PokerStars Caribbean Adventure: Ausmus, Jaffe, Bonomo, and Lonis Headline Big Weekend Winners

The reborn PokerStars Caribbean Adventure festival is playing host to a number of massive events in 2023, with the tentpole tournaments being the $10,300 PCA main event that was won by Michel Dattani and the ongoing $25,000 buy-in PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold’em Championship, which has drawn more than a thousand players with late registration still open through the start of day 2 on Tuesday.

In addition to those two focal points of the series, there are plenty of other huge tournaments on offer at the Baha Mar Resort & Casino that are awarding big prize money and chunks of Card Player Player of the Year points. Below is a look at the results from some of the most impactful events that have wrapped up at the PCA in recent days.

$2,200 No-Limit Hold’em Deep Stack

A total of 374 entries were made in the $2,200 buy-in no-limit hold’em deepstack event that ran from Jan. 25-26, creating a prize pool of $725,560. The top 55 finishers ultimately cashed, but only one player would walk away with the title and a six-figure payday, and that turned out to be five-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Jeremy Ausmus.

This was already Aumsus’ third POY-qualified score of the year, having made two final tables at the PokerGO Cup earlier in January for just shy of $90,000 in earnings. He was awarded $144,610 as the champion, along with 600 POY points. The score saw his lifetime tournament earnings grow to just shy of $14 million.

Bracelet winner and 2010 WSOP main event third-place finisher Joseph Cheong took home $90,500 as the runner-up, while three-time bracelet winner Davidi Kitai placed fourth ($49,750) and bracelet winner Andrew Lichtenberger finished 7th ($22,650).

$50,000 No-Limit Hold’em Eight Max

The first week of PCA action featured four super high roller tournaments, with three at the $50,000 price point. Isaac Haxton won the $100,000 buy-in, with David Yan taking down the six-max $50,000 event and Conor Beresford emerging victorious in the seven-max $50,000 buy-in.

The third and final $50,000 buy-in saw the table size grow to eight players. This event drew a much smaller turnout than the previous two (31 entries and 29 entries), with just eight entries resulting in a $389,664 prize pool. The small turnout resulted in the event failing to qualify for POY points.

World Poker Tour champion Jonathan Jaffe came away with the largest share of that money as the champion, earning $194,814 for the win. Orpen Kisacikoglu recorded his fourth cash of the year, finishing second for $116,900, while WPT champion Seth Davies placed third for $77,950.

$25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Eight Max

Justin Bonomo was already poker’s all-time money leader, with more than $61 million in recorded tournament scores to his name. He expanded his advantage over second-ranked Bryn Kenney ($57,469,229) this week by coming out on top of a 140-entry field in the $25,000 buy-in eight-max event.

Bonomo was awarded $574,530 and 1,008 POY points for the victory, growing his career total to $61,594,471. He also climbed into 23rd place in the 2023 POY race standings sponsored by Global Poker thanks to this title run. This was his first POY-qualified score of the year, but it alone was sufficient to put him within reach of the top twenty.

Isaac Haxton finished third for $491,550 and 672 points. This deep run came just four days after he won the $100,000 high roller here at the PCA for seven figures, a title run that took place just four days after he came out on top in the PokerGO Cup $50,000 finale for just shy of $600,000. Haxton has already accrued $2,171,780 in POY earnings in the first month of the year, the most of any player on the circuit. He now sits in seventh place in the POY rankings as a result of his incredible success so far in 2023.

Seth Davies placed seventh for $130,600, just a day after his top-three showing in the final $50,000 buy-in. He has recorded five cashes this month, with three POY-qualified final-table finishes among them. With 992 points and $1,291,947 in qualified earnings, he is now the 24th-ranked player on the POY leaderboard.

$25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha

The game shifted to pot-limit Omaha for the next high-stakes event on the schedule. A total of 44 entries in the $25,000 buy-in PLO event resulted in a prize pool of $1,056,440 for the four-card showdown, with the top six finishers making the money.

Dylan Smith, who won a $10,000 buy-in PLO event at the Lucky Hearts Poker Open in Florida just nine days prior to making this final table, came away with his second title of the year, earning $364,440 as the champion. With his $91,960 win earlier in the month, he now has now cashed for $456,400 in 2023.

Jeremy Ausmus finished third for $163,750 and 280 POY points. With four POY-qualified final table finishes and $397,760 in year-to-date POY earnings, Ausmus is now tied for 19th place in the standings.

$10,200 No-Limit Hold’em PSPC Warmup

A total of 162 entries were made in the $10,200 buy-in warmup event for the $25,000 PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold’em Championship, or PSPC. The $1,571,400 prize pool was paid out among the top 24 finishers, with the lion’s share going to eventual champion Jesse Lonis.

The American poker pro earned a career-high $367,400 and 780 points for the win, defeating Igor Yaroshevskyy heads-up to secure the title and the aforementioned top prize. The bracelet winner from Little Falls, NY now has just shy of $3 million in recorded tournament earnings to his name. He also climbed to 15th place on the POY leaderboard thanks to this, his second POY-qualified score of the year.

Lonis was far from the only top POy contender to make the final table. Justin Saliba, who had already made three POy qualified scores in January prior to this, placed fifth for $97,100 and 325 points. He now has 2,035 total points and $949,904 in to-date POY earnings for 2023, good for second place in the rankings behind only PCA main event champ Michel Dattani (2,280 points).

Anthony Hu finished sixth for $74,700 and 260 points. This was also his fourth POY-qualified final table of the year. He now sits in a tie with Jeremy Ausnmus for 19th place.

Photo credits: Rational Media Holdings Ltd. / Danny Maxwell, Tomas Stacha.

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