Despite horrendous weather across North American which hampered many players’ efforts to reach the Bahamas, there was a huge turnout at this year’s PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.
Nearly 1,554 players took part in the 39 events held during the Festival which ran at Atlantis from January 5-13. There were 7,212 tournament entries in all with players hailing from 73 different countries and a total $30,006,180 was awarded in prize money. There were 721 cashes overall. In the Main Event, there were 1,031 players from 65 countries creating a prize pool of $10,000,700 and the $25k High Roller event attracted a record 247 entries.
The 2014 PCA awarded 38 separate prizes of over $100,000. Eleven players had cashes of over $500,000 and the festival created six “instant millionaires”. German poker pro Fabian Quoss was the first instant millionaire when he defeated some of the best poker players in the world to take down the $100k Super High Roller tournament for a $1,629,940 first prize. High Roller winner Jake Schindler and runner-up Greg Merson both had cashes of more than $1 million, along with Mike McDonald, Dominik Panka and Isaac Baron in the PCA 2014 Main Event.
Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst and German pro Ole Schemion both managed to cash in all three major events. Selbst's total haul for PCA 2014 was $1,400,220, taking her lifetime tournament winnings to over $9 million. She received $760,640 for third place in the Super High Roller, $32,000 for 42nd in the Main Event and $607,580 for third in the $25k High Roller.
Other notable PCA 2014 results included Shaun Deeb taking down the $1k Open Face Chinese tourney, an event already widely known as the “Shaun Deeb Invitational”. British pro Ben Dobson won his third PokerStars trophy this season for the Triple Stud event and American Kathy Saraf won her second PCA Ladies Event.
The PCA also hosted the first two heats of Shark Cage, a new winner-takes-all $1 million prize pool PokerStars TV show. Friend of PokerStars and Seinfeld star Jason Alexander and actress Jennifer Tilly were among the stars taking part. Later heats will be filmed at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final and EPT Barcelona in August.
As well as scheduled poker tournaments and a spectacular PCA party, there was a VIP Club-hosted HU4ROLLZ contest in the Players Lounge - with players competing against PokerStars Team Online to win for $20,00 in prizes and four well-attended Team PokerStars Pro Q&A sessions. Vanessa Selbst won the #PCALastLonger contest and will join 370 fans who voted for her in two online freerolls on PokerStars on January 26.
The PCA Players Lounge was a big hit – complete with a cash bar, free wifi, sofas and giant screens showing football matches and PCALive broadcasts. The Information desk was staffed for 12 hours a day, handed out over 850 player bags, over 1,000 T-shirts and 1,300 packs of cards.
PCA president David Carrion said: "PCA 2014 has been a thrilling festival. The $10 million guarantee was met on the Main Event, the High Roller was a record field in PokerStars history and we surpassed last year’s total prize pool and entries. It is an encouraging beginning of the PCA’s second decade to look ahead at a bright future in the many more to come. "
