Ronaldo Just Misses Out on PCA Glory
Tuesday, 13 January 2015
The fairytale ending for Ronaldo in the PCA wasn't to be last night after the Brazilian football legend was sidelined just an hour away from the close of play on Day 4.
Having been featured heavily throughout the session courtesy of being sat on the featured table, Ronaldo appeared to display a level of talent that belies his status as a retired sportsman.
However, for all his efforts over the course of four days, Ronaldo eventually made a misstep with Kd Td in the final throes of yesterday's session After opening from middle position, the PokerStars pro decided to 3-bet shove over the top of Eugenio Mattar's raise with pocket queens.
Naturally the Brazilian businessman (who is one of the richest men in his home country) called and watched with a smile as the board ran out: 5c Jc 9s 8c Jh. That hand was enough to send a disappointed yet smiling Ronaldo to the rail in 26th place to collect his $42,180 consolation prize.
As well as dispatching his fellow Brazilian, Mattar's moves with pocket queens allowed him to collect a mountain of chips and claim the chip lead just before the tournament clock was paused. In fact, when the numbers were counted and verified, Mattar's stack was confirmed to be worth 2,673,000 chips, which was more than enough to put him ahead of Emarh Cakmak (2,037,000) in second.
Overall, Day 4 of this year's PCA Main Event saw 57 players become 24 in the race for the $1.5 million top prize. Today's session will get underway noon local time and continue until a final table is reached.
PCA Main Event Leaders
Eugenio Pacelli Mattar (Brazil) 2,673,000
Emrah Cakmak (France) 2,037,000
Chance Kornuth (United States) 2,026,000
Andreas Samuelsson (Sweden) 1,628,000
Pratyush Buddiga (United States) 1,624,000
Ratharam Sivagnanam (Canada) 1,341,000
Niklas Hambitzer (Germany) 1,317,000
Shyam Srinivasan (Canada) 1,310,000
Diego Ventura (Peru) 1,154,000
Juan Martin Pastor (Argentina) 1,085,000