The final table of the 2018 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100,000 Super High Roller Event was determined yesterday as the seven remaining players vie for the title on Monday. It is a tight race at the top with Ivan Luca holding the chip lead with 2.76 million chips, followed by Justin Bonomo with 2.695 million and Daniel Negreanu with 2.415 million.
All seven players are guaranteed at least $248,720. Thus, Negreanu has already made up his tournament losses from last year; he recently posted on his blog that despite nearly $2.8 million in live tournament cashes, he lost $86,140 in 2017. His average buy-in was over $40,000, though, so Negreanu considered that net loss virtually “break even.”
As one would expect in a Super High Roller tournament, the rest of the final table is also a “who’s who” of the tournament poker world. Bryn Kenney, who led the Player of the Year races last year before being overtaken late by Adrian Mateos, is in fourth place with 1.485 million chips. Isaac Haxton is in fifth with 1.095 million and two players have fewer than 1 million chips: Cary Katz (855,000, no relation to this writer) and Sam Greenwood (695,000).
The chip leader, Ivan Luca, is tops on Argentina’s all-time money list, according to TheHendonMob.com, with over $5.3 million in live tournament earnings. He doesn’t have one insane cash that makes up the bulk of his earnings, like many seven-figure lifetime winners do, but rather many five and six-figure scores. His best cash came at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure two years ago, when he finished third in the $50,000 High Roller Eight-Handed event for nearly half a million dollars. That was one of five cashes for him at the 2016 PCA; all were final table appearances.
The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure has been a “big deal” poker festival for a number of years and as the earliest major event of the calendar year, it tends to feel even more significant. There is something a tad more special about it in 2018, though, as the PCA didn’t exist last year, at least in name. Remember, PokerStars, which owns the European Poker Tour, decided to do away with the European Poker Tour brand (as well as regional tournament brands) and rebrand everything with its own name. Thus, the EPT, APPT, LAPT and more became the PokerStars Championship and PokerStars Festival last year. The tournaments were all still there, just rearranged and with different names.
So, in 2017, the PCA was the PokerStars Championship Bahamas, which has absolutely zero ring to it, especially for a poker tour stop that had such a unique name and status in the poker world. Fortunately, PokerStars came to its senses near the end of 2017 and decided to bring back the European Poker Tour, Asia-Pacific Poker Tour, and Latin American Poker Tour, reinstating some normalcy to the world. The revival of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure name had even been announced months earlier, a sign that changes were afoot.
The final table of the PCA Super High Roller will begin at 3:30pm local time as the seven players maneuver for the $1.5 million first prize.
2018 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100K Super High Roller Event – Final Table Chip Counts
1. Ivan Luca – 2,760,000
2. Justin Bonomo – 2,695,000
3. Daniel Negreanu – 2,415,000
4. Bryn Kenney – 1,485,000
5. Isaac Haxton – 1,095,000
6. Cary Katz – 855,000
7. Sam Greenwood – 695,000
