PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Enters Day 2

The European Poker Tour PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) enters its second day today (technically its third day of play), and, for the first time during the tournament, the playing field will be combined after playing two day 1s.

A whopping 1,136 players entered this year’s PCA. This is the first year the tournament will be part of the EPT series of events. This popular event has been a World Poker Tour staple for years. PokerStars, though, owns the EPT, and pulled this signature event into its fold for 2008.

This is by far the largest event in the EPT’s four-season history. Last year’s grand final attracted 706 players. If this event remained a WPT event, it would also have been the largest WPT event ever, beating the number of entrants at the 2007 L.A. Poker Classic by 345 (791 played in that event).

The players generated a prize pool of $8.5 million, and $2 million of that will go to the eventual winner. The PCA started on Saturday when 556 players played in day 1A of the PCA. The day ended with 232 players standing. Today, they join the 246 survivors from the 580 players who played in day 1B, which took place yesterday.

More than 650 players who entered the PCA won their entry through qualifiers on PokerStars. Of those, 214 made it through to today. Also, a dozen Team PokerStars pros also still had chips at the start of today. Click here to take advantage of a deposit bonus for PokerStars offered through CardPlayer.com.

Steven Paul-Ambrose is among the chip leaders with 170,925. Paul-Ambrose must love the PCA; he won the event in 2006 for $1.3 million, and last year, he finished in 20th for a little more than $35,000. Last year’s event attracted 937 players and was won by Ryan Daut ($1.5 million).

There are still many fantastic players left in the field, including Daniel Negreanu, Josh Arieh, Rhett Butler, Barry Greenstein, and Eric Lynch are all still in it with plenty of chips to maneuver with. Major League Baseball pitcher David Wells enters day 2 with 88,150.

The PCA continues this week, and the final table takes place Thursday.