- With almost $7m in tournament winnings, Selbst becomes the clear all-time female money winner for live tournaments.
- In total, $28m was paid out across the 38 events, up 30% on 2012.
- Selbst’s win was the fifth million-dollar payout in this year’s series.
The 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure wrapped up its record-setting run with one of its own Team PokerStars pros, Vanessa Selbst, making history .in capturing the PCA’s series-ending $25,000 “High Roller” tourney—and in the process becoming poker’s all-time women’s leader in career poker tournament earnings.
Selbst’s triumph over 197 other entrants brought her $1,424,420 in winnings, and pushed her well past Kathy Liebert into the leading spot among women players, with $6,996,315. The win continues a huge start to 2013 for Selbst, who only days before announced her engagement to partner Miranda Forster.
Selbst’s series-ending headlines were far from the only big stories emerging from Nassau, however. All told, five players won over a million in individual events, including PCA Main Event champion Dimitar Danchev and $100,000 Super High Roller winner Scott Seiver.
Seiver’s win, worth $2,003,480, held up as the highest single payday of the 2013 PCA, while runner-up David “Doc” Sands collected $1,259,320. Six of the eight finalists in this one were Americans, including eventual sixth-place finisher Greg Jensen.
Jensen, an options trader who received his $100,000 buy-in for the event as a birthday present from another executive of his firm, ended up cashing for $286,000. Jensen donated the prize money to the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting tragedy.
The PCA main event looked to be a US-v-Canada affair, with three players each from those countries taking up most of the seats at the final table. But it was unknown Bulgarian online qualifier Dimitar Danchev who notched the breakthrough win.
Danchev’s life-changing score of $1,859,000 came at the expense of American Joel Micka, who had to settle for a second-place payday of $1,190,000.
The 37 other events that filled out the busy ten-day slate produced other good stories as well. The first-ever major open-faced Chinese tourney was held at the PCA, with Canada’s Peter Jetten claiming top honors and a $52,280 payday.
Among other well-known winners in the PCA’s side events were Team PokerStars pro Marcel Luske (who won twice), Grant Levy, John Racener and John Dibella.
All told, the 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure paid out $28,239,728 in prize money, almost 30% more than the 2012 series. Nearly 1,600 players participated in at least one PCA event, generating 6,101 tournament entries, another record.
According to PCA director David Carrion: “Our goal for this tenth PokerStars Caribbean Adventure was to create an amazing poker experience that everyone would enjoy and no one would ever forget! We know from player feedback throughout the festival that we have truly exceeded people’s expectation and have delivered on our promise to provide the 'best ten days of poker on the planet.’”