The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure rolled on in the Bahamas this week with plenty of big names still alive in the $10,300 Main Event. The winner scores a seven-figure payday and a huge bullet point for the poker resumé.
Some of those still alive in the series include Nick Petrangelo, Chad Eveslage, Justin Bonomo, and Ramon Colillas. More players also found wins in side events over the last couple days.
One “unique” bust out made some news from the Main Event. Here’s a complete look at some of the recent action.
PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event bubble bursts; massive payout for winner
Players celebrated reaching the money in the $10,300 PCA Main Event on Thursday. The bubble burst just after 3 pm and all 127 players remaining earned at least a min-cash of $17,600.
The tournament brought in 889 players for an $8.6 million prize pool and just 54 players remain. The winner walks away with a payday of $1.5 million and the runner-up grabs $1 million.
Spain’s Sergi Reixach led the players returning for Day 4 on Friday with 1.7 million. Reixach has $82 million in live tournament winnings and is looking to add more to that with a deeper run.
In 2021, Reixach was singled out as a member of Bryn Kenney’s online poker stable and faced allegations of collusion. He denied many of the allegations but admitted to “making some mistakes.”
This is the state of play ahead of Day 4 of the #PCA Main Event
🇧🇸 54 players left, $29,400 locked
🇧🇸 Sergei Reixach leads
🇧🇸 Sam Grafton & Ramon Colillas still in
🇧🇸 Konnikova, Petrangelo, O'Dwyer, & Bonomo among the big names to advance
🇧🇸 Live streaming resumes at 18:30 CET pic.twitter.com/J1mJl6feZO— PokerStars LIVE (@PokerStarsLIVE) January 27, 2023
Christoph Csik returns in second with 1.4 million and Michael Rocco in third with 1.3 million. Other players still alive include Anton Wigg, Giuseppe Pantaleo, Nick Petrangelo, Chad Eveslage, Chris Brewer, Jonathan Little, Justin Bonomo, Jesse Lonis, Steve O’Dwyer, Dylan Linde, and Anthony Hu.
PokerStars ambassador and winner of the first PokerStars Players Championship, Ramon Colillas, also remains in the hunt with 437,000.
Author and part-time poker player Maria Konnikova also is hoping her deep run in the tournament continues. She returns to the action with 312,000.
In the money in the @PokerStars PCA Main Event! Let’s go! pic.twitter.com/6rmFr79esi
— Maria Konnikova (@mkonnikova) January 26, 2023
A look at other winners
The Main Event hasn’t been the only tournament underway at the PCA. The $1,100 Brazilian Series of Poker Main Event also played a major role in this series.
The tournament saw a field of 460 entries for a prize pool of $446,200. Canada’s Allan Barnes took the top spot for $86,650. This becomes the biggest score of his poker career and he now has $175,822 in live tournament winnings. Spain’s Vicente Delgado finished runner-up for $54,550 with Germany’s Christian Rudolph grabbing third for $38,950.
Jonathan Little, of the United States, finished fourth for $29,950. This highest-finishing Brazilian was Brunno Botteon , who took fifth for $23,050.
The $50,000 No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed also concluded with New Zealand’s David Yan collecting $485,690 for first. The win came after a deal with runner-up Orpen Kisacikoglu, of Turkey, who took home $458,058. The high roller action saw 31 entries for a $1.7 million prize pool.
In the $2,100 Hyper Turbo Knockout, Tommy Wang found the winner’s circle for $20,040. Hormando Vaca Diez Jimenez, of Bolivia, took the win in the $1,050 Hyper Turbo KO Freezeout for $9,540.
Bizarre bust out from ‘Poker Bunny’
One of the more interesting events over the last couple days was the bust out of Paulina “Poker Bunny” Loeliger. She called off her poker life in the Main Event on the river with a pair of threes.
When Daniel De Souza showed three of kind, Loeliger attempted to send her hand to the muck. But she didn’t want her cards revealed and tussled with the dealer to keep it that way.
All cards are revealed when a player is all in and the dealer was able to eventually turn the cards up. The interesting hand generated quite a bit of buzz on social media. Poker pro Chance Kornuth was right behind the table and took the entire scenario.
“I had a front row seat for the Poker Bunny bust out – not wanting to show down or muck when you lose an all-in happens fairly frequently to high stakes regs, myself included,” he noted on Twitter. “What doesn’t often happen is an arm wrestling match with the dealer for the mucked hand.”
“Curb Your PokerBunny”
starring @PokerBunnyy
guest appearance by: @ChancesCards
Quite possibly the greatest 14 seconds in poker history 🤣 pic.twitter.com/aLK2U2s8tR
— Snoopdoug 🃏🧨💸 (@PuntingStacks) January 27, 2023
More Platinum Passes up for grabs in Bahamas
It seemed PokerStars had already dished out all the Platinum Passes up for grabs but apparently saved some for the PCA. The company announced on Thursday that some reserve passes are being added to other PCA tournament prize pools as well.
That included the $3,000 Mystery Bounty tournament that kicked off Thursday. The prize is now included as a bounty. Since players are already in the Bahamas, players will receive a cash prize as well as a $25,000 entry into the PSPC.
Stars is also offering several $300 and $600 step qualifiers for passes along with $30 and $60 Crazy Pineapple flips.