While many of the world's top sharks entered the 229-strong Day 1a of the $5,000 PokerStars Championship Bahamas Main Event, it was 84-year-old Morris Dadoun who made for today's storyline. The oldest player in the field was responsible for the very first elimination of the day, vaulting to the lead in the first level. He managed to stay near the top of the chip counts throughout today's eight levels. He bagged up 112,800 to finish the day in 13th place.
Dadoun, who hails from Toronto, won his seat to the Main Event in a charity event. He was offered to sell it but refused to do so. "This was my dream, I wanted to go," he said in an interview for PokerNews. Dadoun's experience couldn't have started much better.
He was drawn to a table that featured one of the world's elite pro golfer and Friend of PokerStars Sergio Garcia, along with poker heavyweights such as Olivier Busquet and GPI Player of the Year David Peters. Dadoun enjoyed that company and will be marching to Day 2, unlike all of his aformentiened opponents.
Dadoun's fellow countrymen James Martyn and Brad Marsh took the top two spots tonight, bagging up 197,400 and 173,200, respectively.
The top ten also includes Dan Colman, who sits in fourth place on the all-time money list with more than $26.7 million in live cashes. Colman was playing on the $100k Super High Roller final table in the afternoon, earning $759,660 for third place. Although he couldn't play the full eight levels of Day 1a, he was still able to navigate his stack to 136,100.
Among the notable players who had a great start to the Main Event were Igor Kurganov (121,000), Adrian Mateos (120,900), Gaelle Baumann (119,200), Nick Petrangelo (104,000) and Christoph Vogelsang (100,300). Team PokerStars Pros Jason Mercier (92,700) and Daniel Negreanu (58,200) also made it through. Day 1a saw 112 players advance.
Today's casualties included reigning champion Mike Watson as well as Kevin Hart, one of the world's top-earning celebrities Kevin Hart. The 38-year-old actor and comedian had previously entered the $100k Super High Roller here at PokerStars Championship Bahamas.
You can follow the ive coverage of the PokerStars Championship Bahams Main Event on the PokerStars blog and PokerNews, and the PokerStars TV broadcast begins on Day 2, as well.
HISTORY OF POKERSTARS MAIN EVENTS IN THE BAHAMAS 2008: 1,136 entries, $8,562,976 prize pool, Bertrand Grospellier (France) won $2,000,000
2009: 1,347 entries, $12,674,000 prize pool, Poorya Nazari (Canada) won $3,000,000
2010: 1,529 entries, $14,831,300 prize pool, Harrison Gimbel (USA) won $2,200,000
2011: 1,560 entries, $15,132,000 prize pool, Galen Hall (USA) won $2,300,000
2012: 1,072 entries, $10,398,400 prize pool, John Dibella (USA) won $1,775,000
2013: 987 entries, $9,573,900 prize pool, Dimitar Danchev (Bulgaria) won $1,859,000
2014: 1,031 entries, $10,070,000 prize pool, Dominik Panka (Poland) won $1,423,096
2015: 816 entries, $7,915,200 prize pool, Kevin Schulz (USA) won $1,491,580
2016: 928 entries, $4,500,800 prize pool, Mike Watson (Canada) won $728,325
NINE DAYS OF ACTION
PokerStars Championship Bahamas, which runs through January 14 at the sun-drenched Atlantis Resort in Nassau, is the first event of the all new PokerStars Championship tour. Poker players from around the world have been qualifying for as little as $10 at PokerStars.com. The event has an action-packed schedule of 92 tournaments, cash games, and non-poker activities, and attracts thousands of international players who will dust off the holiday cobwebs to play in the nine-day Bahamas poker extravaganza.
KEY EVENTS
- $100,000 Super High Roller (January 6-8, 2017)
- $2,200 PokerStars National Championship (January 7-9, 2017)
- $5,000 PokerStars Championship Main Event (January 8-14, 2017)
- $50,000 NL Hold'em Single Day Single Re-Entry
- $25,750 PL Omaha Single Re-Entry
- $220 PokerStars Open (January 10-12, 2017)
- $25,750 High Roller (January 12-14, 2017)
- $440 PokerStars Cup (January 12-14, 2017)
POKERSTARS TV MAIN EVENT BROADCAST
The ever popular PokerStars TV broadcast returns to the Bahamas with a five-day filming schedule. The stream will air daily from January 10, broadcasting the action from the PokerStars Championship Bahamas Main Event from Day 2 all the way through to the cards-up finale. The broadcast will be available in a wide number of languages, on desktop and mobile on PokerStars.tv, YouTube, Facebook and Twitch. For cards-up finals, please ensure you do not post ANY action until it has appeared on the live stream. No live streaming is allowed - on any channel (including Facebook, Periscope etc) - from any tournament.
HOST OF #STARSFUN ACTIVITIES AWAY FROM POKER TABLES
Along with the immense poker action, the players and visitors can choose from a host of activities away from the tables, provided by #StarsFun. Taking place at the event are NFL Play-offs tailgate & squares competitions for great prizes (Jan 7-8) as well as virtual reality gaming stations with a chance to win daily prizes and a special basketball 3-on-3 competition on the Atlantis courts, awarding members of the winning team with a $1,000 tournament credit apiece. The official players's party will take place at Aura Nightclub on January 13.
The PokerStars Championship Bahamas will also see the return of the popular "Breakfast with the Pros" Q&A sessions, with a variety of topics to chat through, such as strategy, regulation and future of the game. All players and media have the opportunity to come and ask our sponsored pros and celebrities a question. Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu will run a Q&A session before play starts for the $5,000 PokerStars Championship Bahamas Main Event. The Q&A, which will be open to all players, guests and media, will focus on adapting to and dominating live poker. For further information, please contact: press@pokerstarslive.com.
Best wishes, Jan Kores and
Eric Ramsey
PokerStars LIVE Media Coordinators
