The 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is dead as far as high rollers go as Martin Zamani batters 162-entrants in the final $25,000 event of the series to earn a career-high $895,110.
Poker’s big top is about to head to Melbourne, Australia.
The 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) is dead (nearly).
Long live the 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.
We’ve had one of the most memorable PCA’s of all time, interest inflated due to the $25,000 PokerStars Player’s No-Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC), and the final $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em event has just ended, leaving only the winner of the Main Event in abeyance.
It was an enormous turnout with 151-entrants showing up on Day 1, and the British pro, Lucas Reeves, leading 65-players with plastic chips in a bag stowed somewhere in the Atlantis poker room. And that number rose to 162 (including 47 re-entries), with 11 more registering on Day 2, including the eventual runner-up, Dominik Nitsche.
The $100,000 winner, Sam Greenwood, had another sterling run, bubbling the final table, and the man who finished third in that $100k, and runner-up in one of the previous $25k events, Jesus Cortes also having a deep run finishing in 15th place.
The $25k II winner, Sean Winter, made the final table, finishing in seventh, the Triple Crown winner, Davidi Kitai finished eighth, and the former Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) winner, Gianluca Speranza, finished sixth.
The three people to make it to the deep end of this thing were Martin Zamani, Thomas Muehloecker and Dominik Nitsche, with Zamani holding a substantial lead after his pocket queens had eliminated Tom-Aksell Bedell and Markus Durnegger in fourth and fifth respectively.
Zamani would face Nitsche, heads-up, for all the bacon after his A8o beat KTs when all-in pre-flop to eliminate Muehloecker in third place. Nitsche did double up when his T9o evaded a gutshot straight draw, but Zamani put him down in a final hand that went a little something like this.
Nitsche limped into the pot holding Js9s, Zamani raised to 360,000 holding Ad7d, and Nitsche made the call. The dealer put the AcTd7h onto the flop, Zamani led for 300,000, and Nitsche made the call with his gutshot. The 9d on the turn gave Nitsche a pair of nines, but Zamani was streaks ahead with his two-pair hand with nut flush draw, and so he put Nitsche all-in. Nitsche called and took second place after the dealer placed the 2h on the river.
It was Zamani’s second live tournament win, his first coming in a 202-entrant, $560 No-Limit Hold’em event at the 2017 World Poker Tour Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $27,426. His previous best was a 7/355 finish in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed Championship at the WSOP in the summer. Zamani has now earned $1,357,731 in live MTTs, with his most recent haul more significant that his accumulated scores since 2014,
Martin is the brother of the former WPT Player of the Year, Ben.
Here are the final table results:
Final Table Results
1. Martin Zamani – $895,110
2. Dominik Nitsche – $606,360
3. Thomas Muehloecker – $404,240
4. Tom-Aksel Bedell – $331,100
5. Markus Durnegger – $265,640
6. Gianluca Speranza – $205,980
7. Sean Winter – $152,460
8. Davidi Kitai – $112,040
