Ebony Kenney Leads Field in WPT Caribbean Main Event

After two opening flights of the WPT Caribbean Main Event, Florida-based Ebony Kenney has a substantial chip lead over a field of international poker stars.

The feature event of the Caribbean Poker Tour got underway on Tuesday at the Casino Royale in St Maarten and, after two opening flights of eight levels in the $3,200 buy-in WPT Caribbean Main Event, Ebony Kenney has a substantial chip lead over the rest of the field.

With re-entries allowed on Day 1B for players who bust out during the first opening flight, a total of 191 entries were received for the WPT Caribbean Main Event, from which 107 players will advance to Day 2 which gets underway at 4.00pm local time this afternoon.

WPT Caribbean Day 1A Recap

With only 75 entries on Day 1A, it is not surprising that the chip leaders at the end of the day – Marvin Rettenmaier and Marko Neumann – only appear in ninth and tenth position on the overall leaderboard (below). However, a number of players had made the short trip over from the recently completed Punta Cana Poker Classic in the Dominican Republic and, among those who survived the day were Anthony Zinno, Jordan Christos and Giacomo Fundaro.

It was not such a productive day for WPT regulars Will Failla and Byron Kaverman – who needed to fire second bullets on Day 1B to progress through to today´s action – while other notable players who will not be seen again at the Casino Royale Main Event tables again this week include Jonathan Roy and Jake Schwartz – the only player to bust twice on the opening day of the tournament.

WPT Caribbean Day 1B Recap

One of the other players who busted out on Day 1A of the WPT Caribbean Main Event was Ebony Kenney. However Kenney enjoyed a much better day when she re-entered on Day 1B, doubling up in a set-over-set hand just before the dinner break, and then flopping a set of Fours in the last level of the day to best her opponents top pair and missed Flush draw 4♦ 4♥ > A♣ J♣. Kenney amassed a huge stack of 174,000 chips – 78 Big Blinds ahead of her nearest rival Viet Vo.

Other significant chip stacks to emerge from Day 1B belong to Grega Vozel (124,500 chips) who bust two opponents 3♠ 3♣ > J♥ J♦ > Q♥ Q♣ when he flopped a set of Threes, and James Joiner (89,900 chips) – who got all in with 10♣ 9♣ against Maximillian Droege´s K♥ K♦ after a flop of Q♣ 8♣ 4♣, and improved his hand to a straight flush when the J♣ was dealt on the River. Other notable players to make it through the day – although with not such chip stacks – included Fabian Quoss (32,800 chips) and Tobias Reinkemeier (25,800 chips).

Looking Ahead to Day 2

There is still a lot of poker to be played in the WPT Caribbean Main Event and, when the tournament resumes this afternoon, blinds will be 400/800 with a 100 chip ante. With such a late start (4.00pm local time) the likelihood is that a further eight levels will be played, which should leave us just outside the money bubble which will probably burst during Friday´s action.

Those most likely to still be in with a chance of cashing in the WPT Caribbean Main Event include:-