Rainer Kempe Wins 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $50,000 SIngle-Day High Roller

The first super high roller of the new year is officially in the books. A total of 64 entries were made in the 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $50,000 single-day high roller event, creating a prize pool of $3,104,640. After roughly 13 and a half hours of action, the elite field of high-stakes regulars was narrowed down to just one player: Rainer Kempe. The German poker pro earned $908,100 as the champion, the third largest payday of his career. With this win, his lifetime live tournament earnings have increased to $18.4 million.

In addition to the title and the money, Kempe also took home 612 Card Player Player of the Year points after coming out on top in this event. As a result, he has climbed into fourth place in the overall standings. Kempe also finished fourth in the $25,000 single-day high roller, which ran on Jan. 8 but has not yet concluded. The final two players in that tournament agreed to finish their heads-up match later in the series and have not yet resumed playing at the time this article was published.

It took 11 hours to narrow the field to the final nine, with Adrian Mateos being the last player to hit the rail without making the money.

Kempe sat in second chip position when nine-handed play got underway, behind only Alex Foxen. Jason Koon was the first to be eliminated when his pocket aces failed to hold up against Christoph Vogelsang’s pocket jacks. He took home $90,040.

Foxen furthered his lead even more with a knockout spree, busting Bill Perkins (8th – $117,980), Steffen Sontheimer (7th – $152,120), Super Bowl-winning former NFL offensive guard "Evan Mathis ":https://www.cardplayer.com/poker-players/382920-evan-mathis (6th – $192,480), Christoph Vogelsang (5th – $248,380) and Daniel Dvoress (4th – $319,780).

Despite scoring all of those eliminations, Foxen lost the lead during three-handed play in a hand where Stephen Chidwick made a flush on the river. Chidwick’s time in the lead was short-lived, as Rainer Kempe doubled up through him twice to leave him as the short stack. Kempe then three-bet all-in in a battle of the blinds with A7 against Chidwick, who called with the AQ. Kempe paired his seven on the flop and held from there to eliminate Chidwick in third place ($423,780).

Heads-up play was a brief affair. Kempe limped on the button with the 44 and then shoved all-in over the top of Foxen’s raise to 415,000. Foxen called with the AQ. The board ran out 109756 and Kempe’s pair was enough to earn him the pot and the title.

Foxen was awarded $651,980 as the runner-up finisher, the fifth biggest score of his career. His lifetime earnings now exceed $9.5 million.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

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