Dylan “Pokerl)evil” Hortin tonight set the pace for the PCA 2014 Main Event bagging 160,500 at the end of play. Hortin is an accomplished player, albeit one without the silverware to be picked out of a live poker line-up. Online, however, his credentials are strong. He finished 7th in the most recent WCOOP Main Event for $213,000, which accounts for a healthy chunk of the $1.5m he’s clocked up in online tournaments at PokerStars. You can read about that WCOOP score here.
The 23-year-old, originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, is here on a freeroll of sorts. He qualified for the Main Event via a 25,000 FPP tournament. Today, he found himself sat next to famous basketball player Gilbert Arenas. That seemed to work out well.
“He was splashing around a lot,” said Hortin. “I made a conscious effort to play way more hands than I normally would because there was just so much more potential to win a huge pot if he was in it.”
Not long into the day, he got his chance. “I was able to chip up through him. I actually doubled up through him with queens…I saw him yesterday and I had to say to somebody, ‘Is that Gilbert Arenas walking by?’ So it was pretty crazy sitting down next to him today.”
Super High Rolling
As the players walked into the Imperial Ballroom this morning, all 295 of them, their eyes would have been drawn to the large TV table. It was sat waiting for seven players to return to finish off the $100,000 Super High Roller. You can find out more about that event here. That most exclusive of tournaments is still currently playing down to a $1.6m winner, but the Main Event, with ‘just’ a $10,000 price tag, is likely to payout more to the winner. Only 183 of those will get to walk back in for Day 2.
Calvin “cal42688” Anderson was among those driving the action into the later levels of the day along with the likes of Hortin, Victor Levy (151,100), Tim Ulmer (125,000) and Max Silver (111,800). Anderson faltered and slipped down to 88,000, no doubt just a temporary setback, while Hortin held steady. You can check chip counts for more players by clicking the ‘chip counts’ tab in our live coverage.
You can’t win on Day 1A, but you can certainly free up some time to play more side events. Among those in the position to play as much side action as they want include Jeff Madsen, Phil Laak, Rep Porter, Ankush “pistons87” Mandavia, Noah Schwartz, Darren Elias, and PokerStars sponsored pros Vanessa Rousso, Ike Haxton, Lex Veldhuis and Mickey Petersen. We’ll have plenty more big names playing tomorrow for Day 1B.
Stephen Klam got off to a flying start and an early chip lead when he caught a one-outer all-in for his tournament life to river quads against a flopped full house. It also marked the first whooping and hollering point of the PCA 2014 Main Event, an event which is typically a bombastic affair. Now, that’s what I’m talking about.
The day started as most do at the PCA, with a couple of Team PokerStars Pros giving a Q&A in the Players’ Lounge. Today’s talk was from ElkY and Eugene Katchalov about the plus-EV uptick of healthy living to your game. Players squashed in to listen to the Bert and Ernie of poker, more than happy to indulge in the irony of nodding along to gluten-free and low-sugar talk while devouring free Danish pastries and chocolate muffins. Tomorrow’s talk starts at 11am and is scheduled to include Ike Haxton, David Williams and Vanessa Selbst talking about staking, among other things.
We caught up with ElkY a little later to find out exactly how one busts a $100,000 in two hours. Rivering a set seems to help. Mixed game specialist David “Gunslinger3” Bach also dropped in for a chat.
We found out how the 1% live with Team PokerStars Pro, and how they want to give you $2,500. You’ve just got to play the Team Online guys heads-up for rollz…. And I’m sure Sergio Garcia would take you on (on the golf course). We also redefined poker terms for a more genteel PC future and also got to speak to the current World Champion, Ryan “The Beast” Riess.
Catch up with all the Super High Roller live updates here.
Catch up with all the Main Event live updates here.
Rick Dacey is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.
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