David Yan Wins PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $50,000 Buy-In Six-Max Event For $485,690

David Yan recorded the third-largest recorded score of his poker tournament career this week, taking down the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $50,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em six-max event for $485,690.

Yan’s only two larger paydays came when he finished runner-up in a €50,000 high roller at last year’s European Poker Tour Barcelona series for $619,565 and when he placed third in the 2020 EPT Online main event for $520,966.

“I’m pretty grateful for the experience," Yan told PokerNews live reporters after securing the title. “When you play such a little amount, it’s just basically anything can happen. Today I just ran insane, the field was one of the tougher ones we’ve seen”.

In addition to the title and the money, Yan also earned 408 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his first POY-qualified final table of 2023, but it alone was enough to catapult him inside the top 100 on the POY leaderboard presented by Global Poker.

A total of 31 entries were made in the fast-paced, single-day high roller, building a prize pool of $1,509,948. Only the top five finishers made the money, with the bubble bursting after approximately eight hours of play. Two-time bracelet winner Fedor Holz got his last two big blinds in with A-2 preflop and ran into a flopped set of nines for Chris Hunichen. Holtz was drawing dead after a blank on the turn, meaning that the remaining contenders all locked up at least $143,400 for their efforts.

That amount was eventually awarded to four-time bracelet winner David Peters. The 2016 Card Player Player of the Year award winner three-bet shoved for around 15 big blinds with Q-10 suited and received a call from the pocket sevens of Orpen Kisacikoglu. Peters flopped a straight draw to go with his overcards, but the turn gave Kisacikoglu a set of sevens, leaving Peters in need of an ace or nine on the river. Fifth street paired Peters ten, though, sending him to the rail in fifth place. He now has more than $44.8 million in career tournament earnings, the fifth-most of any player. He now trails fourth-ranked Stephen Chidwick by just $81,185 on the all-time money list.

A three-way all-in saw the field quickly narrowed from four down to the final heads-up pairing. Bracelet winner Ben Heath committed allbut 5,000 of his 120,000 stack preflop from under the hun with A3. Yan called from the button with KK and Hunichen moved all-in from the big blind with 1010. Yan made the quick call to put his two opponents at risk. The board came down Q8669 to see Yan scoop all of the chips. Heath took home $177,400 for his fourth-place showing, while Hunichen earned $245,400 as the third-place finisher.

With that, Yan entered heads-up play with 1,680,000 to Kisacikoglu’s 1,420,000. The lead changed hands for a bit, but Yan regained the upper hand in time for the two to cut a deal to redistribute the remaining prize money. As the leader, Yan secured $485,690, while Kisacikoglu guaranteed himself $458,058 for his efforts. The two then flipped for the title, with Yan’s pocket deuces beating the 8-6 offsuit of Kisacikoglu.

This was Kisacikoglu’s third final-table finish of 2023, having cashed for just shy of $400,000 across two deep runs at the PokerGO Cup. As a result of his strong start to the year, Kisacikoglu is now ranked 16th in the POY standings, with $857,518 in year-to-date POY earnings.

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

Photo credit: Tomas Stacha / Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd.

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