The first super high roller of the New Year is in the books. The 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) $50K single-day high roller drew a total of 64 entries to create a prize pool of $3,104,640. After over 13 and a half hours, the elite field of high-stakes players came down to just one player: Rainer Kempe. The German poker pro emerged as the champion to earn the top prize of $908,100, his career’s 3rd largest cash. With this win, his total live earnings reached upto over $18.4 million.
Kempe was third in chips when nine-handed final table began, behind Alex Foxen and Christoph Vogelsang. The early action at the FT saw several all-ins but it was Jason Koon who became the first elimination when his pocket aces lost to Christoph Vogelsang’s pocket jacks. He took home $90,040.
Later, Foxen was on an elimination spree. He busted several key players from the final table, including Bill Perkins (8th – $117,980), Steffen Sontheimer (7th – $152,120), Evan Mathis (6th – $192,480), Christoph Vogelsang (5th – $248,380) and Daniel Dvoress (4th – $319,780). After scoring these eliminations, Foxen finally took a massive chip lead into the 3-handed play.
However, Foxen finally lost his lead in a hand where Stephen Chidwick hit a flush on the river. Chidwick, howover, couldn’t maintain his lead, as Kempe doubled up through him twice and made him a short stack. Kempe then three-bet all-in in a battle of the blinds with Ac-7c against Chidwick, who called with Ah-Qd. Kempe paired his 7 and Chidwick went out in third place ($423,780).
Heads-Up – A Short Affair!
Heads-up play did not last long and Kempe won this super high roller tournament when his pocket Fours finally beat Foxen’s Ace-Queen. The 2018 Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year – Foxen finished as the runner-up and took home the fifth biggest score of his career – $651,980.
Final Table Results (USD):
- Rainer Kempe – $908,100
- Alex Foxen – $651,980
- Stephen Chidwick – $423,780
- Daniel Dvoress – $319,780
- Christoph Vogelsang – $248,380
- Evan Mathis – $192,480
- Steffen Sontheimer – $152,120
- Bill Perkins – $117,980
- Jason Koon – $90,040