The poker year has begun in style with the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) 2019. The event scheduled between 6-16 January kicked off Sunday, 6 January. However, the biggest highlight of the series is the PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC), which is happening for the first time ever.
PokerStars came up with the PSPC with the aim of creating the biggest ever $25k tournament on the live poker tournament calender, and they have done it quite successfully, with 1,014 entries, (including 320 Platinum Pass holders) registering on Day 1 only. Over the course of the year 2018, the company offered players (who participated in some specific events) the chance to win the Platinum Passes, which won them a seat into the PSPC. But even without the lucky 320, who entered the event with such passes, the PSPC would still be the biggest $25,000 buy-in tournament ever.
By the end of Day 1 play, only 745 out of 1,014 entries bagged their chips to move into Day 2 of the event. Headlining survivors was England’s pro Talal Shakerchi with a stack of 425,300, along with other big stacks – Dan O’Brien (301,200), Andrei Kurov ( 260,400) and Shyam Srinivasan (254,000).
Team India
A strong Indian contingent is in attendance at the ongoing the series with a battalion of 10 confident Indians making their way to the Bahamas. Out of these players, 8 are the PSPC Platinum Pass winners – Sumit Sapra, Nikhil Segel, Kavin Shah, Raman Gujral, Sharad Rao, Vivek Singh, Saurabh Sindhwani and Aneesh Nair, along with Team PokerStars pro – Aditya Agarwal and Nipun Java. The good news for Indian poker community is that the 5 of Indian challengers have entered Day 2 with the rising star – Sharad Rao (125,600) headlining them all, who include Nikhil Segel (90,200), Aditya Agarwal (80,600), Raman Gujral (69,600) and Saurabh Sindhwani (65,500).
However, it didn’t go so well for Nipun Java, Sumit Sapra, Kavin Shah, Vivek Singh and Aneesh Nair as they were eliminated during the day. Java, who won the 2018 Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year India, was doing well but he was eliminated towards the latter part of the play on Day 1.
Top 10 Chip Counts:
- Talal Shakerchi – 425,300
- Dan O’Brien – 301,200
- Andrei Kurov – 260,400
- Shyam Srinivasan – 254,000
- Salvatore Donato – 252,700
- Dylan Wilkerson – 244,300
- Jonathan Dokler – 240,100
- Pavel Veksler – 230,300
- Andrew Pantling – 230,000
- Juan Ollero – 229,900
Keep following Online Poker News (OPN) for the latest news and updates from the PCA 2019!