Jaka Still in Front for 2012 PCA Main Event Final Table

Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 13 January 2012 / Leave a Comment

The nine-handed not-quite-final final table at the end of Day 5 of the PCA Main Event (Photo: Joe Giron)

Jaka took a tumble early on to fall back to the middle of the pack, but fought his way back to the top of the leaderboard by night's end. A key hand with 11 players left saw Jaka winning a three-way all-in when his pocket aces held versus the hands of Phil D'Auteuil and Anthony Gregg.

They are down to eight players at the Atlantis Resort and Casino in the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event, where after an especially long Day 5 Faraz Jaka continues to lead the way. Jaka ended the night with 6.47 million chips -- just barely ahead of second-place Kyle Julius and Xuan Liu in third. Meanwhile the $25,500 buy-in High Roller event kicked off, with Nick Yunis ending Day 1 the best of 56 remaining players.

Faraz Jaka began Day 5 of the Main Event in front with more than 4.1 million with Alex Fitzgerald next at just over 2.7 million. It took most of the afternoon for the field to be whittled from 24 to 16, with David Peters (22nd, $52,000), Maxim Semisoshenko (20th, $52,000), and Byron Kaverman (18th, $52,000) among the eliminated.

By then Jaka had fallen back to the middle of the pack, with Ruben Visser having grabbed the lead with 3.11 million, just ahead of a half-dozen players sitting between 2.8-3 million.

The next hour-and-a-half saw four more eliminations occur -- Byron Kaverman (18th, $52,000), Daniel Schmieding (17th, $52,000), David Granados (16th, $58,000), and Sam Greenwood (15th, $58,000).

Then came a hand between Fitzgerald and Xian Liu which saw Fitzgerald open for 145,000 (a shade under 3x), Liu reraise to 365,000, Fitzgerald shove for almost 2.1 million total, and Liu call with just a little less. Fitzgerald held Ks-10s and Liu Ac-Qd. The flop brought a couple of aces, Liu's hand held, and Fitzgerald was out in 14th ($70,000). Meanwhile Liu, the last woman standing, had surged into first with better than 4.4 million chips.

Nikolaos Alafogiannis was the next to go in 13th ($70,000) when his 8s-7s failed against Martin Jacobson's Ks-Qd. Then Daniel Shiff was knocked out in 12th ($85,000) in a hand in which he called a river all-in from Kyle Julius with the board showing 8h-8s-Qd-Qh-9c with Kd-8d but Julius held As-Qc for the better full house.

The final 11 pressed on, then a three-way preflop all-in occurred involving Phil D'Auteuil, Anthony Gregg, and Jaka. D'Auteuil held Jc-6c, Gregg Kd-10d, and Jaka Ad-Ac, and after the community cards came 3h-4c-10s-8h-Js, Jaka's aces remained best. That hand eliminated D'Auteuil (11th, $85,000) and sent Jaka back close to Liu and the chip lead again with 5.5 million.

Liu would stay in front, though, after she knocked out Martin Jacobson, her Ad-Kh holding up against his Js-10h to send the Swede out in 10th ($101,000).

It would then take another hour-plus for the final elimination of the night to occur. At the end of what amounted to a 13-hour day of poker, Lee Goldman reraise-shoved before the flop with Ks-Kc and got a call from John Dibella who tabled 9s-9d. The flop was 3s-6d-4s and turn Jd, but the river brought the 9h, giving Dibella a set and sending Goldman away in ninth ($101,000).

Over that final sequence Jaka had accumulated a few more chips to nudge out in front, but it is a tight group at the top of the counts. Here's how the final eight look heading into Friday's final day of play:

1. Faraz Jaka -- 6,470,000
2. Kyle Julius -- 6,450,000
3. Xuan Liu -- 6,335,000
4. Ruben Visser -- 4,400,000
5. John Dibella -- 3,465,000
6. David Bernstein -- 1.960,000
7. Mark Drover -- 1,430,000
8. Anthony Gregg -- 1,160,000

High Roller

The $25,500 buy-in "High Roller" event got underway on Thursday as well, with a huge field of 141 players taking part. With the rebuys that took place during the first four levels, that group built a prize pool of $3.626 million, with $1,134,930 of that due the winner.

Nick Yunis ended the day on top with 56 players still alive, with businessman Bill Perkins of "High Stakes Poker" fame in second and Taylor Paur third. Also in the top ten are Keven Stammen, Mike "Timex" McDonald, Andrew Lichtenberger, and Jonathan Duhamel, with a host of other familiar names still in the hunt as well.

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