.
Jason Tompkins (4,570,000) and Anton Nocera (4,030,000) bagged the biggest stacks but it was a duo of Canadians headlining on Day 1b of the partypoker 2018 Caribbean Poker Party $5,300 Main Event as Eric Afriat and Ami Alibay, both hailing from the great North made some waves.
Afriat finished with 4,005,000, just a little under the 4,050,000 that countryman Francois Billard ended Day 1a with. A two-time World Poker Tour champion and veteran of several other major final tables, Afriat has over $2.7 million in cashes. He had a big stack almost right off the bat and continued to churn upward at the same table in the corner of the room, never seeming to lose a step at any point.
Alibay, meanwhile, will tote 3,790,000 into Day 2. He's already got a couple of small cashes in partypoker LIVE main events this year, having finished 49th and 167th in the two Montreal events. He'll doubtless be aiming higher after a strong Day 1.
Plenty of other recognizable regs were vying for the lead among the 200 or so players who advanced out of the roughly 335 entries. Aussie Millions champ Toby Lewis (3,710,000), Tim Reilly (3,505,000), Kyle Keranen (3,270,000) and Gerald Karlic (3,150,000) all wound up north of 3 million.
Lewis busted Sorel Mizzi in one of the last hands of the night. Out of the small blind, he shoved river on an ace-king-high board that was paired with deuces and contained three hearts. Mizzi called his remaining chips off but didn't seem confident as he got out of his seat immediately, and he couldn't beat ace-king for top two.
It looked like Justin Ligeri was going to make a push for the lead as he was north of 4 million at least once — by his admission, twice — but a late slide saw him bag closer to 2 million.
The 300-plus entries pushed the two-flight total just past 500, meaning plenty of work remains if the event is to reach the monstrous $10 million guarantee. The $25,500 MILLIONS World made a late push that nearly reached the magic number, so it remains to be seen if this event can do the same with yet one more flight left as well as a few hours of late registration on Day 2.
For continued coverage of this event, check back with PokerNews when it resumes for the third and final flight Monday at noon local time here at Baha Mar in The Bahamas.