The 2015 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Is Here!
Welcome to the 2015 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure!
This year things will once again be kicking off with a bang, as the $100,000 Super High Roller takes center stage. This is where the best of the best come to kick off their poker calendar year, and anticipation is high once again for a record-setting turnout. Last year, German star Fabian Quoss topped a field of 56 entries — 46 unique players and 10 reentries — to earn the $1,629,940 top prize. Prior champions before Quoss include Scott Seiver (2013), Viktor Blom (2012), and Eugene Katchalov (2011).
Since its inception, the PCA $100,000 Super High Roller has set the tone for the poker year. In 2011, Katchalov won the event by defeating Daniel Negreanu in heads-up play. Later that year, Katchalov would win his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet and nearly capture the European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event title, placing third. Negreanu would go on to win another $534,367 for the remainder of his year.
In 2012, Blom notched his first live tournament win when he defeated Dan Shak in heads-up play. Later that year, Blom took seventh place in both the EPT Berlin €10,300 High Roller and the EPT Monte Carlo €10,300 Six-Max Turbo High Roller. He also finished 14th in the $50,000 Poker Player's Championship at the WSOP for $105,235.
In 2013, Seiver had one heck of a year, winning a total of $4,085,453 — $2,003,480 of that coming from his PCA $100,000 Super High Roller victory. Outside of his massive score in the Bahamas, Seiver finished sixth in the EPT Monte Carlo €100,000 Super High Roller for €266,900 ($349,973) and second in the World Poker Tour Alpha8 £100,000 Super High Roller in London for £509,600 ($815,360).
Then, just last year, Quoss earned a total of $3,090,798, shattering his previous best year of $1,344,882 in winnings from 2012. As mentioned, Quoss earned $1,629,940 for his victory in 2014, but he also netted scores of AU$800,000 ($716,551) and HK$5,271,000 ($679,862) after finishing fifth in the Aussie Millions AU$250,000 Challenge and winning the Asia Championship of Poker High Roller, respectively. Oh, and who did Quoss beat heads up for the title? None other than Mr. Shak, who has final tabled this event for three consecutive years now dating back to 2012. His total take from those three results is an impressive $2,254,640, and he'll be looking to make his fourth final table in a row.
Of those confirmed for this year's event are Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Vanessa Selbst, and Isaac Haxton — all members of Team PokerStars. Then you've got Jason Koon, Bill Perkins, Andrew Robl, Paul Newey, Stephen Chidwick, Justin Bonomo, Olivier Busquet, Dan Colman, Mike McDonald, Ole Schemion, Erik Seidel, and Sam Trickett on the list. Schemion will be kicking off 2015 as the reigning EPT Player of the Year, and the aforementioned Shak is also confirmed to be playing.
At time of writing, 37 names fill out the confirmed list of players sent out to all media, so a big, elite turnout is expected. The cards are scheduled to be in the air at 12 p.m. local time, and we'll see you back there for the kickoff of the event then.
In the meantime, enjoy the 2015 PokerNews PCA welcome video starring Remko Rinkema: