John Gale

John Gale

John, as most folks know by now, was the champion at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. I've written more about John in the past several months than just about any other player. Rather than pontificate about John at length, I'm going to get in the middle of the tournament action.

4:01pm--Gale, who started the day with around 45,000 in chips has gone on another good run. He just put his AK vs AQ, won the hand, and added another few stacks to the felt in front of him. He now has more than 80,000 in chips. His table is tough. Greenstein, Devilfish, Eli Elezra, Tony Cousineau, and Joe Sebok.

4:22pm--It appears our own John Gale is now the chip leader in this event. Right now, he owns his table.

4:45pm--We've re-drawn seats with 26 players remaining. Gale still has a mountain of chips, but his new tablemates have a lot of chips and John's aggressive style may have to be dialed back a bit. Eighteen places pay in this event.

4:54pm--Gale just sent Clonie Gowen to the rail. Gowen was shortstacked and pushed all-in against Gale's raise. Gowen had JJ to Gale's KK. Gale flopped a king and Gowen, who had a chance at a straight on the river, missed.

4:56pm--An interesting side note while the players are on a 15 minute break. A somewhat familiar face graces the table behind Gale. While the hair is much shorter and he's not wearing sunglassess, the style of Alex Balandin is immediately recognizable. Alex and John went heads up in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure on the World Poker Tour. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want both of these guys to make the final table of this event. For a while it looked like it might certainly happen. Alex had a very big stack of chips. However, his overpair just ran into a flopped set of sevens and Alex doubled up Eli Elezra. Nonetheless, this contest is far from over.

5:30pm--After the break, players settled down just a little bit. Doesn't look like he's picking up many hands. He came in for a raise, but laid down his hand after Amir Vahedi came over the top, nearly all in. Looked like a good laydown, as Vahedi showed kings.

5:41pm--Sheriff John Gale's badge got a little tarnished in the last few minutes. "This maniac had been at it every hand," Gale explained as he stepped into the hall for a trademark Marlboro red. So, Gale decided to put his man to the test. Gale (holding irrelevant, raggedy cards) came over the top of his opponent and eventually had to back down when the "maniac" raised all-in. Gale, who hit a high-water mark of around 90K is back down to around 70K, which is still well above average.

6:35pm--John got into a tangle with his nemesis again and again had to lay down his hand. He's now down to around 50,000 in chips which is slightly below average at this point. The 20 remaining players are heading to a dinner break and will return at 7:45pm PDT.

8:23pm--We're back from dinner and within half an hour we made it down to the money. And yessiree, our man John Gale is in the money. His stack sits about 11,000 below average right now. He's not played a lot of pots since the dinner break. We made the long walk together fromo poker room to the casino. He told me on the last hand before the break, he wasn't just playing around with the man he called a maniac. Gale held queens, but a king on board slowed him down. His opponent showed a king after Gale folded, so, the laydown was a good one. We're re-drawing for the final two tables now. The plan is to eliminate nine more players before breaking for the day. Still remaining, besides our man Gale, are names like Elezra, Balandin, Devilfish, Seidel, Violette, Sebok, and Cousineau.

8:55pm--Now down to 16 players. Ted Lawson and Tom Lee have busted out since we made it into the money and final two tables. Gale has picked up a couple of hands without having to showdown.

8:57pm--Check that. Make it 15 players. Erik Seidel just busted. Six more to the final table.

8:59pm--In a matchup for the ages, PokerStars Caribbean Adventure heads-up competitors John Gale and Alex Balandin are now sitting next to each other. A moment ago, they waxed nostalgic about their days in the Bahamas. They'd hoped to meet at the final table. It happened a bit sooner than they'd planned.

9:11pm--Now down to 12. Devilfish and Eli Elezra have busted.

9:30pm--We have consolidated to one table of ten. Gale did not have an opportunity to bust some of the shorter stacks, so his chips haven't moved much. He's not the shotest stack, but he needs some help to compete against the bigger stacks. We're on a 15 minute break.

9:51pm--John gale makes TV table in $5k PL Hold'em Event. Details to come.

Terrence Chan

Terrence Chan

Poker Pages Mike Paulle calls Terrence Chan an internet genius. That's likely true. Beyond that, he's one helluva poker player. For those unfamiliair with Terrence, he's a very successful online player who went pro in the past twelve months. He also was one of the Costa Rican team that took a second world title in the PokerStars.com World Cup of Poker. He suffered a horrible set-over-set beat at the end of play on Monday. Today, he's in recovery mode. His first major victory was getting all-in with AQ suited in hearts versus PokerStars Caribbean Adventure final tabler Nenad Medic's 55. Terrence made two hearts on the flop and a third on the turn to nearly double up.

4:01pm--Terrence started the day with 19,300 and has worked his way back up to around 32,000 in chips. His table, like most tables, is full of faces. Clonie Gowen, Ted Lawson, Amir Vahedi, and Allen Cunningham all sit around Terrence now. The blinds sit at 600/1200 with around 35 players remianing.

4:22pm--If bad luck were a book of matches, Terrence Chan could've burned down the Rio. After getting beat set-over-set yesterday, his AK ran into AA this afternoon. That knocked him down to a short stack. Moments ago, his QQ ran into KK and Terrence Chan busted just ten short of the money.