Almost a week ago, 816 players took their shot in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event, and on Day 6, that field has been whittled down to six competitors. Three Americans, a German, an Argentinian, and a Peruvian will take to the felt at 1 p.m. local time, with the live stream firing up shortly thereafter.
American pro Chance Kornuth will lead the way from Seat 2 when play begins with 7.86 million in chips. He'll have position on a fellow American in Seat 1, second-place Kevin Schulz with 6.155 million. Schulz hung around the middle and bottom tiers of the counts on Day 5 until scoring the last two eliminations of the day (pros Dylan Linde and then Pratyush Buddiga) to rocket up the counts. Peru's Diego Ventura is next, occupying Seat 4 with 3.98 million, followed by German Niklas Hambitzer in Seat 3 with 3.1 million. The last two spots will be home to Argentina's Juan Martin Pastor in Seat 6 with 2.655 million and short stack Rami Boukai of California with 780,000.
Play will resume with about half an hour left in Level 29 (40,000/80,000/10,000), and the tournament will progress with 90-minute levels until a winner is crowned, who will take home nearly $1.5 million. Stay tuned to find out who the next PCA champion will be.
Kevin Schulz will enter Day 6 second in chips with 6.155 million. He's a rather unassuming American player from Chicago, Illinois, but one that boasts $467,654 in live tournament earnings. Of those winnings, $267,792 came from the 2012 World Series of Poker when Schulz finished fourth in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em event behind Peter Vilandos, Kyle Julius, and Dan Smith.
Schulz has cashes in several countries around the world, including Italy, Macau, Spain, and right here in the Bahamas. In fact, Schulz's only live win came at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, when in 2012 he won a $300 turbo side event for $14,400.
Since Black Friday, Schulz has relocated from the U.S. to Mexico in order to continue his profession as an online poker player. He is rooming with Faraz Jaka here at the PCA, and it's already proven to be a very profitable trip for the tandem. Schulz is guaranteed over $285,000 in this event, and then Jaka advanced to Day 3 of the $25,000 High Roller where he has secured a minimum of $112,980.
Here is the Day 6 chip lead, Chance Kornuth, carrying 7.86 million in chips into the final day.
Kornuth has nearly $1.8 million in live tournament earnings, with a career best score of $526,224. That top result came from the $10,300 Bellagio Cup X in July of 2014 when Kornuth topped a field of 175 entries, but just because it's the largest doesn't mean it's the most important. In 2010, Kornuth topped a field of 460 players in the World Series of Poker $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event for his first gold bracelet and a prize of $508,090.
Outside of those two wins, Kornuth has one World Poker Tour final table, four other live victories, and nine WSOP cashes. His best, and only, result in a European Poker Tour event was in 2010's EPT London £5,200 Main Event. There, Kornuth finished 18th for 21,000.
European Niklas Hambitzer is one of many poker players who has relocated from Germany to England, now residing in London. He's an online player with no live tournament results, but that has changed and changed in a big way after he found his way to the final six of this event.
Hambitzer grinds multi-table tournaments and sit-and-gos online, and he has done very well for himself. He qualified for this event through a $700 qualifier towards the end of 2014 and will enter Day 6 fourth in chips.
Peru's Diego Ventura is smack dab in the middle of the pack heading into Day 6, carrying 3.98 million in chips. This will be by far the largest live score of his poker career, and remarkably only his second result ever posted. Previously, Ventura cashed in an Estrellas Poker Tour event in Barcelona for €780.
Ventura is a Supernova on PokerStars, and his only live cash result holds just about the same price tag as the satellite buy-in he used to win his way into this event. Ventura played a $700 qualifier on PokerStars just before the close of 2014 and ended up securing a $16,000 package to the Bahamas. He's now turned that into over $285,000 in the least.
Online, Ventura has nearly $1.5 million in earnings and a couple of big scores. His best result was a third-place finish in the Sunday Million in the middle of 2013 for $107,728.
Rami Boukai will operate as this year's short stack heading into Day 6 with just 780,000 in chips, but if anyone's got a fighting chance at turning the tables, it's Boukai.
A former mixed martial arts fighter, Boukai recorded a professional record of two wins and two losses, but it might just be one of those losses that proved one of the best performances of his fighting career. He took Urijah Faber to a decision in September of 2004, although it resulted in a loss. The two wins on Boukai's record came via triangle choke submission holds.
Boukai stopped fighting in 2005, and told PokerNewsDaily.com that he gave it up "Because it’s hard to stay in shape and work out a lot when you’re playing poker all the time. It takes a lot of dedication and I don’t have the time for it."
As for the poker side of things, Boukai boasts $644,107 in live tournament earnings and has been known to frequent some of the highest cash-game stakes online. Of his accolades, Boukai holds one World Series of Poker gold bracelet and 16 total WSOP cashes. The event that Boukai won came in 2009 when he topped a field of 453 entries in the $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha/Hold'em event for $244,862.
Juan Martin Pastor hails from Argentina and is making the largest cash result of his young poker career. The 22-year-old boasts $36,474 in live tournament earnings, with his best result stemming from a $12,021 score at the Latin America Poker Tour VI Colombia National Poker Championship in 2013. But, just because Pastor doesn't have a laundry list of live titles and deep runs doesn't mean he isn't experienced.
Pastor finished last year by achieving Supernova Elite status on PokerStars. For one to do that, they must play a ton of poker, grinding out many, many hands and logging loads of hours. He's known as "pastorcito" online and worked his way up through the virtual ranks where he now specializes in Zoom Poker.
Entering Day 6 with 2.655 million in chips, Pastor will have some work cut out for him as he is second to last on the leaderboard with a less-than-average stack.
