PokerStars Caribbean Adventure

Just like every other year going back to 2004, a fresh start to poker’s yearly tournament calendar kicks off with the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas. This year brings a heightened level of excitement with the PokerStars Players NL Hold’em Championship headlining the event in what is lining up to be a record-setting PCA.

Speaking of records, in anticipation of the 2019 PCA festival, PocketFives went looking through the poker history books at HendonMob to find the biggest winners in history from PCA. Here’s what was found.

Thanks to a gigantic $3 million payday in 2009, Poorya Nazari holds the record for the largest first-place prize at PCA. He won the 2009 PCA Main Event from a field of 1,347 entries to claim that prize. Three other times in history has the PCA Main Event winner taken home at least $2 million. In 2008, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier took home $2 million, Harrison Gimbel won $2.2 million in 2010, and in 2011 it was Galen Hall scoring $2.3 million. But, none of those players is the top all-time money earner from PCA. That title currently belongs to Bryn Kenney, and it doesn’t appear that Kenney is going to be caught anytime soon.

Top 25 PCA All-Time Money List

PLAYER EARNINGS
1 Bryn Kenney $6,245,111
2 Steve O’Dwyer $3,800,542
3 Tony Gregg $3,096,596
4 Poorya Nazari $3,000,000
5 Scott Seiver $2,970,620
6 Galen Hall $2,877,080
7 Vanessa Selbst $2,824,640
8 Isaac Haxton $2,583,616
9 Jason Koon $2,555,555
10 Daniel Negreanu $2,521,490
11 Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier $2,484,120
12 Harrison Gimbel $2,329,220
13 Dan Shak $2,278,140
14 Cary Katz $2,257,420
15 Byron Kaverman $2,213,355
16 Mustapha Kanit $2,020,200
17 Justin Bonomo $1,991,372
18 Dimitar Danchev $1,985,000
19 John Dibella $1,955,300
20 Ty Reiman $1,937,770
21 Chris Oliver $1,834,160
22 Eugene Katchalov $1,763,220
23 Will Molson $1,750,735
24 Daniel Dvoress $1,607,302
25 Nick Petrangelo $1,581,665

As you can see, Kenney is worlds ahead of the competition, winning more than $2.4 million more than anyone else on the list. That $2.4 million gap alone is good enough for 12th place on this leaderboard.

Kenney’s largest score from PCA came in the 2016 Super High Roller, an event with a buy-in of $100,000 that saw him win $1.687 million. The following year, Kenney won a $50,000 and $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em events for $969,075 and $392,876, respectively. He also has a trio of third-place finishes over the years worth $873,880, $686,960, and $643,000.

Steve O’Dwyer is the second highest money earner from PCA entering 2019, taking home more than $3.8 million in prize money throughout the years. O’Dwyer’s a pretty good chunk of change away from Kenney, and he’s also more than $700,000 ahead of Tony Gregg in third place. Knowing some of the performances O’Dwyer has put together over the years combined with what’s on the schedule for 2019 doesn’t make it out of the realm of possibilities that he can catch Kenney in 2019. O’Dwyer has one win in a $100,000 buy-in event and two wins from $50,000 buy-in events at PCA for $1.872 million, $945,495, and $760,500, respectively. The 2019 schedule features the $25,000 buy-in PSPC, three additional $25,000 buy-in tournaments, one $50,000 buy-in event, and two $100,000 tournaments, there certainly won’t be a lack of opportunities for O’Dwyer to win a ton of money in the Bahamas this January. That’s not to mention the PCA $10,300 Main Event as well.

Looking at the rest of the list for players we could see make big moves on the leaderboard after 2019, Isaac Haxton, Jason Koon, and Daniel Negreanu are a few of the ones to watch, given their appetite for and success in high buy-in tournaments coupled with the robust schedule to suit their palate.

Negreanu’s largest score out of PCA came in 2011 when he finished second to Eugene Katchalov in the event’s inaugural $100,000 Super High Roller. Negreanu earned a cool $1 million for that result. He followed that finish up by returning to the final table of the event in 2012, when he took fifth for $250,900. In 2018, he took fourth in the same event for $521,140. Another big score Negreanu had from PCA came in the 2017 PCA $25,000 High Roller. In that one, he took fifth for $268,780.

Byron Kaverman and Justin Bonomo are also ones from this top 25 list to keep an eye on.

For players not currently in the top 25, don’t be surprised if you see Mikita Badziakouski, Alex Foxen, Stephen Chidwick, or David Peters take home a ship full of money from the Bahamas and find themselves listed on the updated list of top 25 winners from PCA when the 2019 version is all said and done.

Action from the Bahamas kicks off Sunday, January 6, 2019, with the $25,000 buy-in PokerStars Players NL Hold’em Championship from Atlantis Resort & Casino. PovketFives will be on site all the way through until the event’s final day on January 16, so stay tuned for more coverage from the 2019 PCA poker series.