Godoy Runs Good at PokerStars PCA

Argentinean poker player Nicolas Godoy heads the PCA Main Event after a Day 2 which had to be cut short because the tournament was running out of players!

Godoy – who won his PCA Main Event package in a $10.00 qualifier – finished the day with a substantial lead over Darren Elias and Michael Mizrachi, as the 501 players who returned for Day 2 were whittled down to just 166 within five levels of play.

While famous names such as Ivey, Helmuth and Negreanu were hitting the rail, the 19-year-old student from Corrientes racked up an impressive 724,200 chips and was responsible for much of the carnage which saw the tournament organisers stop the day´s proceedings a level early.

Godoy´s Big Hands

Nicolas Godoy was involved in action early – crushing Day 1A chip leader Maxim Lobzhanidze (A♦ 10♦ > J♥ J♠) when rivering a Broadway Straight to best Lobzhanidze´s turned set of Jacks. Lobzhanidze recovered to finish the day on 121,300 chips, but other players were not so fortunate.

Alexander Scherdin was busted out of the tournament by Godoy (Q♥ Q♠) when his A♦ K♥ could not connect with any of the community cards, and Josh Prager also selected the wrong moment to shove the last of his chips with A♣ 4♠ – missing everything on the board and finding Godoy on the button with pocket Deuces.

Just 22 Places from the Bubble

With 144 players due to cash in the PCA Main Event, only 22 more need to bust out before the money is reached. With blinds of 1,200/2,400 (ante 300) when play resumes today, only a handful of players are in immediate danger of elimination, but players such as Raj Vohra (45,000 chips), Noah Schwartz (51,500 chips) and Andrew Lichtenberger (53,000 chips) will be looking for an early bump.

Players floating around the average chip stack of 172,000 include PokerStars new boy Jake Cody (145,600 chips), Fabian Quoss (167,100 chips) and top female player Florence Allera (197,600 chips), while those looking more likely to enjoy deep runs include PokerStars pros Joe Cada (253,000 chips) and Eugene Katchalov (256,000 chips) with Max Silver (338,700 chips) making a good recovery after having his Aces cracked by Patrick Kelly (10♠ 8♠ – turned two pairs)

PCA Main Event Day 2 Top Chip Counts

Players who make it through the bubble today are assured of a minimum payday of $15,000. Those with their sights on the first prize of $1,859,000 include:-