Dattani Leads Final 16 in 2023 PCA Main Event; Martirosian and Reixach Among Big Stacks
The 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) $10,300 Main Event is one step closer to crowning a champion. On Day 4 of the competition, the 54 returning players out of an 889-entry-strong field were cut down to the final 16 contenders at the lavish Baha Mar Resort in The Bahamas.
All semifinalists have locked up a payday of $68,000 for their efforts and a pay jump to $78,200 awaits after the next elimination. All hopefuls will have their eyes firmly set on the $1.5 million top prize in two days' time as a new winner in a major PokerStars-sponsored flagship tournament will be crowned.
Over the course of the next two days, the biggest slice of the $8,623,300 prize pool will be awarded and the top four on the leaderboard are separated by only ten big blinds. Portugal's Michel Dattani edged into the lead with 2,900,000 in chips, closely followed by Jamil Wakil (2,840,000), Christoph Csik (2,785,000), and Mitchell Halverson (2,650,000).
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michel Dattani | Portugal | 2,900,000 | 116 |
| 2 | Jamil Wakil | Canada | 2,840,000 | 114 |
| 3 | Christoph Csik | United States | 2,785,000 | 111 |
| 4 | Mitchell Halverson | United States | 2,650,000 | 106 |
| 5 | Artur Martirosian | Russia | 2,285,000 | 91 |
| 6 | Clint Tolbert | United States | 1,950,000 | 78 |
| 7 | Sergi Reixach | Spain | 1,610,000 | 64 |
| 8 | Alexandre Raymond | Canada | 1,475,000 | 59 |
| 9 | Ian Matakis | United States | 1,200,000 | 48 |
| 10 | Taylor Paur | United States | 1,195,000 | 48 |
Rising Russian star Artur Martirosian (2,285,000) has 91 big blinds at his disposal. Sergi Reixach, who accumulated the most chips at the end of both Day 1b and Day 3, retained his chance at becoming a PCA Main Event champion and advanced with 1,610,000.
Ian Matakis (1,200,000) and Taylor Paur (1,195,000) are other well-known names to reside in the overnight Top Ten while Jonathan Little (1,195,000) and 2019 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event champion Alexandros Kolonias (900,000) can be found in the bottom half of the chip counts.
When the action resumes on Day 5 at noon local time Saturday, January 28, there will be 03:29 minutes left in Level 23. Returning blinds are 10,000/25,000 with a big blind ante of 25,000 but they will go up almost immediately to 15,000/30,000 with a big blind ante of 30,000. The penultimate tournament day is scheduled to play down to the final six contenders but that plan may be altered.
Dattani was an unlikely chip leader for the end of the night as he was right in the middle of the pack once the final three tables were set. However, a spectacular three-way all-in saw Dattani prevail with aces against the ace-king of PokerStars Ambassador Ramon Colillas and the pocket queens of Elias Gutierrez. Both Spaniards failed to catch any help and received $51,400 for their efforts.
Sam Grafton also represented the red spade on Day 4 but was among the very early casualties, finishing in 52nd place for $29,400. Three former EPT Main Event champions were aiming to add a PCA title to their resumes but Steve O'Dwyer, Anton Wigg, and Noah Boeken were all sent to the payout desk. Boeken fared the best among them but his dominated ace-seven was unable to overcome the ace-king of Giuseppe Iadisernia on the secondary feature table.
Other big names such as Dylan Linde, Justin Bonomo, Alex Kulev, Jesse Lonis, Laszlo Bujtas, Michael Rocco, Chad Eveslage, Chris Brewer, and Nick Petrangelo all suffered the same fate as well.
Maria Konnikova was the last woman standing and once more confirmed her run-good in The Bahamas with another deep run. After her final table appearance in the $1,100 BSOP Bahamas Main Event, the Russian-American writer bowed out in 30th place this time. Once more it was Venezuela's Iadisernia who dealt the final blow when ace-queen suited remained ahead versus ace-ten.
The final 16 hopefuls will return to their seats on the two feature tables at noon local time and try to reach the official final table for the grand finale on Sunday, January 29, 2023. You can follow along right here on PokerNews and on the PokerStars YouTube and Twitch channels with updates available on a 30-minute security delay.