Welcome To The 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $25,000 High Roller
Welcome to the 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $25,000 High Roller. For the past week, the 2013 PCA has been celebrating its 10th anniversary at Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. The 41-event schedule is rapidly winding down, but there’s still one major big buy-in tournament to be had—the $25,000 High Roller, which will feature one option reentry.
Last year, this event attracted 148 entries, including a who’s who of poker pros, and created a prize pool of $3,626,000. After three intense days of play, Leonid Bilokur walked away with the title and $1,134,930 first-place prize.
Bilokur, who began the final table fourth in chips, defeated the likes of Team Online’s Randy Lew, recent PCA preliminary event winner Michael Telker, high-stakes regular Govert Meetal, the ever-dangerous Jason Koon and Team PokerStars Pro Isaac Haxton to make it to heads-up play against another Team PokerStars Pro, Jonathan Duhamel.
The 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event champ held a 5.43-million-to-1.96-million chip lead when heads-up play began, but Bilokur managed to overcome the odds. Eventually he overtook the chip lead, and in the final hand, it was Bilokur's 
versus Duhamel's 
all in preflop. The board ran out 
and Bilokur made a full house to claim the title.
As last year’s PokerNews Live Blog said of Bilokur’s win: “He played very steady throughout the final table and some might say even a bit too tight at times. Despite what people may say, he played very solid and began to pick up more and more steam as other players at the table were eliminated. As play progressed, Bilokur began to pick up chips and open up his game. That proved to be the recipe for success.”
Here’s a look at last year’s final table:
Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leonid Bilokur | $1,134,930 |
| 2 | Jonathan Duhamel | $634,550 |
| 3 | Isaac Haxton | $380,730 |
| 4 | Jason Koon | $271,950 |
| 5 | Nicolas Fierro | $217,560 |
| 6 | Govert Metaal | $181,300 |
| 7 | Michael Telker | $145,040 |
| 8 | Randy Lew | $108,780 |
We’re expecting a massive turnout for today’s event, and hopes are high that last year’s number of entries will be crushed. Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Eugene Katchalov are just a few of the players we expect to see in action, along with the recent $100,000 Super High Roller champ Scott Seiver.
The $25,000 High Roller is scheduled to kick off at 13:00 p.m. EST, which is about an hour from now. Join us then as the PokerNews Live Reporting Team brings you all the action from the tournament floor.