EPT PCA Day 1B: Alex Venovski Leads, Randy “nanonoko” Lew Sets World Record

The second of two starting days wrapped up at the European Poker Tour’s (EPT) PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Sunday night, with Alex Venovski emerging as both the chip leader of Day 1B and the overall field. It’s a close race at the top, though, as Venovski’s 193,000 chips just edges Chino Rheem’s 182,900 and Jonathan Jaffe’s 182,000.

Venovski does not have much of a live tournament history, claiming just 10 cashes over the past four-plus years. Five of those, however, were at the World Series of Poker and one was on the World Poker Tour (WPT), where placed 8th in the WPT Jacksonville Main Event just this past November. His largest score came a week before that in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em Championship Event at the Rock and Roll Poker Open at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino and Hotel, where he placed second for $150,000. All told, Alex Venovski has won $290,184 in his live tournament career.

The field of the PCA is bottom-weighted at the moment. With 325 of the original 1,072 players remaining, the average chip count is 58,401, though just 130 players are above that mark. The prize pool amounts to over $10 million, with $2 million going to the eventual winner. 160 players will receive at least the minimum payout of $15,000, while the top 10 will all make six-figures.

Other recognizable names still in the tournament include, but are not limited to, Luca Pagano, Arnaud Mattern, Harrison Gimbel, Barry Greenstein, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Matt Waxman, JP Kelly, Phil Collins, Marcel Luske, Dario Minieri, Bertrand Grospellier, Bill Chen, Amnon Filippi, Vanessa Selbst, Galen Hall, Carlos Mortensen, and Ivan Demidov.

In the meantime, back in a corner of the tournament room, Pokerstars pro Randy “nanonoko” Lew was sitting by himself. This wasn’t a Little Jack Horner situation – there was no plum-filled pie in his lap – no, Lew was taking aim at a new Guinness World Record for the most online hands played in two hours. There was one catch, though: he had to finish in the black. If he lost money overall, no matter how many hands he played, it was all for naught.

It came right down to the wire. With just over a quarter-hour remaining, Lew had played over 23,000 hands but was only up $8.91 (but imagine the rakeback). But that was a huge improvement from earlier, when at one point, playing 40 tables, he was down $1,200. He moved up the stakes to $5/$10 to try to get it back, which he obviously did. But staring at a profit that could disappear in one bet, Lew had to start managing his play if he wanted to hold on. He closed tables one at a time to limit his exposure to potential losses, eventually having a lone table remaining on one of his two monitors. Of course, he was dealt pocket Aces at the end of his run and had to play it. Fortunately, they held up and Lew finished with a $7.65 profit over 23,493 hands.

The PokerStars blog had the complete statistics:

23,493 total hands
2936.63 hands per hour
48.94 hands per minute
1.23 seconds per hand
22,784 FPPs earned (there’s the rakeback equivalent)
$7.65 profit

There was no previous record to be broken, so Randy Lew set the standard. He played 23,493 hands in 8 hours, pulled a profit, and is now the Guinness World Record holder. And he still has 16,200 in the PCA Main Event, so he has that going for him, too.

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure will resume at noon local time on Monday as the remaining players from Days 1A and 1B combine for Day 2.

EPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure – Start of Day 2 Chip Leaders

1.   Alex Venovski – 193000
2.   Chino Rheem – 182900
3.   Jonathan Jaffe – 182000
4.   Philippe Dauteuil – 170800
5.   Istvan Birizdo – 165900
6.   Jasper Wetemans – 153600
7.   Max Leonhard – 149700
8.   Yuliyan Nikolaev Kolev – 149700
9.   Sean Jazayeri – 147100
10.   Micah Smith – 141100

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Poker dictionary:

MUCK - [1] A collection of face-down cards near the dealer composed of discards, i.e., folded hands, burns and discards for drawing purposes. [2] To throw one's cards into the muck, thus folding.
FREEROLL - [1] A poker tournament that does not charge a buy-in fee; players must earn buy-in credits through previous play at the same establishment. [2] Having a lock on part of a pot (sure to win a greater fraction of the pot than one is betting) and playing to win more or all of it.
TAPPED [OUT] - Out of money. Can refer to a player running out of money in the course of a hand, thus still active for the main pot; or can refer to a player who has lost his bankroll and can no longer play.
RUNNER-RUNNER - A hand made using both of the last two cards dealt.
SHARK - A good/crafty player often posing as a fish early in the game.
WHEEL - A-2-3-4-5. Usually discussed in the context of lowball where it is the best possible hand. Can also refer to a 5-high straight in high games. Also: BICYCLE.

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