Steve O'Dwyer Leads PokerStars Championship Panama Super High Roller
The inaugural PokerStars Championship Panama event kicked off with a massive $50,000 Super High Roller event, the largest buy in poker tournament ever on Panamanian soil. A total of 26 unique players registered and four reentered after busting, making for a total field of 30 on Day 1.
After eight levels of play, 19 players remain with Steve O'Dwyer in the lead. Registration remains open until the start of Day 2 so a prize pool is only expected when buying in is no longer an option.
| Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| Steve O'Dwyer | Ireland | 856,000 |
| Orpen Kisacikoglu | United Kingdom | 728,000 |
| Justin Bonomo | United States | 615,000 |
| Mike Watson | Canada | 546,000 |
| Ben Tollerene | United States | 541,000 |
| Koray Aldemir | Germany | 497,000 |
| David Peters | United States | 432,000 |
| Ben Heath | United Kingdom | 425,000 |
| Dario Sammartino | Italy | 417,000 |
| Daniel Dvoress | Canada | 385,000 |
| Jason Koon | United States | 335,000 |
| Timothy Adams | Canada | 33,0000 |
| Dan Colman | United States | 305,000 |
| Paul Newey | United Kingdom | 29,0000 |
| Erik Seidel | United States | 212,000 |
| Sam Greenwood | Canada | 207,000 |
| Isaac Haxton | United States | 192,000 |
| Stefan Schillhabel | Germany | 84,000 |
| Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | 84,000 |
Play got underway at 12:30, half an hour later than planned. Everyone got 250,000 in chips to start the day, except for Jason Koon who got 260,000. Koon told the organization what had happened and soon parted ways with the extra 10,000 he had received. Koon, who won the PokerStars Championship Bahamas Super High Roller at the start of the year, won some karma points and survived the day with 335,000 in chips.
No "Panamaniacs," as Mike Watson described the local players he so desired to sign up.
Besides 250,000 in tournament chips, players got three 60-second time bank chips as the players were on a 30-second clock all day. That wasn't the first time for most, but it did give the event a lot of pace. Still, the chips weren't exactly flying. No local players entered and the field remained mostly a cozy get-together of players that battle it out with each other on the regular. No "Panamaniacs," as Mike Watson described the local players he so desired to sign up.
Igor Kurganov, who signed on as PokerStars Team Pro just two months ago, entered a bit late but was one of the first to depart. He ran pocket nines into the pocket tens of Daniel Dvoress and bought back in. He wouldn't do much better on his second bullet, losing most of it with ace-king suited against the ace-queen suited of Isaac Haxton. Haxton rivered a queen to leave Kurganov short and the Russian Team Pro busted one hand later.
Anthony Zinno and Adrian Mateos followed Kurganov out the door, but did not buy back in. Justin Bonomo, Stephen Chidwick and Erik Seidel bought back in after busting and all return on Day 2.
O'Dwyer got off to a good start, crippling Mustapha Kanit with a flush.
O'Dwyer got off to a good start, crippling Mustapha Kanit with a flush. After losing some small pots, he regained the chip lead after busting Byron Kaverman with a wheel against top pair and top kicker. While Kanit did recover from the clash with O'Dwyer early on, he would eventually lose a lot of them to the Irish EPT champion. The latter made a flush with ace-four suited and Kanit's pocket aces ended up face down in the muck.
The tournament resumes on Sunday, 12 p.m. local time. The 19 players that survived the first day will return to the beautiful Sortis Resort in Panama City and will be joined by players signing up before registration closes. Bryn Kenney will be one of them. Instead of sitting back down, he bought in for Day 2 after busting in one of the last levels of the day.
