In an hour time, Day 3 of the PokerStars Championship Bahamas kicks off. 125 players of the field of 738 remain, all of them in the money and guaranteed $7,260 at this time. The first jump in payouts is at 103, rewarding $9,120.
But while that's all nice, all of the remaining players are gunning for the final table and that first place payout of $480,012. It may be smaller than last year because of the new payout distribution, but it's still a massive sum of money for anyone.
Play will resume at noon with blinds at 2,000/4,000 with a 500 ante. Leading the field is no other than Nick Maimone who won the $25,000 event here last year. Daniel Colman, who already made over a million here at The Bahamas with a 3rd place finish in the $50,000 Single-Day High Roller for $341,240 and a 4th place finish in the $100,000 Super High Roller for $759,660, sits in second place.
PokerNews will be on the ground from start to finish with live updates, photos, and the live stream of the feature table embedded.
With a full board of and around 200,000 in the pot, Sylvain Loosli was faced with a bet of 132,000 from Tony Tran, the last of his chips.
Loosli, a French professional known for finishing fourth in the 2013 WSOP Main Event (an event fellow player in this event Ryan Reiss won), also won a Super High Roller on the EPT just eighteen months ago for his second seven-figure score. Any top four finish here will put him over the $6 million mark in live tournament earnings, but when he called and showed his flush with , he had to hand over those chips to Tran, whose flush was better.
Tran moves up to 458,000, but Loosli has some work with just thirty big blinds to his name.
From middle position, Rex Clinkscales opened for 9,000. Aleksei Opalikhin over in the cutoff three-bet to 21,500 and his neighbor November Niner Cliff Josephy cold four-bet to 51,500 from the button.
Both blinds folded and action was back on Clinkscales. He asked how much it was to which Josephy replied "Take your sunglasses off and you can see."
Clinkscales folded but Opalikhin called.
The flop came and Opalikhin lead for 64,000. As the hit the turn, Opalikhin shoved. Josephy instantly called for 161,000 total.
Cliff Josephy:
Aleksei Opalikhin:
"Ow I'm in good shape!" Josephy said.
The meaningless hit the river and Josephy scored the full double.
Gaelle Baumann in the hijack position and Pratyush Buddiga in the cut-off had all their chips into the middle on their table and it was a race to see if Buddiga would be leaving the tournament.
Gaelle Baumann:
Pratyush Buddiga:
The board was a kind one for Buddiga, however, as it came and doubled Buddiga up to marginally less than Baumann now has to her name.
We're not sure how the preflop action went down, but it resulted in Axat Tulsidas Mawji getting in for 87,000 against both Nacho Barbero and James Juvancic.
When the flop came down , Juvancic moved all in and Barbero, who had the shorter stack with 125,000 back, had to decide what to do. Eventually he folded the face up, and he quickly regretted it.
Juvancic:
Mawji:
The turn and river have Mawji the triple, though he would have been eliminated had Barbero seen the hand through.
"Wow, I can't believe you just played that hand like that," chirped Barbero to Juvancic. "So bad."
"I know you have queens or jacks and are folding," Juvancic explained. "If he has ace-king I win a big pot."
The two bickered back and forth for awhile before Mawji looked Barbero dead in the eyes and said, "He outplayed you."
On an flop, Massimo De Mario checked from the big blind and former New England Patriot and Oakland Raider Richard Seymour checked behind in the hijack to see a turn.
De Mario led out for 15,000, Seymour raised to 35,000, and De Mario called, which brought about the on the river.
De Mario returned to checking and Seymour bet 33,000, which left him around 90,000 back. De Mario then woke up with an all-in check-raise, and the pressure was on Seymour as the cameras swarmed.
Seymour made some comments suggesting he thought De Mario was weak. "I might call with this hand," he said.
More than 90 seconds passed before Seymour tossed in a chip to call and then rolled over the for king high.
He was right that De Mario was weak, but unfortunately for him the Italian had actually paired up on the river with the .
The hero call didn't pay off for Seymour and he was officially eliminated from the 2017 PokerStars Championship Bahamas.
Nick Maimone opened for 11,500 from middle position and Vincent Moscati three-bet to 32,000 from the hijack. Pablo Moriz then four-bet all in for around 104,000 from the cutoff, Maimone moved all in over the top, and Moscati called off for around 220,000.
Moscati:
Maimone:
Moriz:
The flop left Maimone calling for a diamond, but the dealer did him one better by putting out the on the turn to give him the lead. Moriz was drawing dead, and Moscati needed a king to stay alive.
The river wasn't what he was looking for and Moriz and Moscati fell in 79th and 78th place respectively.
Kliment Tarmakov opened things up for 14,000 under the gun, and Gaelle Baumann jammed from two seats over for 112,000. When action got back to Tarmakov, he double-checked his hole cards and called.
Tarmakov:
Baumann:
The flop came uneventful: . Things changed in a big way with a turn, causing someone at the table to whistle at all of Baumann's newfound outs. The river was a , one of those outs, giving Baumann a flush.
Jason Mercier, in early position, raised to 13,000 followed by a three-bet to 30,000 by Ronan Gorey. Two positions over, Murad Akhundov shoved all in for 250,000 and action was back on Mercier. He too moved in, for 217,000. Gorey folded.
Murad Akhundov:
Jason Mercier:
The board ran out and Mercier doubled, leaving Akhundov extremely short.
2012 PCA champ John Dibella raised to 17,000 and Allen Kessler, who had been nursing a short stack, three-bet all in for 43,000 from the hijack. Action folded back to Dibella and he made a quick call.
Kessler:
Dibella:
"This is like the best hand I've had all day," claimed Kessler, who needed to improve to stay alive.
Unfortunately for him, and the many Chainsaw fans around the world, that didn't happen as the board ran out .
and around 200,000 in the pot, Sylvain Loosli was faced with a bet of 132,000 from Tony Tran, the last of his chips. 
, he had to hand over those chips to Tran, whose 
flush was better. 
and Opalikhin lead for 64,000. As the 
hit the turn, Opalikhin shoved. Josephy instantly called for 161,000 total.
hit the river and Josephy scored the full double.
![[user153638]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
, Juvancic moved all in and Barbero, who had the shorter stack with 125,000 back, had to decide what to do. Eventually he folded the 
turn and 
flop, Massimo De Mario checked from the big blind and former New England Patriot and Oakland Raider Richard Seymour checked behind in the hijack to see a 
turn.
flop left Maimone calling for a diamond, but the dealer did him one better by putting out the 
, one of those outs, giving Baumann a flush.
