Leading the way into the final table is Jason Koon with 1.646 million in chips. He's not too far ahead of the 1.53 million for Jonathan Duhamel, but he is the man to catch.
On January 3, Koon tweeted, "Headed to the Bahamas on Friday for PCA. Aussie Millions after that and then to Cyprus. EPT's, WPT's, and WSOP Follow. '12 is my year. Leggo." So far, so good for his 2012, as it's kicked off with a bang making this elite final table.
Koon, 26, is no stranger to big buy-in events, but he's never cashed in anything above a $10,000 buy-in (which is still pretty hefty). Since 2008 Koon has been grinding the tournament circuit, racking up $427,251 of prize money in the process. His largest live score came in October of 2010 when he placed fourth in the World Poker Tour Festa Al Lago at the Bellagio in Las Vegas for $225,680. Koon and the other seven players have locked up a minimum of $108,780 for making this final table, meaning he'll be adding plenty more to those lifetime tournament earnings.
Originally from Weston, West Virginia, Koon now resides in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Michael Telker will enter the final table second to last in chips, which means he'll have his work cut out for him. For most of Day 1 and Day 2, Telker flew under the radar until he started to amass chips near the money bubble and become a true threat. Once into the money, Telker was short, but found a timely double with pocket jacks against Terje Augdal to get right back in the mix.
The largest score on Telker's record is a third-place finish in the ￡1,000 No Limit Hold'em Turbo side event at the 2011 EPT London for ￡13,500. He also had a deep run at the 2010 EPT San Remo Main Event where he earned €10,500.
Telker has just $48,207 in live tournament earnings, which is less than double the buy-in for this event. He's also earning way more money than he's won for his entire live career, but we'll be looking to run his stack up in order to truly make a run at things.
This is Govert Metaal's second time making the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $25,000 High Roller final table. Last year, Metaal maneuvered his way to a fifth-place finish worth $240,470. He'll be looking to best that effort this year, but will enter the final table sixth in chips with a little over half of the average. His finish in this event last year was the largest of his career, but Metaal's had a few big scores on record.
Last year, the Dutchman won a €1,000 side event at EPT Barcelona for €78,400. He's also placed second in a $5,000 side event at the Festa Al Lago in 2010 for $85,606 and sixth at The Big Event Main Event in Los Angeles in 2011 for $75,000.
Metaal has $809,371 in career tournament earnings and will eclipse the million dollar mark if he can get into the top five spots.
Welcome to the final table of the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $25,000 High Roller. Up for grabs today is a first-place prize of $1,134,930 and there's a stacked group of players all left vying for it.
Leading the way into the final table with 1.646 million in chips is Jason Koon. He's trailed closely by Team PokerStars Pro and 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel. Although Koon may have the advantage chip-wise, Duhamel has a lot of momentum going into this final table thanks to an amazing PCA he's had thus far.
At first, the trip didn't start out as planned with Duhamel having to re-enter the $100,000 Super High Roller, but he turned his second bullet into a fourth-place finish for $313,600. From there, Duhamel went on to win the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em for $239,830 and make another final table in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Turbo, coming in fifth for $17,990.
Another player at this final table to have a nice score earlier at this year's PCA was Michael Telker. He placed second to Team PokerStars Pro and 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Joe Cada in the $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em for $93,170.
Final Table Seat Draw
Seat
Player
Chips
1
Isaac Haxton
762,000
2
Leonid Bilokur
1,139,000
3
Randy Lew
197,000
4
Jonathan Duhamel
1,530,000
5
Nicolas Fierro
1,181,000
6
Jason Koon
1,646,000
7
Michael Telker
397,000
8
Govert Metaal
545,000
The final table will begin at 1:00 PM local time here in The Bahamas, but the live feed will kick off at 2:00 PM as will our coverage. Be sure to follow along then as we work our way towards a champion.
