One of the poker events which enjoys a lot of attention every year is the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, which brings together poker players from all around the world and grants them with generous prize pools and even more generous payouts. The inaugural edition of the poker festival was held back in 2004 which makes it one of the festivals with a longer history. The year of 2017 was the only one so far which did not see an edition of the poker festival, but this year is expected to welcome back the PCA in January with even larger prizes.
In the long history of PCA, there have been many Main Events, which are usually anticipated by all participants in the action as the culmination of the festival and the event which brings exciting payouts to many participants. There have been five Main Events which have boasted total prize pools amounting to more than $10 million and the took place in the last decade. The first one to surpass the said amount of money was the culminating event in 2009 PCA, which took place at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. As many as 1,347 players gave their luck a try which in turn swell the total prize pool to the impressive $12,647,000.
Main Event Winners Throughout the Years
Numerous champions were present at the Main Event, but only Canadian poker player Poorya Mazari was able to defeat them all and make his way to the throne. This rewarded him with the first-place prize amounting to $3,000,000 and this is also the largest first-place prize at a Main Event given out so far. The following year was also beneficial for the participants at the PCA Main Event, as the total prize pool reached some $14,831,300. At this point, players have already heard that the payouts are spectacular and there were as many as 1,529 of them willing to participate at the culminating event.
As for the big winner who succeeded in outplaying all of them, that was American player Harrison Gimbel. He managed to demonstrate his poker skills and received $2,200,000 in return. For a third consecutive year in 2011, the prize pool exceeded the $10 million mark and this was the year when it reached its largest amount. As much as $15,132,000 were amassed in the total prize pool and this also meant that this was by far the Main Event with most participants. There were a total of 1,560 of them ready to lay their hands on the throne but only one succeeded and this was Galen Hall from the US.
His first-place prize reached $2,300,000 which also grants him with the runner-up position in the Main Event prizes ranking throughout the years. The year of 2012 might have been overpowered by end-of-the-world anticipation for some people, but in PCA ranking it marked a relatively lower level of interest. As for the Main Event, there were only 1,072 participants present which also resulted in a lower total prize pool – only $10,398,400.
The skillful winner who made it to the top of the leader board was US poker pro John Dibella and he received some $1,775,000 for his excellent performance. The last fifth year we are going to mention in this ranking is 2014, which brought a total prize pool at the Main Event amounting to $10,070,000. Dominik Panka from Poland made it to the winner throne and for this feat, he was rewarded with $1,423,096.
As for this year’s edition of the PCA, many players are looking forward to it and they are going to receive their opportunity to participate in the festival which commences officially on 6th January. It is scheduled to continue until 14th. The buy-in for the Main Event is going to go back to its previous amounts and will now be $10,300. The qualifying events leading up to the festival began in September 2017.
