The fish at the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure won’t all be metaphorical. When the gathering assembles at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas in January, the Fish and Chips Showdown will give closet anglers a chance to display heretofore hidden talents in front of their poker buddies. The two-day event gets underway Jan. 6, when all contestants are taken out on boats to fish within a 50-mile radius of the Paradise Island Marina. The question of which player caught the fattest finned creature will be assessed when the boats return to shore six and a half hours later.
After the weigh-in comes the $2,300 buy-in as the poker portion of the event gets underway. The final table will play out the next day, after which the points earned from both events will be combined (weighted 2-1 in poker’s favor) and prizes awarded.
A few caveats. You gotta bring your own bait, but it can be purchased locally, so no need to stuff any into your carry-on at the airport. Sailfish, marlin, dorado, yellow fin tuna and wahoo are all fair game, but sharks are not on the menu. So no trying to get a hook into 2003 WSOP champ Chris Moneymaker (who will be attending) and trying to wrestle him onto the scale dockside.
This year’s Caribbean Adventure saw Harrison Gimbel take down 1,529 players to become the main event’s youngest ever champion and $2.2m richer. It’s been been quite the year for Gimbel, who recently triumphed at the WPT Regional Series in Florida. And he didn’t have to come home smelling like fish, neither.
