PCA 2019: Alexander Kharkov Tops 135 Day 1A Survivors in Main Event, Bumper Field Expected on Day 1B Today

The ongoing 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) currently underway at the Atlantis Resort has kept millions of poker zealots across the globe glued to its high-octane poker action. Even though the PokerStars Players NLHE Championship (PSPC) is in the books, the $10,300 Main Event has kept the momentum going at the series.

The Main Event kicked off with its first opening flight on Friday, and looking at the strong turnout of 356 entries (includes 27 re-entries), the event seems right on track to surpass the 582-strong entry field that it had pulled in last year!

Only 135 runners from the opening flight managed to find a bag for Day 2 where Russia`s Alexander Kharkov leads the lot with a stack of 350,500. Kharkov is a relative unknown with only three cashes on his Hendon Mob and surged into the lead in the penultimate level of the day where he scored a big double up through Justin Bonomo.

From the Indian contingent, Platinum Pass winner and Team Mentor of Global Poker League (GPL) India Team Mumbai Jetsetters, Kavin Shah was among the notables who played Day 1A of the Main Event. Shah, who busted the PSPC relatively early on Day 1, unfortunately failed to make much headway in the Main Event too. Nonetheless, we can expect to see several Indians in the next flight, most notably, Team Pokerstars pro Aditya Agarwal who has confirmed his attendance for Day 1B today.

Also on the schedule today is the $100 Single-Day High Roller, with the $25K Single-Day High Roller II lined up for tomorrow.

Day 1A Recap

The opening flight at the $10,300 buy-in Main Event hit the floor running on Friday. Maria Lampropulos had won this very event last year, banking $1,081,100 for her win and it`s off to races to find out who will win the title this year.

The entry field expanded to 73 runners in the first three hours of play with a number of notables including Mike Leah, Brian Yoon, Markus Durnegger and Andre Akkari joining the action. Entries kept pouring in steadily with Maria Konnikova, Manig Loeser, Joe Cada and Benjamin Pollak, all joining in late.

The lone Indian challenger in the field, Kavin Shah, is in Bahamas on his PSPC Platinum Pass and there was no way this high stakes cash game pro was going to miss a high-value tournament like the PCA Main Event. Shah fired his first bullet on Day 1A and got off to a good start. In Level 2, Shah won a pot off Sergi Reixach where Reixach check-called Shah’s bet of 900 in the small blind with the board open . Shah led out for 2,600 on the river and Reixach mucked his hand, dropping to one-third the starting stack. Shah climbed up to 22,000 but the celebrations were short-lived as he hit the rails before the beginning of Level 9.

Poker phenom Justin Bonomo had a $20M+ 2018 but he is not invincible as proved by Kharkov, who eliminated him before the end of play on Day 1A.

Joey Weissman created quite a storm by taking down the biggest pot of the day in the final level of play. A player open-raised to 2,500 and Max Silver 3-bet to 8,500 from the button. Weissman opted to 4-bet from the big blind, making it 23,200. The initial raiser folded and Silver moved all in. Weissman quickly called and the rail gasped audibly even before the cards were turned over.

Weissman

Silver

A disbelieving Silver shook his head as the board ran leaving him all but crippled with only 2,000 in chips, as Weissman’s stack jumped to 134,100. Unable to spin it up, Silver was eliminated several hands later while Weissman’s day ended with him bagging the second largest stack of 267,000.

Joao Simao br (251,200), Brian Altman (236,100) and Markus Kuhnen (196,000) are the next big stacks among the 135 survivors.

Also in contention are notables like Joao Simao (251,200), Brian Altman (236,100), Pavel Plesuv (191,700), Paul Vas Nunes (187,800), Elliot Smith (180,400), Jeremy Ausmus (145,800) and Kenny Hallaert (135,700).

Team PokerStars pros Andre Akkari (143,200) and Liv Boeree (65,800) have also managed to advance further, but Konnikova was eliminated at the hands of Christopher Frank after her kings couldn’t match up to Frank’s turned set of tens.

Isaac Haxton, Seth Davies, David Peters, Andras Nemeth, Joe Cada, Benjamin Pollak, Rainer Kempe, Patrik Antonius, former EPT champions like Davidi Kitai, John Dibella, Paul Michaelis, Noah Boeken, Arsenii Karmatckii, and Oleksii Khoroshenin all failed to make it through Day 1A.

Top 10 Chip Counts At The End of Day 1A

1. Alexander Kharkov – 350,000
2. Joey Weissman – 267,000
3. Joao Simao br – 251,200
4. Brian Altman – 236,100
5. Markus Kuhnen – 196,000
6. Pavel Plesuv – 191,200
7. Paul Vas Nunes – 187,800
8. Elliot Smith – 180,400
9. Yang Zhang – 164,300
10. Pavel Veksler – 148,300

Image & Content courtesy: PokerStars/Pokernews

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