Sands Has Massive Lead Entering Third and Final Day
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With eight players remaining in the tenth anniversary PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100,000 Super High Roller, David “Doc” Sands is the overwhelming chip leader with 6,680,000 chips. Joining him at the final table are professionals Nick Schulman, Philipp Gruissem, and Scott Seiver, amateurs Greg Jensen, Cary Katz, and Vladimir Troyanovsky, and Super High Roller wizard Dan Shak.
Day 2 began with 37 players. Jeff Gross and David Benefield re-entered before the start of play, taking that number to 39, and the final number of entries was 59. The prize pool ($5,724,180) is the second largest in the history of $100,000 super high rollers – the 2012 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final SHR generated a prize pool of €4,432,500 (roughly $5,790,840).
There were a handful of players eliminated during the first level of play, including Team PokerStars Member Isaac Haxton, Olivier Busquet, and Gross. Gross’ second bullet went awry when he three-bet jammed for 110,000 over an open from Daniel Negreanu. Negreanu called with two red queens, and held against Gross’ ace-queen.
Justin Bonomo, Tom Dwan, Ashton Griffin, JC Alvarado, and Jason Somerville hit the rail next. Somerville started the day with one of the bigger stacks in the room, but lost a massive pot to Anthony Gregg. The two were all in on a flop of 
, Somerville holding 
for two pair and Gregg 
for a set of nines. The turn and river came 
, 
respectively, and Gregg busted Somerville shortly thereafter.
Gregg ascended to the top of the chip counts, but he exited just an hour later, losing a 1.6 million-chip race to Seiver. After a raising war, Seiver was all in and at risk with 
preflop, and Gregg held 
. The board ran out 
, and Seiver doubled, becoming the chip leader.
Gregg busted a few hands later, joining Noah Schwartz, Jonathan Duhamel, Marc-Andre Ladouceur, Sam Stein, Eugene Katchalov on the rail.
The next batch of players to be eliminated included Timothy Adams, Tobias Reinkemeier, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, and Benefield. Grospellier was crippled in a massive pot with Vivek Rajkumar before moving all in with two sixes. Fabian Quoss had him at risk with , and the board ran out 
, eliminating ElkY from play.
Negreanu was the recipient of a very fortunate flop at the start of Level 14, doubling him to over 30 big blinds at the time. He three-bet jammed over an open from Troyanovsky, and Troyanovsky snapped it off with 
. Negreanu was crushed with , but made trips when the dealer fanned 
. He held as the turn and river came , 
respectively, and was back in contention.
Kid Poker’s run came to a crashing end about 45 minutes later, however. He opened to 42,000 from the cutoff with the blinds at 10,000/20,000/3,000. Gruissem called in the big blind, and the flop fell 
. Gruissem checked, Negreanu continued for 50,000, and Gruissem check-raised to 135,000. Negreanu moved all in for 450,000, and Gruissem called.
Negreanu:
Gruissem: 
The turn and river came 
, 
, and Negreanu was out.
At this point, Sands took over. He won a 1.4 million-chip race against Rajkumar – Rajkumar busted shortly after – and then he tangled with Phil Ivey in a massive, near three million-chip pot. With the blinds at 12,000/24,000/3,000, Sands opened to 57,000 from early position, Ivey defended his big blind, and the flop fell . Ivey checked, Sands continued for 64,000, and Ivey called.
The turn was the , Ivey checked again, and Sands tossed out 177,000. Ivey check-raised to 557,000, and Sands moved all in for 1.25 million.
The eight-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner went deep into the tank, readjusting himself in his chair. About three minutes later, he laughed to himself then called, putting his tournament life at risk.
Ivey: 
Sands: 
The river was the 
, and Ivey was eliminated. Sands raked in the massive pot, and was suddenly the leader with three million chips.
Bill Perkins and Quoss were the next two players to exit, and then Sands was on the winning end of yet another humongous pot. With the blinds at 15,000/30,000/4,000, Sands opened to 64,000 from the hijack seat, and Vanessa Selbst called in the cutoff. The flop fell 
, Sands led out for 84,000, and Selbst raised to 233,000. Sands called.
The turn was the , Sands checked, and Selbst fired 347,000. Sands called. The river was the , and Sands checked again. Selbst moved all in for 1.2 million, and Sands instantly snapped it off.
Selbst showed 
for just a pair of fives, and Sands had that crushed with for an ace-high flush. Selbst went from top five in chips to out, while Sands’ stack ballooned over five million chips.
Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier, who had his aces cracked by Troyanovsky earlier in the day, bubbled the unofficial final table. Schulman jammed for effectively 375,000 from the small blind, and Mercier snapped it off in the big blind. Schulman had , which crushed Mercier’s , and the board came out .
Nearly 30 minutes later, the $228,960 bubble burst with the elimination of Antonio Esfandiari. Esfandiari opened to 90,000 from early position with the blinds at 20,000/40,000/5,000. Sands three-bet to 170,000 on his direct left, Esfandiari moved all in for around 850,000, and Sands quickly called.
Sands: 
Esfandiari:
The board ran out 
, and Esfandiari was eliminated. Here’s how the official final table looks:
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nick Schulman | 2,295,000 |
| 2 | Dan Shak | 870,000 |
| 3 | Greg Jensen | 1,500,000 |
| 4 | Scott Seiver | 755,000 |
| 5 | Vladimir Troyanovsky | 505,000 |
| 6 | Philipp Gruissem | 1,610,000 |
| 7 | Cary Katz | 540,000 |
| 8 | David Sands | 6,680,000 |
The final table will begin tomorrow 1 p.m. EST, where the eight remaining players will battle it out for the $2,003,480 first-place prize, and a shiny new trophy. The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be covering all the action, so make sure to check out the Live Reporting Page.