Michel Dattani Wins PokerStars Caribbean Adventure For $1.3 Million

While the centerpiece of the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure was the PSPC, there were 70 tournaments in total on the schedule that ran from Jan. 22 – Feb. 3 and the series featured a smorgasbord of massive events, including the $10,300 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event.

The tournament attracted 889 entries, creating a prize pool of $8,623,300. After two starting flights and five more days of action, Portugal’s Michel Dattani emerged victorious with the title and the top payout of $1,316,963.

This was by far the largest live tournament score of Dattani’s career, blowing away the $126,770 he earned as the seventh-place finisher in a 2018 EPT Barcelona €25,000 buy-in side event. He now has more than $2.6 million in recorded tournament earnings. Dattani was also awarded a massive haul of 2,280 POY points as the champion, which was enough to see him surge into third place on the overall leaderboard.

Card Player contributor and two-time WPT champion Jonathan Little finished ninth for $139,900. This was his second deep run of the series, having placed fourth in the $1,100 kickoff event for $29,950. Two-time bracelet winner Taylor Paur finished eighth ($181,900) while 2019 WSOP Europe champion Alexandros Kolonias bowed out in seventh ($236,500) to set up the final table.

Canada’s Jamil Wakil was the first to fall, with his K-J being outflopped by the Q-J suited of Christopher Csik. Three diamonds on the flop left Wakil drawing dead and he was awarded $307,500 after the formalities of the turn and river.

Csik was the next to be sent packing, however, when his pocket kings went down to the A-J suited of Alexandre Raymond. Csik banked $399,800.

Then Raymond’s run in this event came to a brutal end as well, when his pocket queens clashed with the pocket kings of Pedro Neves. All of the chips went in preflop and the larger pocket pair held up to narrow the field to three, with Raymond pocketing $519,600 as the fourth-place finisher.

Neves would pick up pocket kings again, but this time ran them into the pocket aces of a surging Dattani, who took the lead, while high-stakes pro Artur Martirosian slid to the bottom of the counts. In his final hand, he open-shoved from the small blind with Q 9 for just over 17 big blinds and Dattani called with A J from the big blind.

Martirosian received no help from the board and was knocked out in third place, earning $677,400 for his efforts. This was the second-largest score of the Russian player’s career, bringing his lifetime earnings to nearly $6.2 million.

Heads-up play began with Dattani holding roughly a 3:2 chip lead over Neves. The two Portuguese players agreed to an ICM deal that redistributed the remaining prize money, setting aside $50,000 and the trophy for the eventual winner while Dattani locked up $1,266,963 and Neves secured $1,183,037.

The final hand saw Neves raise from the button with A J. Dattani defended his big blind with A 5 and the flop came down A 10 2. Dattani check-called a bet and the turn brought the Q to give Dattani the nut flush draw to go with his top pair. He checked again and Neves, who also added a gutshot draw to Broadway to accompany his top pair, fired again.

Dattani called and the 3 completed the board, giving him the nut flush. He checked a third time and Neves bet. Dattani check-raised all-in and Neves made the call with his ace. With that Dattani dragged the final pot of the tournament.

Player Payout (POY)