PokerStars Caribbean Adventure

2010 PCA Tournament Report

by Shirley Rosario

PCA Main Event
I felt great going to play the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure main event because I had plenty of rest the night before. The first thing I noticed was that Scott Clements was at my table. I wasn't happy about that, but at least it wasn't an Omaha Hi/Low event (he's even tougher in that game).

I built my $30k starting chips up to 55k by playing incredible (by my No-Limit standards anyway), picking good spots and being patient. Unfortunately, I run real bad. I doubled one guy up (for a total of 25k) when we got all of our chips in on the flop - me with a set, him with a gutshot straight draw and a flush draw. He immediately hit the flush and the river didn't pair the board.

Three hands later, I double another guy up with me holding QQ and him holding AK. All the chips went in preflop and he turned an ace. About two rounds later, I doubled another guy up when I raised from the cutoff, he reraised from the small blind and I called with JJ. The flop was 8 high and we got all of our chips in (total of about 7k more) and his KK held up.

I had about 9 1/2 big blinds left when I pushed with A9 of diamonds and got called by TT and unfortunately I didn't improve. It made me feel nice that three players complimented me when I got up from the table. They said it was unfortunate luck and they didn't see any mistakes. Even if they hadn't said anything, I wouldn't have been too devastated by being eliminated (although the $2.2 million first prize would have been nice!). I played good and that is all I can do.


Ladies Championship Event
Halli and I both won our way in the Ladies via PokerStars. The package included an entry into the $1100 event, a few nights accommodation, a $250 spa certificate, and boot camp taught by Vanessa Rousso.

I typically don't enjoy Ladies events. I have played several of them, but I find myself getting bored and losing my patience. This time I promised myself (and Halli) that I would give it everything I got.

My first table didn't seem fantastic. I was sitting with Anna Wroblewski who is an accomplished tournament player and who gave Halli and I both a lot of trouble in the qualifiers on Stars. Sitting to my left was a female who I recognized as the woman who won this year's WSOP Ladies Event. A couple of the other women had familiar faces which made me think they weren't amateurs either. Despite the fact that my table wasn't great, I accumulated a little bit of chips before breaking to another table.

Once I got to the other table, I went on a horrible run. AK vs AQ all in preflop and the girl hits a queen no problem. JJ against AK and they hit an ace on the river. Because I had done a great job accumulating chips, I managed to survive both hands, but not with many chips. I really had to pick my spots carefully and make sure that I didn't give up. I pushed in a couple of spots and didn't get any callers and then finally I pushed with 33 and got called by the girl in the small blind who had a lot of chips. She said "This is my favorite hand." And I thought to myself, "Crap, I am in a race situation at best." But it wasn't a race. She turned over the best case scenario, 22 and I doubled up. I picked up a couple more blinds and antes and then won the last hand before breaking for the night. Miraculously, I finished with 24k in chips and the blinds were still going to be 500-1000 which gave me plenty of time to pick a good spot.

Day 2 started out pretty good. I liked my table and was able to pick away at the players. After building my stack up to about 35k, I eliminated a player when she put in a small raise from the small blind after it had been folded to her. I had pocket threes and called her raise. The flop was T83. She bet about 2/3 the pot and I called. The turn was a four and she checked to me. I made a small bet, she moved all-in and I insta-called. She turned over AA and my set of threes held.

From then on, it was smooth sailing to the final table. I was especially happy to see Halli was doing even better than I was and she went into the final table tied as the chipleader with Vanessa Rousso. I eliminated the first person on the table when I made a really tough decision holding 99 against her all-in shove over the top of two of us. She had been a really tight player and her range of hands was pretty limited. I figured her for sevens or better or AK or AQ (she was short enough that she was forced to make that move with AQ). After calculating the pot and the difference of my original bet and her all-in, I decided it was the correct move for me to call. She turned over 88 and my hand held up.

Vanessa did most of the eliminating after that and before I knew it, we were four handed and I was short stacked along with the other woman because Vanessa and Halli had so many of the chips. I ended up being eliminated by my best friend (the witch) when she raised my blind and I shoved with A3 of hearts. She called (it was an easy no-brainer call because I was so short) and flopped a flush draw, turned a three and rivered a blank. :( The other woman was eliminated on the next hand and Halli and Vanessa battled heads-up for two hours before Vanessa pulled off the win. Halli played great and I am even more happy for her than I am for myself. It was a great finish for both of us and a nice poker story for us to tell.

2009 Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure