Jattin Tops Day 2 of Record Breaking $25,000 PokerStars NL Hold'em Players Championship; Kanit and Benger Among Big Stacks
Day 2 of the record-breaking $25,000 PokerStars NL Hold'em Players Championship as part of the 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure has come to an end with just 207 players still in contention. Even before the cards got into the air at noon, the field had reached four-figures and another 26 hopefuls jumped in.
That created a field of 1,039 entries and monster prize pool of $26,455,500, making it one of the biggest events ever. The top 181 spots will take home a portion of that and a Bahamian flag for their Hendon Mob profiles. The winner can look forward to a life-changing payday of $5.1 million, which includes $1 million added by PokerStars. While the money spots were not reached throughout the eight 60-minute levels on Day 2, the bubble won't be far off when the action resumes for Day 3.
Leading the survivors into Day 3 will be Farid Jattin with 921,000. The high roller regular from Colombia edged past a trio of familiar faces in the final level of the night with Mustapha Kanit (888,000), Griffin Benger (885,000) and Julien Martini (832,000) hot on his heels. Jattin is certainly no unknown at the international poker tables — the regular on the European Poker Tour and Latin American Poker Tour has already racked up nearly $3 million in live cashes.
Martini continually increased his stack throughout the day and sent 2005 EPT Copenhagen champion Noah Boeken to the rail when flopping top two pair with eight-nine suited against the bottom pair and nut flush draw of the Dutchman. Kanit spent most of his day on the secondary feature table and Benger built up his stack without showdown in the final level of the night when taking on Sven McDermott twice.
Among the players that made the most of their late entry before the start of Day 2 were Brandon Adams and Ramin Hajiyev. Especially Hajiyev got involved in many big pots, making waves early on and ascending to the top mid-way through the day when he called the shove of Fox with ace-jack for flopped top pair and held against a king-high flush draw. Adams advanced to Day 3 with very respectable 731,000 and Hajiyev follows not far behind with 720,000.
Several Platinum Pass winners also bagged and tagged for the night, and Frenchman Alexandre De Zutter tops them all with 700,000. In the last break of the night, De Zutter had far less than that with just 250,000 and ran hot in the final two hours of the night. He admitted that he got lucky in one particular hand where he went runner-runner to beat a flopped nut flush with a full house before dropping a few chips at the very end of the day.
Other big stacks and notables include Athanasios Polychonopoulos (797,000), Martins Adeniya (748,000), start-of-the-day chip leader Talal Shakerchi (691,000), Ryan Olisar (650,000), Patrick "Iregption" Tardif (633,000), Kristen Bicknell (631,000), Dan O'Brien (622,000), Christoph Vogelsang (483,000) and Ryan Riess (354,000) to name just a few. Two players will represent the red spade on the third day in Benjamin Spragg (118,000) and Celina Lin (12,000).
With more than 700 players returning to their seats in the ballroom of the Atlantis Resort, many hopes were crushed and big names fell along the way. Phil Hellmuth lost a race with pocket tens against the ace-queen of John Andress on the feature table and defending PCA Main Event champion Maria Lampropulos was coolered with the flopped second nuts against the nut straight of Theo Da Cruz Lima.
Team PokerStars suffered heavy losses on Day 2, as Lex Veldhuis and Kevin Martin were ousted in the first level of the day, Team Pro Jen Shahade and Team Online's Randy Lew followed soon after. Aditya Agarwal, Fatima Moreira de Melo, Chris Moneymaker, Jake Cody and Jason Somerville all bowed out before bagging and tagging. The dream of Jaime Staples to make a deep run ended in the final level of the night when his pocket jacks were outflopped by Marvin Rettenmaier's ace-jack.
By then, popular Platinum Pass winners Joey Ingram, Kevin "Kevmath" Mathers, Linda Johnson and other big names such as Justin Bonomo, Stephen Chidwick, Mike Watson, UFC's Bruce Buffer, Alex Foxen, Jason and Natasha Mercier were just a few victims of the fast-paced action of the day.
The $25,000 PokerStars NL Hold'em Players Championship will continue with Day 3 on Tuesday at noon local time with blinds of 4,000/8,000 and a big blind ante of 8,000. The money bubble is expected to burst in the first few levels of the day and once the money has been reached, the 30-second clock comes into play.
As usual, the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to provide all you need to know about one of the biggest poker events to date.
Day 3 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Name | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Ajay Chabra | United States | 317,000 | 40 |
| 1 | 2 | Ben Heath | United Kingdom | 200,000 | 25 |
| 1 | 3 | Fabiano Kovalski | Brazil | 196,000 | 25 |
| 1 | 4 | Ajay Gnanasambanthan | United States | 83,000 | 10 |
| 1 | 5 | Andrey Kotelnikov | Russia | 610,000 | 76 |
| 1 | 6 | Vojtech Ruzicka | Czech Republic | 239,000 | 30 |
| 1 | 7 | Diogo Veiga | Portugal | 218,000 | 27 |
| 1 | 8 | Scott Baumstein | United States | 479,000 | 60 |
| 2 | 1 | Robert Mizrachi | United States | 208,000 | 26 |
| 2 | 2 | Dan Shak | United States | 451,000 | 56 |
| 2 | 3 | Pavel Veksler | Ukraine | 476,000 | 60 |
| 2 | 4 | Ori Kossonogi | United States | 335,000 | 42 |
| 2 | 5 | Oscar Hilario Quijada | Argentina | 306,000 | 38 |
| 2 | 6 | Jake Schwartz | United States | 211,000 | 26 |
| 2 | 7 | Evan Mathis | United States | 253,000 | 32 |
| 2 | 8 | Georgios Karakousis | Greece | 89,000 | 11 |
| 3 | 1 | Mario Hofler | Austria | 66,000 | 8 |
| 3 | 2 | Rui Ferreira | Portugal | 460,000 | 58 |
| 3 | 3 | David Paredes | United States | 350,000 | 44 |
| 3 | 4 | Joaquin Sanchez | Spain | 140,000 | 18 |
| 3 | 5 | Georgios Christou | Cyprus | 64,000 | 8 |
| 3 | 6 | Marius Gierse | Germany | 363,000 | 45 |
| 3 | 7 | Goran Mandic | Croatia | 275,000 | 34 |
| 3 | 8 | Helio Neves | Brazil | 584,000 | 73 |
| 4 | 1 | Ivaylo Sivinov | Bulgaria | 185,000 | 23 |
| 4 | 2 | Dan O'Brien | United States | 622,000 | 78 |
| 4 | 3 | Peter Brankin | United Kingdom | 112,000 | 14 |
| 4 | 4 | Bryan Piccioli | United States | 268,000 | 34 |
| 4 | 5 | David Key | United States | 95,000 | 12 |
| 4 | 6 | Luiz Duarte | Brazil | 216,000 | 27 |
| 4 | 7 | Patrick Tien Min Lynn Liang | Brazil | 209,000 | 26 |
| 4 | 8 | Duff Charette | Canada | 201,000 | 25 |
| 5 | 1 | Haoxiang Wang | China | 102,000 | 13 |
| 5 | 2 | Victor Nicolato | Brazil | 359,000 | 45 |
| 5 | 3 | Shyam Srinivasan | Canada | 151,000 | 19 |
| 5 | 4 | Tracey Guice | United States | 256,000 | 32 |
| 5 | 5 | Jussi Nevanlinna | Finland | 478,000 | 60 |
| 5 | 6 | Edward Sebesta | United States | 355,000 | 44 |
| 5 | 7 | Ramon Colillas | Spain | 635,000 | 79 |
| 5 | 8 | Athanasios Polychronopoulos | United States | 797,000 | 100 |
| 6 | 1 | Alexandre De Zutter | France | 700,000 | 88 |
| 6 | 2 | Tim Reilly | United States | 274,000 | 34 |
| 6 | 3 | Matt Affleck | United States | 230,000 | 29 |
| 6 | 4 | Upeshka De Silva | United States | 435,000 | 54 |
| 6 | 5 | Nikita Lebedev | Russia | 446,000 | 56 |
| 6 | 6 | Matthew Wantman | United States | 171,000 | 21 |
| 6 | 7 | Ariel Celestino | Brazil | 431,000 | 54 |
| 6 | 8 | Felipe Olivieri | Argentina | 694,000 | 87 |
| 7 | 1 | Felipe Meister | Brazil | 159,000 | 20 |
| 7 | 2 | Stian Kulseth Ustad | Norway | 132,000 | 17 |
| 7 | 3 | Jeremie Sarda | France | 208,000 | 26 |
| 7 | 4 | Brock Wilson | United States | 77,000 | 10 |
| 7 | 5 | Atanas Georgiev Pavlov | Bulgaria | 499,000 | 62 |
| 7 | 6 | Jeffrey Sluzinski | United States | 213,000 | 27 |
| 7 | 7 | Damien Le Goff | France | 437,000 | 55 |
| 7 | 8 | Joep Raemaekers | Netherlands | 109,000 | 14 |
| 8 | 1 | Jason Koonce | United States | 214,000 | 27 |
| 8 | 2 | Ana Marquez | Spain | 92,000 | 12 |
| 8 | 3 | Brandon Welter | United States | 127,000 | 16 |
| 8 | 4 | Thiago Nishijima | Brazil | 230,000 | 29 |
| 8 | 5 | Richard Seymour | United States | 280,000 | 35 |
| 8 | 6 | Sven McDermott | Ireland | 139,500 | 17 |
| 8 | 7 | Kyle Chang | Canada | 332,000 | 42 |
| 8 | 8 | Talal Shakerchi | United Kingdom | 691,000 | 86 |
| 9 | 1 | Derik Li | United States | 378,000 | 47 |
| 9 | 2 | Andrea Benelli | Italy | 237,000 | 30 |
| 9 | 3 | Victor Zabukas Begara | Brazil | 360,000 | 45 |
| 9 | 4 | Benjamin Spragg | United Kingdom | 118,000 | 15 |
| 9 | 5 | Markus Durnegger | Austria | 116,000 | 15 |
| 9 | 6 | Marc Rivera | Philippines | 230,000 | 29 |
| 9 | 7 | Kristen Bicknell | Canada | 631,000 | 79 |
| 9 | 8 | Yan Li | China | 299,000 | 37 |
| 10 | 1 | Sam Greenwood | Canada | 214,000 | 27 |
| 10 | 2 | Mario Silvestri | United States | 410,000 | 51 |
| 10 | 3 | Jack Salter | United Kingdom | 285,000 | 36 |
| 10 | 4 | Pedro Chaves | Brazil | 230,000 | 29 |
| 10 | 5 | Thiago Crema | Brazil | 129,000 | 16 |
| 10 | 6 | Thi Xoa Nguyen | France | 194,000 | 24 |
| 10 | 7 | Adriano Dias Marques | Brazil | 177,000 | 22 |
| 10 | 8 | Mustapha Kanit | Italy | 888,000 | 111 |
| 11 | 1 | Tomas Jozonis | Lithuania | 324,000 | 41 |
| 11 | 2 | Dustin Dirksen | United States | 362,000 | 45 |
| 11 | 3 | Christopher Kennedy | United States | 426,000 | 53 |
| 11 | 4 | Paul Macneil | Canada | 149,000 | 19 |
| 11 | 5 | Anthony Maio | United States | 189,000 | 24 |
| 11 | 6 | Josh Reichard | United States | 194,000 | 24 |
| 11 | 7 | Benjamin Pollak | France | 299,000 | 37 |
| 11 | 8 | Sam Grafton | United Kingdom | 67,000 | 8 |
| 12 | 1 | Scott Margereson | United Kingdom | 259,000 | 32 |
| 12 | 2 | Darren Millar | Ireland | 188,000 | 24 |
| 12 | 3 | Andrei Kurov | Russia | 200,000 | 25 |
| 12 | 4 | Sam Simmons | United States | 215,000 | 27 |
| 12 | 5 | Yuka Asaka | Japan | 109,000 | 14 |
| 12 | 6 | Scott Stewart | United States | 186,000 | 23 |
| 12 | 7 | Blair Hinkle | United States | 329,000 | 41 |
| 12 | 8 | Samuel Bernabeu | Spain | 249,000 | 31 |
| 13 | 1 | Adrian Echave Samu | Spain | 698,000 | 87 |
| 13 | 2 | Jose Montes | United States | 549,000 | 69 |
| 13 | 3 | Martins Adeniya | United Kingdom | 748,000 | 94 |
| 13 | 4 | Luis Faria | Portugal | 418,000 | 52 |
| 13 | 5 | David Mock | United States | 170,000 | 21 |
| 13 | 6 | Johan Girard | France | 185,000 | 23 |
| 13 | 7 | Ryan Olisar | United States | 650,000 | 81 |
| 13 | 8 | JC Alvarado | Mexico | 105,000 | 13 |
| 14 | 1 | Luke Marsh | United Kingdom | 630,000 | 79 |
| 14 | 2 | Willliam Batista Arruda | Brazil | 34,000 | 4 |
| 14 | 3 | Will Failla | United States | 280,000 | 35 |
| 14 | 4 | Louis Boutin | Canada | 198,000 | 25 |
| 14 | 5 | Clifford Ellefson | United States | 218,000 | 27 |
| 14 | 6 | Justin Tazelaar | Netherlands | 317,000 | 40 |
| 14 | 7 | Nacho Barbero | Argentina | 325,000 | 41 |
| 14 | 8 | Joao Barbosa | Portugal | 191,000 | 24 |
| 15 | 1 | Sean Winter | United States | 279,000 | 35 |
| 15 | 2 | John Esposito | United States | 274,000 | 34 |
| 15 | 3 | Parker Talbot | Canada | 101,000 | 13 |
| 15 | 4 | Rodrigo Marques Carmo | Portugal | 111,000 | 14 |
| 15 | 5 | Andrii Grynechko | Canada | 117,000 | 15 |
| 15 | 6 | Russell Crane | United States | 391,000 | 49 |
| 15 | 7 | Yiannis Liperis | United Kingdom | 402,000 | 50 |
| 15 | 8 | Lawrence Bayley | United Kingdom | 504,000 | 63 |
| 16 | 1 | Samuel Tsehai | Canada | 750,000 | 94 |
| 16 | 2 | Omar Del Pino | Spain | 545,000 | 68 |
| 16 | 3 | Tony Gregg | United States | 301,000 | 38 |
| 16 | 4 | Charles Alex-Barton | United States | 115,100 | 14 |
| 16 | 5 | Justin Young | United States | 207,000 | 26 |
| 16 | 6 | Vladas Tamasauskas | Lithuania | 119,000 | 15 |
| 16 | 7 | Filipe Oliveira | Portugal | 479,000 | 60 |
| 16 | 8 | Mikita Badziakouski | Belarus | 156,000 | 20 |
| 17 | 1 | Laurynas Levinskas | Lithuania | 117,000 | 15 |
| 17 | 2 | Oleksandr Lishchuk | Ukraine | 103,000 | 13 |
| 17 | 3 | Adrien Delmas | France | 432,000 | 54 |
| 17 | 4 | Robert Heidorn | Germany | 120,000 | 15 |
| 17 | 5 | Erik Von Buxhoeveden | Austria | 257,000 | 32 |
| 17 | 6 | Tzai Wei Phua | Singapore | 515,000 | 64 |
| 17 | 7 | Michael Dietrich | Canada | 151,000 | 19 |
| 17 | 8 | Jack O'Neill | United Kingdom | 283,000 | 35 |
| 18 | 1 | Vlad Tatu | Romania | 343,000 | 43 |
| 18 | 2 | Jimmy Guerrero | France | 72,000 | 9 |
| 18 | 3 | Marc Perrault | Canada | 725,000 | 91 |
| 18 | 4 | Brandon Hall | United States | 65,000 | 8 |
| 18 | 5 | Bill Perkins | United States | 71,000 | 9 |
| 18 | 6 | Toby Lewis | United Kingdom | 124,000 | 16 |
| 18 | 7 | Mark Radoja | Canada | 207,000 | 26 |
| 19 | 1 | Corentin Ropert | France | 107,000 | 13 |
| 19 | 2 | Jonathan West | United States | 438,000 | 55 |
| 19 | 3 | Fabio Freitas | Brazil | 88,000 | 11 |
| 19 | 4 | Ricardo Calle Rodriguez | Spain | 45,000 | 6 |
| 19 | 5 | Farid Jattin | United States | 921,000 | 115 |
| 19 | 6 | Craig Mason | United States | 106,000 | 13 |
| 19 | 7 | Anton Sulymka | Ukraine | 118,000 | 15 |
| 19 | 8 | ChrisJohnson | United States | 356,000 | 45 |
| 20 | 1 | Nabil Cardoso | Spain | 146,000 | 18 |
| 20 | 2 | Jonathan Abdellatif | Belgium | 218,000 | 27 |
| 20 | 3 | Jacqueline Burkhart | United States | 285,000 | 36 |
| 20 | 4 | Filippo Filardo | Italy | 280,000 | 35 |
| 20 | 5 | Alin Grasu | Romania | 126,000 | 16 |
| 20 | 6 | Christoph Vogelsang | Germany | 483,000 | 60 |
| 20 | 7 | Alex Keating | United States | 221,000 | 28 |
| 20 | 8 | Darren Elias | United States | 411,000 | 51 |
| 21 | 1 | Michael Robionek | Germany | 311,000 | 39 |
| 21 | 2 | Michel Dattani | Portugal | 503,000 | 63 |
| 21 | 3 | Jared Palmer | United States | 253,000 | 32 |
| 21 | 4 | Taylor Black | United States | 140,000 | 18 |
| 21 | 5 | Franz Ditz | Germany | 200,000 | 25 |
| 21 | 6 | Sosia Jiang | New Zealand | 489,000 | 61 |
| 21 | 7 | Dariusz Paszkiewicz | Poland | 325,000 | 41 |
| 21 | 8 | Felix Schneiders | Germany | 181,000 | 23 |
| 22 | 1 | [Removed:172] | Germany | 184,000 | 23 |
| 22 | 2 | Pierre Calamusa | France | 111,000 | 14 |
| 22 | 3 | Daniel Wilson | Ireland | 185,000 | 23 |
| 22 | 4 | Luc Greenwood | Canada | 356,000 | 45 |
| 22 | 5 | Paul Leckey | United Kingdom | 108,000 | 14 |
| 22 | 6 | Tianle Wang | China | 524,000 | 66 |
| 22 | 7 | Rui Sousa | Portugal | 590,000 | 74 |
| 22 | 8 | Samuel Gonzalez Mohino Gomez | Spain | 118,000 | 15 |
| 23 | 1 | Martin Raus | Canada | 142,000 | 18 |
| 23 | 2 | Ramin Hajiyev | Azerbaijan | 720,000 | 90 |
| 23 | 3 | Murilo Souza Figueredo | Brazil | 156,000 | 20 |
| 23 | 4 | Patrick Tardif | Canada | 633,000 | 79 |
| 23 | 5 | Kelvin Kerber | Brazil | 316,000 | 40 |
| 23 | 6 | Luigi Knoppers | Netherlands | 369,000 | 46 |
| 23 | 7 | Joshua Miller | United States | 93,000 | 12 |
| 23 | 8 | Julien Martini | France | 832,000 | 104 |
| 24 | 1 | Esteban Garcia | United States | 138,000 | 17 |
| 24 | 2 | Bart Lybaert | Belgium | 285,000 | 36 |
| 24 | 3 | David Benefield | United States | 135,000 | 17 |
| 24 | 4 | Victor Ramdin | United States | 117,000 | 15 |
| 24 | 5 | Leo Fernandez | Argentina | 207,000 | 26 |
| 24 | 6 | Michael Dix | United States | 429,000 | 54 |
| 24 | 7 | Dylan Linde | United States | 147,000 | 18 |
| 24 | 8 | Christian Harder | United States | 122,000 | 15 |
| 25 | 1 | Kane Kalas | United States | 119,000 | 15 |
| 25 | 2 | Juan Ollero Vidal | Spain | 165,000 | 21 |
| 25 | 3 | Florian Duta | Romania | 193,000 | 24 |
| 25 | 4 | Ryan Riess | United States | 354,000 | 44 |
| 25 | 5 | Artemii Borisov | Russia | 73,000 | 9 |
| 25 | 6 | Hugh Drummond | Canada | 303,000 | 38 |
| 25 | 7 | Frank Kassela | United States | 267,000 | 33 |
| 25 | 8 | Andjelko Andrejevic | United States | 312,000 | 39 |
| 26 | 1 | Warren Sheaves | United States | 249,000 | 31 |
| 26 | 2 | Brandon Adams | United States | 731,000 | 91 |
| 26 | 3 | Celina Lin | China | 12,000 | 2 |
| 26 | 4 | Joey Couden | United States | 641,000 | 80 |
| 26 | 5 | Griffin Benger | Canada | 885,000 | 111 |
| 26 | 6 | Andrew Graham | United States | 272,000 | 34 |
| 26 | 7 | Max Greenwood | Canada | 301,000 | 38 |
| 26 | 8 | Marvin Rettenmaier | Germany | 304,000 | 38 |