The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, one of the largest live poker festivals to be taking place at the beginning of each year, is very few days away from kicking off its 2018 edition, and players from here and there are readying for their annual poker get-together at the beautiful Atlantis Paradise Island Resort, in the Bahamas.
This year, the major poker festival will take place from January 6 through January 14. It is no secret and no surprise that the Main Event is one of the PCA tournaments that attract the greatest interest and it will not be any different this year. The $10,300 buy-in tournament will take place over six days, starting from January 8.
To celebrate the start of what will certainly be one more action-packed PCA festival, Casino News Daily has decided to provide poker fans with a quick look at past PCA editions and at the Main Event champions to have claimed the largest prizes from the tournament.
Poorya Nazari – $3,000,000
The Canadian player won the tournament back in 2009, defeating a field of 1,347 entries. It is also important to note that the 2009 edition of the PCA Main Event was a $10,000 buy-in tournament. It generated a prize pool of $12,674,000, which was distributed to the top 199 finishers.
Nazari emerged the victor after a heads-up against Anthony Gregg, who scooped a $1.7 million prize for his runner-up finish in the prestigious tournament. Nazari’s first-place prize from the event was and still is his largest live cash ever won from a tournament. Overall, the player has $3,149,721 in live tournament earnings.
Galen Hall – $2,300,000
Hall won the 2011 edition of the tournament. The player was the last man standing from a field of 1,560 participants. The Main Event featured a buy-in fee of $10,300 that year. It is also interesting to note that the 2011 PCA Main Event was actually the one to attract the largest player field and to generate the largest Main Event prize pool in PCA’s history. It totaled $15,132,000 and was split among the top 232 finishers.
Hall did not lay hands on the first-place prize and the trophy before defeating Christopher Oliver in a heads-up match. The tournament’s runner-up finisher also left with a seven-figure payout of $1.8 million.
Over the course of his poker career, Hall has won the total amount of $4,208,635 from different live tournaments.
Harrison Gimbel – $2,200,000
Gimbel bested the 2010 PCA Main Event’s field to win his career’s best live cash. The player clashed against as many as 1,529 entries to eventually capture the title. He participated in and won the second-largest PCA Main Event. The tournament generated a prize pool of $14,831,300 to be distributed to the top 224 finishers.
Gimbel squared off Tyler Reiman in a heads-up match before taking down the whole tournament. Reiman’s share of the prize pool totaled $1,750,000.
Bertrand Grospellier – $2,000,000
France’s winningest player was crowned the victor of the 2008 PCA Main Event after beating a field of 1,136 entries. The 2008 edition of the always exciting tournament featured a buy-in fee of $8,000, which created a prize pool of $8,562,976. The top 118 places got paid back then.
Grospellier, who is also known as one of the world’s best online poker players, faced Hafiz Khan heads-up before claiming the title. Being the runner-up, Khan collected $1,094,976 from the tournament.
Dimitar Danchev – $1,859,000
The Bulgarian poker pro won the PCA Main Event in 2013. His task involved remaining the last man from a field of 987 contenders for the title and the first-place prize. Danchev did just what had to be done to stay alive and eventually pose for a happy picture with the trophy.
The tournament generated a prize pool of $9,573,900 that year. There were payouts for the top 144 finishers. Joel Micka from the US was Danchev’s heads-up opponent. The runner-up finisher scooped $1,190,000 for his performance in the tournament. As for Danchev, he took what has been his largest ever live cash since the beginning of his live poker career.
