The cards of Mike Watson were already in the muck and the pot was shipped to Christoph Vogelsang as the field was whittled down to the last 26 contenders. On a board of , the of Vogelsang were the best hand to see yet another player from table one depart.
The PokerNews Live Reporting Team has been on-site to offer live updates from a slew of PCA tournaments. Here’s a look at five of the more interesting hands captured in our live updates from the PSPC, including one that happened at the final table not long ago and could very well cost one player millions of dollars.
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With some 40,000 in the middle to the river, Chris Brewer checked his option. David Peters then bet 28,000 only for Brewer to jam for 274,000. Peters used two time banks and got out of the way eventually.
Over on table four, Nick Petrangelo dragged in a healthy pot against Dan Smith as he surpassed the table neighbour on the leaderboard.
Sam Greenwood was eliminated by Christoph Vogelsang to reduce the field to the final four tables and he was soon followed to the rail by Stephen Chidwick and Mikita Badziakouski. That reduced the field to the last 26 players, who are now spread across four tables.
The cards were already on their backs preflop with Chalie Hook and Ben Heath at risk of elimination, both being covered by Nick Petrangelo.
Chalie Hook:
Ben Heath:
Nick Petrangelo:
The two shorter stacks flopped top pair on while Petrangelo had a gutshot. Instead, the turn and river improved Petrangelo to trips kings and he notched up a double knockout.
Picking up the action on the flop, Dan Smith bet 28,000 and Fedor Holz called on the button.
Smith bet the turn for another 65,000 and Holz reluctantly called.
After the river, Smith bet 300,000 and Holz had 88,000 behind. Using two time bank extensions, the German online wizard called and doubled with for the top pair, as Smith had bricked a combo draw holding the .
A total of 46 entries has emerged as the field size more than doubled during the one hour of late registration on Day 2. Only 32 players remain and they will compete for a prize pool of $4,508,460.
n case you didn’t know, PokerStars is back in the United States. It actually has been for quite some time in New Jersey as well as in Michigan and Pennsylvania, though each was a segregated market. At the start of the New Year, PokerStars hit the ground running by becoming the first online operator to merge their NJ and MI player pools, instantly making it the largest online poker network in the US.
One man responsible for making that happen was Managing Director of North America for PokerStars Severin Rasset, who helped usher in a similar liquidity merge in Europe.
“We had similar things happening in Portugal, which was operating as a closed liquidity for a while,” he explained. “Portugal has about 14 million inhabitants. So, very similar to the size of New Jersey or Pennsylvania. Then Portugal joined with Spain, which was a big, dynamic change to the market.”
He added: “I've been through quite a lot of these changes in the regulatory and so just using this experience while getting the most out of the team in the US and plugging my experience in with their expertise and their own experiences, I think we're gonna have a really good mix.”
Rasset recently spoke to PokerNews at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in the Bahamas about recent developments concerning PokerStars US including the reveal that they’re offering $1 million in guarantees each week, updates on Pennsylvania and Nevada, and the potential return of live events in America.