Opening weekend is in full swing at the PokerStars Championship Panama at Sortis Hotel, Spa & Casino. Steve O’Dwyer is leading 19 surviving players at the end of Day 1 of the $50,000 Super High Roller which attracted 26 players and a total of 30 entries. Late registration and re-entry are available until the start of Day 2 today.
O'Dwyer, who bagged up 856,000 last night, is a regular in Super High Roller events across the globe and has more than $16 million in career tournament earnings, including five victories in tournaments with buy-ins of $50,000 or more.
Mike Watson (546,000) will be among those trying to get rid of O'Dwyer on Day 2, along with Ben Tollerene (541,000), David Peters (452,000), Dan Colman (305,000), and the PokerStars Championship Bahamas Super High Roller Champion, Jason Koon (335,000).
Of the 19 players who advanced through the day, a few needed two entries to do so. Justin Bonomo (615,000), Erik Seidel (212,000), Stephen Chidwick (84,000).
Blinds will be 3,000/6,000 with a 1,000 ante when play resumes, giving new and re-entering players more than 40 blinds with which to work. Cards go in the air at 12 p.m. with ten more one-hour levels on the docket.
The 11-day PokerStars Championship Panama festival is the second PokerStars Championship after a debut event in the Bahamas in January. There are 46 tournaments scheduled with more than $650k guaranteed in tournament prizes. The $5,300 Main Event runs March 14-20. Christian Harder was the first ever PokerStars Championship winner when he took down the Bahamas Main Event in January.
There will be a live stream for the PokerStars Championship Main Event – on PokerStars.tv, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch. The broadcast starts on Day 2 (March 16), leading up to the cards-up final table on March 20. The five-day broadcast will be available in a number of languages.
The new PokerStars Championship series already features four more Championship events this year: PokerStars Championship Macau (March 30 - April 9), Monte-Carlo (April 25 - May 5), Sochi (May 20-31) and Barcelona (August 15-27).