With Day 1B numbers in, Pokerstars has reported a large entry field for the $10 000 buy-in 2010 Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure online poker tournament now playing out in the Bahamas in microgaming casinos.

In 2009 the event attracted 1 347 players and delivered a main prize of $3 million, making it one of the biggest poker tournaments outside the USA. This year the field is up to 1 529 - many of them top names in the game - although the first prize is smaller at $2.2 million as a result of an amended payout structure that gives more cash to more contestants.

224 players will cash this year, compared to 199 last time around, and the first payout level of $2 500 above the buy-in awarded last year has been boosted to $5 000.

“More players are getting paid and the players are getting paid better,” said PokerStars event host Neil Johnson. “It’s a much more significant return on your investment and it’s better for the poker economy as a whole.”

Johnson added that the bottom line is that 15 percent of the field is now getting paid rather than 10 percent.

Online gambling group Leisure and Gaming plc has announced that its non-executive chairman, Philip Parker, has resigned as he advised he would do earlier this year and has now left the online roulette strategy company.

Until a new non-executive chairman is named, non executive director Colin Eastaugh will take over Parker’s duties, the company said.