Friday, 29th March 2024 05:06
Home / Poker / PCA 2023 draws players from far and wide, with $1.5m up top

Registration closed yesterday on the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event, bringing with it the official announcement of the prize pool and the riches on off to the most successful players.

Right off the bat, the headline figures are as follows:

Entries: 889
Prize pool: $8,623,300
First place: $1.5 million

It’s telling to look slightly more deeply at those numbers this time around, however, particularly when we reveal the fact that 377 of those entries were actually re-entries, meaning a pretty huge number of players firing multiple bullets.

Players were permitted one re-entry per opening flight in this event, meaning it was theoretically possible to enter six times. That doomsday scenario would only come to pass if a player entered and bust twice on Day 1A, then entered and bust twice on Day 1B, and then also entered and bust in the two levels of registration on Day 2.

More about the PCA:

We have it on good authority that that happened only once, but we’ll dance coyly around the identity of the player who is in the tournament for $60K. (Except to say that the name is out there already, if you know where to look for this Needle in the Haystack.)

More pertinently, we know that the number of unique players was 512. And we also know that 127 will be paid. The min-cash is $17,600.

As always, the real money here is at the very top, with the winner getting $1.5 million and second place also claiming an even million bucks. The final table payouts are as follows — although there’s always the possibility that they’ll do a deal when it gets very deep.

PCA FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS

Here’s what the final eight will win:

1 – $1,500,000
2 – $1,000,000
3 – $677,400
4 – $519,600
5 – $399,800
6 – $307,500
7 – $236,500
8 – $181,900

NATIONALITY STATISTICS

The Bahamas is only a 30-minute flight away from the United States and the PCA has long been an attractive destination for American poker players.

The nationality statistics for the 2023 renewal continue to bear this out, while confirming again how broad the appeal is for players from across the globe.

There were 136 players from the United States in the Main Event, comprising a little over a quarter of the field. But there were players from 58 countries in total, including all the way through the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania.

There’s also a solitary representative from Africa: Sam Haddad, from Lebanon. Only Antarctica remains a hold out.

Player nationalities at PCA 2023

PCA 2023 nationalities

136 players – USA (26.56 percent of field)
58 – Canada (11.33%)
34 – Brazil, Germany (6.64%)
29 – United Kingdom (5.66%)
25 – France (4.88%)
15 – Austria (2.93%)
14 – Spain (2.73%)
11 – Russia (2.15%)
10 – Hungary (1.95%)
9 – Argentina, Bulgaria, Portugal (1.76%)
8 – Italy, Netherlands (1.56%)
7 – China (1.37%)
6 – Ireland, Lithuania, Romania (1.17%)
5 – Norway (0.98%)
4 – Belgium, Peru, Switzerland, Thailand, Ukraine (0.78%)
3 – Australia, Colombia, Finland, India, Poland (0.59%)
2 – Azerbaijan, Belarus, Denmark, Greece, Latvia, Panama, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, Venezuela (0.39%)
1 – Armenia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Indonesia, Israel, Lebanon, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, New Zealand, Philippines, Serbis, Slovenia, South Korea (0.20%)

Study Poker with Pokerstars Learn, practice with the PokerStars app