The cards are in the air. We will play 12 more minutes of this level.
2014 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure
Level: 19
Blinds: 30,000/60,000
Ante: 10,000
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Young Ole Schemion has less than five big blinds entering the final table of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100,000 Super High Roller, and will need to double up more than once to compete, but if he does he is dangerous.
The 2013 Global Poker Index Player of the Year already has nine tournament victories and $3.8 million in career tournament earnings. A year ago, Schemion finished fourth in the $25,000 High Roller here at the PCA, earning $354,860, and fifth in the $10,000 six max for $55,480.
Schemion went on to finish sixth in the EPT Barcelona Super High Roller for $212,959 and fifth in the EPT Prague Main Event for $299,147, adding to his stellar 2013.
The young phenom's largest score came in 2012, when he won the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event for over $1.4 million.
Tony Gregg began playing poker at age 18. Since then, he's been able to amass an astounding $8.63 million in live tournament winnings. Gregg's first big score came right here at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure back in 2009, where he finished runner-up in the Main Event for $1.7 million.
Gregg recently added another runner-up finish to his resume in May 2013 when he pocketed $996,551 for his second place finish in the EPT Grand Final High Roller event. Most notably, Gregg scored the largest cash of his lifetime over the summer at the 2013 World Series of Poker. Gregg played and won the $111,111 One Drop High Roller event at the WSOP where he bested a stacked field and defeated Chris Klodnicki heads up for over $4.8 million in winnings.
Gregg is now back at another PCA final table, looking to once again make magic in the place that truly jump-started his live tournament career.
Thanks to the $1 Million Big One for One Drop, Antonio Esfandiari sits atop the all-time money list with $25,625,556 in career tournament earnings. However, even if you take away that $18.3 million score, Esfandiari would still have over $7 million in career tournament earnings and land in the top 50 all time.
The Magician's big splash came in 2004, when he won the WPT LA Poker Classic for nearly $1.4 million. Esfandiari added another WPT title in 2010, winning the Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $870,124. Esfandiari also finished sixth in that event in 2011, and fourth in 2012.
Esfandiari also has two WSOP gold bracelets to go with his bling from One Drop. He won a $2,000 buy-in pot-limit hold'em event in 2004 for $184,860 and a €1,100 buy-in no-limit hold'em event at the 2012 WSOPE.
As for PokerStars-sponsored events, the Magician finished eighth in the 2008 EPT Grand Final Main Event ($265,835). He's already topped that finish, and looking to extend his lead on the all-time money list.
Matt Glantz is a professional poker player who hails from Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania. Over the course of his career, Glantz has amassed over $4.8 million in live tournament winnings.
Glantz has tournament cashes dating all of the way back to 1999, but his largest score came in 2009 when he won the EPT London High Roller event and pocketed $862,837 in tournament winnings. More recently, Glantz took fourth in the inaugural World Poker Tour Alpha 8 Florida tournament where he cashed for $243,180. Despite not owning a World Series of Poker bracelet, Glantz has found much success at the WSOP over the years, scoring a total of six scores that are over six-figures.
A first or second place today would net Glantz his largest lifetime single tournament score. He enters the table in fifth chip position, but will have some work to do early against the larger stacks at the table.
Fabian Quoss is one of two Germans remaining in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Super High Roller, which is par for the course. In 2013, he and his close friends Igor Kurganov, Tobias Reinkemeier, Philipp Gruissem, and Niklas Heinecker dominated the big buy-in tournament circuit, raking in over $17 million.
Quoss was responsible for just over $1.3 million of that figure, the lowest of the quintet, but don't let short term blind you. The German is one of the toughest players on the circuit, and he could get a big jump on his friends today.
Beyond 2013, Quoss has over $3.3 million in career tournament earnings. He won the 2010 English Poker Open Main Event for $340,409 and the 2011 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Main Event ($189,582).
At last year's PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Vanessa Selbst won the $25,000 High Roller event which earned her the title of winningest female poker player of all time. Now, one year later, Selbst is back at the PCA felt and primed to add another victory to her already stellar resume.
Selbst holds an incredible 16 six-figure scores to her name and two seven-figure scores. All of these winnings amount to over $8.24 million in live tournament winnings. Selbst famously won back-to-back NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Events in 2010 and 2011 (the latter of which actually saw her defeat table chip leader Dan Shak heads up). Her largest score to date occurred back in 2010 when she won the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event in Cannes for $1.823 million. Selbst is also the proud owner of two World Series of Poker bracelets which she won in 2008 ($1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha) and 2012 ($2,500 10-Game Six-Handed). In September of 2013, Selbst had a spectacular showing at the World Poker Tour Borgata Poker open, where she ultimately finished runner-up in the $3,500 Main Event. Selbst added $492,569 to her pockets for that impressive showing.
Selbst not only has one of the most impressive tournament records at this table, but also of anyone to play the game. Coming in as second in chips, Selbst will certainly be a force to be reckoned with at this final table.
Dan Shak will always write on his bio sheets that he is just a simple businessman, but don't let his ho-hum act fool you. The commodities trader has over $5.7 million in career tournament earnings, and many believe he hast the highest ROI in the world in $100,000 buy-in events.
His super high roller résumé is spectacular. In 2009, Shak finished fourth in the Aussie Millions A$100,000 Challenge for $142,000. The following year he won, defeating Phil Ivey heads up and earning $1.1 million. In 2012 he finished runner-up to Viktor Blom in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Super High Roller, earning $846,700, and last year he finished eighth in the very same event for $228,960.
Shak added two more super high roller cashes in 2013, finishing fourth at Aussie Millions for $250,201 and 23rd in the World Series of Poker One Drop High Roller for $173,723.
He and co-chip leader Vanessa Selbst also have a bit of history beyond the crazy hand they played on Day 2. In April of 2011, Selbst defeated Shak heads up to win the final North American Poker Tour Main Event.