PokerStars Expands PCA into 'Festival of Poker'
An expansion of events surrounding next month's PokerStars Caribbean Adventure has meant a reworking of the ever-popular European Poker Tour destination into the PCA Festival of Poker. The schedule of events for poker's annual trip to Nassau will now span January 5-10, 2009, and include several preliminary events in addition to the main event, which itself features a heightened $9,300+300 buy-in.
The expanded schedule at the Atlantis Resort Casino on Paradise Island includes also includes a "high rollers" tourney starting on January 7 with a $25,000 buy-in, and several consolation events during the festival's later days. The later events offer buy-ins ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier will return to defend his main event title from the 2008 PCA, which was worth $2,000,000.
Also added to the 2009 PCA festivities are one of the popular "battleship poker" events, plus the final matches in the PokerStars World Cup of Poker V, which will feature teams from the United States, Nova Scotia (representing Canada), Mexico, Italy, Poland, Latvia, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The 36 players will compete for $290,000 in cash prizes.
The second-ever PCA Poker Camp is also on tap for the Bahamas, which runs January 7-9 and features instruction by Team PokerStars pros Greg Raymer, Daniel Negreanu, Chris Moneymaker and Vanessa Rousso. Many of 60 spots to the PCA Poker Camp remain up for grabs on satellites running online at Stars, with each winner receiving a travel package to the Bahamas valued at $4,500.
The tournament schedule for the 2009 PCA Festival of Poker:
Date/Time • Tournament Buy-In
1/4: 8:00 pm • Supersatellite to Main Event $1,025+75 TBC
1/5: Noon • PCA Main Event - Day 1a NLHE Freezeout - $9,700+300
1/6: Noon • PCA Main Event - Day 1b NLHE Freezeout - $9,700+300
1/7: Noon • PCA Main Event - Day 2
1/7: Noon • $25,000 High Roller Event - Day 1 NLHE Freezeout - $24,500+500
1/7: 2:00 pm • $2,000 Event - Day 1 NLHE Freezeout- $1,850+150
1/8: Noon • PCA Main Event - Day 3
1/8: Noon • $25,000 High Roller Event - Day 2
1/8: 1:00 pm • $5,000 NLHE - Day 1 NLHE Freezeout - $4,800+200
1/8: 3:00 pm $2,000 Event - Day 2
1/9: Noon • PCA Main Event - Day 4
1/9: 2:00 pm • $1,000 Event - Day 1 NLHE Freezeout - $925+75
1/9: 3:00 pm • $5,000 Event - Day 2
1/10: Noon • PCA Main Event - Final Table
1/10: 3:00 pm • $1,000 Event - Day 2
More information can be found at europeanpokertour.com/PCA/pca.html.
