Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure Continues To Grow

Published on January 6th, 2009 5:20 am EST

The Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure is quickly becoming one of the biggest poker tournaments in the world.

Last year, 1136 players paid $8,000 US to play in the main event, which was eventually won by Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier.

In 2009, the buy-in to the main event was raised to an even $10,000 US. This did nothing to shrink the field size - in fact, tournament organizers are expecting an even larger turn-out than last year, even with the higher buy-in.

660 players took part in Day 1A of the event on Monday, and even more players are expected for Day 1B. The final prize pool for the main event should end up at around $13 million dollars, which is a dramatic improvement from the $8.6 million dollar prize pool in 2008.

Tournament organizers have done a terrific job with this event. They have made the tournament much more than just the main event - there are a number of other tournaments on the schedule, including a $25k High Roller Event and the World Championship of Battleship Poker. Not only that, but there are many different social functions that do a great job of entertaining the players throughout the week. The PCA has grown into a can't-miss event for many players.

There are many reasons for the increasing popularity of the tournament.

Hosting the event in the Bahamas in the middle of January certainly doesn't hurt.

The minimum age requirement (18) doesn't hurt.

The fact that Pokerstars puts so much of their marketing muscle behind this tournament doesn't hurt. Pokerstars continues to grow in size year-over-year, so it really can't be surprising that the PCA main event grows in size as well. Pokerstars offers satellites to the main event for many months, which certainly helps to increase the field size.

All of the parties and drinking and assorted shenanigans certainly doesn't hurt as well. The PCA certainly delivers when it comes to entertainment value.

Day 1B of the event will take place on Tuesday.

Felipe Ramos ended Day 1A as the chip leader, finishing the day with a monstrous stack of around 370,000. Jonathan Little and Jeff Madsen are also near the top of the leaderboard.

Some of the bigger names that were eliminated on Day 1A included Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem and Chris Ferguson.

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Filed Under: Tournament Results

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