PCA Main Event Tops 1,000 Players – Shankar Pillai Leads
Thursday, 9 January 2014
As Fabian Quoss allowed the magnitude of his victory in the PCA $100,000 Super High Roller sink in, the rest of the players inside the Atlantis Resort were turning their attention towards the $10,300 PCA Main Event over the last two days.
Thanks to a guaranteed prizepool of $10 million and the chance to own one of the first major poker titles of the year a healthy batch of 295 players, including Isaac Haxton, Mickey Petersen and Phil Laak took to the felt for Day 1A.
Knowing this was just the first step on the road to riches many players adopted a cautious approach but as the day wore on and the blinds increased more than 100 players would eventually hit the rail.
Indeed, by the time things came to a close Dylan Hortin had successfully perched himself at the top of the chip counts with a stack worth 160,500 chips. Having qualified for the Main Event through an FPP satellite, Hortin was able to parlay his good fortune into performance that left him at the helm of the session's 184 survivors.
After the relative calm of Day 1A a glut of players were keen to make their mark on Day 1B and by the time the entrants had stopped coming the field had broken the 1,000 player mark. Now larger than last year's Main Event, the session's 710 starters were all looking towards Hortin's Day 1A chip marker.
However, in typical fashion, not everyone could survive in the choppy waters and while Barry Greenstein and Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier watched from the rail, Shankar Pillai was able to seize the chip lead.
Running hot and edging his stack just above that of Hortin's, Pillai was able to finish Day 1B atop of the 445 survivors and will start today's session as the overall leader. Also making it through day and one step closer to the $1 million+ top prize was the likes of Noah Boeken, Jude Ainsworth, Vanessa Selbst and recent PCA Super High Roller champion, Fabian Quoss.
PCA $10,300 Main Event Overall Chip Counts:
Shankar Pillai - 173,900
Dylan Hortin - 160,500
Victor Levy - 150,100
Daniel Bavec - 149,900
Rens Feenstra - 148,400
Adalfer Gamarra - 145,700
Jorgen Sandvoll Lindebo - 139,900
Leonardo Emperador - 136,100
Sam Greenwood - 132,500
Antoine Saout - 131,600