2015 PCA Main Event Day 1a: Team Pro Online's Alex Millar Leads the Way
Alex Millar raced out ahead of the field early on during Day 1a of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $10,300 Main Event and nobody was able to catch him after the eight levels of play wrapped up for the night. The British heads-up cash-game specialist known as "Kanu7" online finished with 169,100, good for a solid lead over the second-place stack of 145,200, held by another well-known online cash player, Dani "Ansky" Stern.
Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Millar | 169,100 |
| 2 | Dani Stern | 145,200 |
| 3 | Jason Helder | 124,800 |
| 4 | Owen Crowe | 121,000 |
| 5 | Andrew Whitaker | 108,700 |
| 6 | Naoya Kihara | 108,100 |
| 7 | Laszlo Bujtas | 99,600 |
| 8 | Chris Moneymaker | 97,200 |
| 9 | Tyler Cornell | 96,300 |
| 10 | Oleg Perepletchikov | 92,100 |
Millar and Stern led 139 survivors out of 220 registered players. Andrew Whitaker (108,700), Naoya Kihara (108,100), Jason Helder (99,500), Scott Seiver (86,500), Tony Gregg (84,800), Ankush Mandavia (80,000), Ole Schemion (74,300), Chris Moneymaker (65,000), Marco Johnson (54,000), Shannon Shorr (49,100), defending champ Dominik Panka (42,200), Daniel Colman (40,500), Vanessa Selbst (39,300), George Danzer (37,500), and Isaac Haxton (26,500) were also among those advancing to Saturday's Day 2.
Millar had the chip lead as early as Level 4 (100/200/25) when he was noted with about 65,000. He ran it up in part by torturing Sergey Pronin, first allowing Pronin to bet all three streets on a Q?Q?8?7?K? board with the K?8? only for Millar to show the A?A?. Then, during Level 7 (250/500/50), Millar fired 9,000 into a pot of about 11,000 on the end when Pronin checked to him on the A?4?9?10?5? board. Pronin called but couldn't beat his opponent's A?Q?.
Stern grabbed an early double against Antonio Buonanno when Buonanno bet 2,500 from the small blind and saw Stern shove all in for 10,300 on the button. The board read 2?6?10?5?7?, and Buonanno thought for a couple of minutes, counting out his stack. He appeared to have about 31,000 behind the bet, and he softly announced a call.
Stern tabled the 9?2? for a flush on the river, and Buonanno let out a frustrated sigh before counting out the requisite chips to pay Stern, who kept climbing from there and was the only one who really threatened to take over the chip lead from Millar.
Some players who failed to bag stacks included Jeff Madsen, Jean-Robert Bellande, Hans Winzeler, Brian Yoon, Michael Mizrachi, Fabian Ortiz, Emil Patel, Cliff Josephy, and Keven Stammen.
The PCA Main Event will resume at noon local time on Friday, when cards will fly for Day 1b. PokerNews will once again be providing live coverage, so be sure to return to follow all the live action straight from the tournament floor.
While you wait, check out this fun-filled video with Remko Rinkema trying out some local Bahamian rum at the John Watling's distillery:
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