Only 54 players remain in contention to become the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event champion, and it is Spain’s Sergi Reixach who is the man to catch going into Day 4 of the $10,300 buy-in tournament. It took five levels at the luxury Baha Mar Resort to whittle the 151 returning players to a more manageable 54. Plenty of big names survived the Day 3 action, with just as many falling by the wayside.

End of Day 3 Top Ten Chip Stacks

With 127 of the 151 returning Day 3 players cashing, the money bubble was expected to burst quickly. However, it took 90 minutes of tense action for it to pop and open the path to the cashier’s desk. Juan Membreno was the unfortunate 128th place finisher. Membrano got the last of his chips in with middle pair and a flush draw against the top pair top kickers of Andre Marques and didn’t improve.

Andy Wilson was the first player to crash out in the money places. The likes of Xuan Liu, Seth Davies, Elio Fox, Pascal Hartmann, Thomas Muehloecker, Maria Ho, Martin Zamani, Robert Cowen, Ben Lamb, defending champion Chino Rheem, John Juanda, and Andre Akkari cashed but will not become the 2023 PCA Main Event champion.

Four players enter Day 4 with seven-figure stack. Reixach leads from the front with 1,719,000 chips, with Christoph Csik (1,409,000), Michael Rocco (1,260,000), and Ian Matakis (1,083,000) finding themselves ahead of the chasing pack.

Anton Wigg (903,000) and Artur Martirosian (816,000) have top ten stacks, while Nick Petrangelo (550,000), Day 2 leader Alex Kulev (546,000), Ramon Colillas (437,000), Justin Bonomo (370,000), Steve O’Dwyer (257,000), and PokerStars’ Sam Grafton (194,000) are still in the mix.

Play resumes at 12:00 p.m. local time on January 27, with the Main Event on Level 19, meaning blinds and antes are 5,000/10,000/10,000a, and PokerNews will be on the ground throughout.

Watch ‘Poker Bunny’s’ Erratic Exit from the PCA Main Event

Jonathan Jaffe Tops $50,000 8-Handed Chip Counts

The $50,000 8-Handed event drew in six players, with two needing to fire a second bullet before the end of the tenth and final level of Day 1.

Jonathan Jaffe finished Day 1 with bagging up a tournament-leading 353,000 stack, putting him narrowly ahead of Daniel Dvoress (317,000) in second place. Turkey’s Orpen Kisacikoglu (248,000), fresh from his runner-up finish in the $50,000 Single Day High Roller 6-Handed, is third.

Both Seth Davies (167,000) and Mikita Badziakouski (70,000) progressed after firing two bullets, while Stephen Chidwick (45,000) brings up the rear.

$50,000 8-Handed Day 1 Counts

Late registration remains open for two more levels, with play resuming at 2:00 p.m. local time. Of course, PokerNews‘ live reporting team will be there bringing you live and exclusive coverage.

Martingale Strategy Pays Off For Conor Beresford in PCA $50,000 7-Handed

Stamm Out in Front in the $3,000 Mystery Bounty

The eagerly anticipated $3,000 PCA Mystery Bounty shuffled up and dealt on January 26, and saw the 626 starters reduced to 229 over the course of 12 levels. David Stamm was the star that shone the brightest, bagging and tagging 340,500 chips, more than 11 times the starting stack!

The list of players that navigated their way to Day 2 reads like a who’s who of the poker world. Rayan Chamas (188,500) and Shaun Deeb (187,500) are in the top ten, while Dario Sammartino (174,500), Yuliyan Kolev (166,000), and Paulina “Poker Bunny” Loeliger (157,500) occupying slots in the top 20.

Further down the chip counts you find such luminaries as Ami Barer (126,000), Team PokerStars’ Lex Veldhuis (116,500), nine-time WSOP champion Erik Seidel (112,000), David Peters (107,000), Adrian Mateos (101,000), and Roberto Romanello (98,500). You can check out the full list of the remaining players here, and follow all of the updates right here when play resumes at 12:30 p.m. local time on January 27.

$3,000 PCA Mystery Bounty End of Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts

A big gamble doesn’t always result in a big reward, but sometimes it does. It did today for the United Kingdom’s Conor Beresford as he took down Event #19: $50,000 7-Handed at the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) at Baha Mar Resort for $436,812 after late-regging the tournament on Day 1.

Beresford, who takes home his biggest live cash, reached an ICM deal with heads-up opponent and fellow Brit Ben Heath ($446,020) following the elimination of American Dan Smith (thirrd – $229,550), while Timothy Adams (fourtth – $165,950) and Juan Pardo (fiffth – $134,200) also made the money.

The red ponytailed and jovial Brit had never cashed an event at this buy-in level when he sat down among the 28 other entrants — among them Stephen Chidwick, Michael Addamo, Sam Greenwood, Daniel Dvoress and Mikita Badziakouski — but that didn’t stop him from making his way to the final table and ultimately taking home the trophy.

“I’ve played quite a lot of them, but this is literally my first cash in any $25K-plus live, and I’ve played at least 20 or so,” Beresford told PokerNews in a winner’s interview. “Got my money back finally, essentially!”

Beresford sized up the field on Day 1, and while he admitted it “didn’t look amazing,” he decided to give it a shot. “It’s all the best players in the world, so I just wanted to gamble a bit.”

$50,000 7-Handed Final Table Results

_{*Denotes heads-up ICM deal}

2023 PCA Hands of the Week: Failed Super High Roller Bluff & a Miracle Turn on Bubble

Day 2 Action

Just 18 players were in the field on Day 1 but several joined the ranks during the late registration period extending into Day 2, including $100,000 PCA Super High Roller champion Isaac Haxton, Adrian Mateos and Orpen Kisacikoglu, whose presence was short-lived as he ran his top pair into the flopped flush of Pardo immediately upon sitting down.

Kisacikoglu wasn’t the only player who had a rough Day 2. Greenwood entered the day as chip leader but lost most of it early and was riding the short stack until he busted on the final table bubble in a double knockout that left Adams richer and sent Greenwood and Mateos packing.

Making the final table didn’t guarantee a piece of the $1,412,532 prize pool as only five places paid. Vogelsang and Haxton both fell ahead of the money before Sean Winter went out on the money bubble after three-bet shoving with king-queen and getting looked up by the ace-queen of Heath.

After that, Pardo went out in fifth place when the Spaniard’s pocket eights couldn’t improve against the pocket aces of Smith. After the elimination of Adams in fourth place, Smith doubled through Heath to take the chip lead before a pivotal hand that set Beresford up for victory.

Watch ‘Poker Bunny’s’ Erratic Exit from the PCA Main Event

Out of position in a three-bet pot, Beresford bet each street on the board of before Smith raised him all in on the river. It was an easy call for Beresford as he held for aces full, losing only to quad sixes. Smith didn’t have that and he quickly mucked after flashing his hand.

“That was a wild one,” recalled Beresford. “It always feels so strange when you have aces in a spot like this where you have the full coverage of the board, essentially, so you don’t really know what to bet. So I just bet 10%, 10%, 10%, because I don’t know what else to do! How else do I get the money in?”

Once Smith fell, it didn’t take long for the two Brits to decide on a chop rather than play out the 15-minute turbo format.

“I don’t really see the point in playing for an hour a so,” said Beresford. “Just move on and get in the next event, or maybe celebrate a bit.”

As for what Beresford will play next in this series, your guess is as good as his.

“I don’t pick out events that I want to play,” he admitted. “I play what I can, essentially. What I deem to be the right thing to play, which is usually the lower-stakes stuff. But then when I bust the lower stakes I usually (go higher). Martingale strat, essentially!”

That wraps up coverage of $50,000 7-Handed, but be sure to check out the PokerNews live reporting team’s coverage of Day 3 of the $10,300 PCA Main Event and other events here at the 2023 PCA.

The wild, wild west conjures images of cowboys and outlaws, and of legendary names like Billy the Kid and Butch Cassidy. It’s an image that is kept alive through the magic of movies and storytelling, and no one told a better story today than Orthodoxos Orthodoxou.

The Cyprus native captured the title in his home country, beating out a field of 757 players to win the Merit Poker Western Series $3,300 Main Event for $372,800. Orthodoxou began the day at the bottom of the leaderboard with 16 players remaining and ended it by hoisting the prestigious trophy to keep in his island home.

2023 Merit Poker Western Open Final Table Results

Winner’s Reaction

“This tournament is a very difficult tournament to win. Have many professionals. Poker has started to be changed. Some aggressive players. Some professional players. This tournament I don’t believe any time in my life I would win,” Orthodoxou said following his victory.

I don’t have any strategy. I play like I feel. Like I feel in my heart. I follow my heart. Never strategy

Orthodoxou came into the tournament with just four recorded live cashes, including a 57th-place finish in the $2,200 Warm Up prior to the Main Event. He’s primarily a cash game player, estimating he’s played around five or six live tournaments in his entire life. His prior tournament highlight, he explained, was winning an $11 online event nearly a decade ago. His approach at the tables can be summed up in one word: heart.

“I don’t have any strategy. I play like I feel. Like I feel in my heart. I follow my heart. Never strategy,” he said. “I don’t know how I make raises. I don’t know how to make c-bets. It’s not strategy. I play how I feel. In the cash games the same. If I believe you make a bluff, I call you. If I believe. What I feel is how I play. All in my heart.”

Final Table Action

The final day of the Main Event began with 16 players vying for a spot at the final table and a chance at capturing the title. It seemed like a long road for Orthodoxou, who began with just 1,375,000, in last place on the leaderboard. But he doubled up right before the final table when his kings held up against Aleksandr Chernikov’s top pair and flush draw.

Orthodoxou began the final table in third chip position with 9,500,000, behind chip leader Eduard Barsegian and Chernikov. With stacks bunched up together, it took nearly two hours before the final table had its first elimination. Vladislav Doroshkov jammed with king-seven and Chernikov had him dominated with king-queen, flopping top pair and ending up with a flush to eliminate Doroshkov in ninth place in what was the young Russian’s first ever live event.

Dominik Panka, the most accomplished pro at the final table, exited in eighth place after failing to win a race with ace-ten against Barsegian’s pocket eights. The final table then entered a sort of stalemate as seven-handed play lasted nearly two hours.

Ara Melkisetian rivered two pair to crack Chernikov’s aces and double up. A few hands later it was Orthodoxou’s turn to double when he was all in for his last 6,150,000 with ace-six and beat the king-queen of Barsegian. Serge Matta eventually moved all in for 4,000,000 with ace-queen, Chernikov called with ace-ten, and the chip leader hit the nut flush to eliminate Matta in seventh.

Orthodoxou doubled up again when he moved all in with straight and flush draws against the top pair of Barsegian, completing the flush on the turn. Justus Held, the online grinder known as “taxidriver,” then three-bet shoved for 8,300,000 with ace-seven, Chernikov called with ace-jack, and Melkisetian folded two nines. Chernikov’s jack-kicker played to bust Held in sixth while Melkisetian was left to rue the lost opportunity.

Barsegian, who spent most of the early portion of the final table at the top of the leaderboard, was eliminated in fifth after losing a race with ace-queen to Ernestas Degtiariovas’ sevens. Melkisetian fell in fourth place after running ace-eight into Orthodoxou’s ace-king.

Degtiariovas, the Lithuanian spin-n-go specialist also playing his first ever live tournament, then snap-called for his last 11,600,000 with top pair of aces against Chernikov’s pair of queens and flush draw. Chernikov rivered a queen to make trips, busting Degtiariovas in third as he took a 46,000,000 to 29,700,000 lead into heads-up play.

Orthodoxou doubled up when he flopped a set of fives against Chernikov’s straight draw and finishing with a full house. He then made quads with pocket threes as he took the chip lead. Finally, on the first hand after blinds increased to 500,000-1,000,000, Chernikov moved all in for 22,500,000 with two queens and Orthodoxou called with ace-ten. Orthodoxou began celebrating as soon as an ace came in the window, and “Cyprus Bear” was the champion.

Orthodoxou celebrated with his rail after his win, including fellow Cypriot Andreas Christoforou who gave him some tips before the tournament. His friends convinced him to play the Main Event after his deep run in the Warm Up. Then he got to celebrate a win on home soil with them.

“This is me. Cyprus Bear,” an emotional Orthodoxou said.

PokerStars is currently hosting the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), and next week will run the second ever PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC) from January 30–February 3. The buy-in for the PSPC will be $25,000, mirroring that of the first installment.

The PokerNews Live Reporting Team has been on-site to offer live updates from a slew of PCA tournaments. Here’s a look at five of the more interesting hands captured in our live updates down there in the Bahamas.

Click here to download the My Stack app for iPhone, or click here to download the My Stack app for Android.

Follow live updates from the 2023 PCA here!

INSANE! Hu Hits Miracle Turn to Survive Bubble

On Day 3 of the $10,300 PCA Main Event, it was Level 15 (2,000/4,000/4,000) and on the money bubble (the top 127 finishers from the 889-entry field made the money) when Anthony Hu, in middle position, and Justin Steinbrenner, on the button, got into a raising war preflop, where the former had his 157,000 stack in the middle and was at risk of stone bubbling the PCA Main Event.

The television crew began to swarm the table as well as the other players. After the hands were completed on the rest of the tables, the tournament director instructed the players to table their cards.

Anthony Hu:
Justin Steinbrenner:

Hu was a huge favorite to get the double up and leave Steinbrenner as a short stack. However, Steinbrenner made a set as the dealer fanned the flop. A collective moan came from the room as Hu was on the verge of a huge beat.

“Not like this!” shouted Xuan Liu, in support of Hu, as she looked on.

The entire room then lost their minds as the came on the turn to give Hu the better set and Steinbrenner looked disgusted.

“A real TV hand,” commented Hu, with a wry smile on his face.

The completed the board and Hu somehow survived to get the double up.

Find out who cashed the 2023 PCA Main Event here!

Ponakovs Flops Boat to Fatally Wound Vogelsang

In Level 1 (500/1,000/1,000) of the $100,000 PCA Super High Roller, Aleksejs Ponakovs opened to 2,500 from under the gun and Christoph Vogelsang three-bet to 7,500 from the next seat. Action folded back to Ponakovs, who four-bet to 20,000. Vogelsang called.

Ponakovs bet 14,000 on the flop and Vogelsang called. Ponakovs then bet 20,000 on the turn and Vogelsang raised to 60,000. Ponakovs three-bet to 110,000 and Vogelsang four-bet jammed with around a starting stack. Ponakovs called with a slightly larger stack.

Aleksejs Ponakovs:
Christoph Vogelsang:

Vogelsang was drawing to just two aces against the flopped full house of Ponakovs and the then bricked off on the river to leave Vogelsang short and to earn Ponakovs the first double of the day. Vogelsang wasn’t able to spin it up and was seen leaving the tournament area a few hands later.

Addamo Falls to Thorel in Massive Cooler

In Level 4 (1,000/2,000/2,000) of the $100K SHR, Michael Addamo opened to 4,500 from the hijack and Mike Watson called on the button before Jean-Noel Thorel three-bet to 12,000 from the big blind. Addamo four-bet to 42,000 and Watson folded. Thorel called.

Thorel checked on the flop and Addamo bet a 10,000 for just a fraction of the pot. Thorel called.

Thorel checked again on the turn and Addamo sized up to 55,000. Thorel check-raised to 110,000 and Addamo used a time bank before re-raising all in. Thorel called with a bigger stack.

Michael Addamo:
Jean-Noel Thorel:

Both players had flopped monsters as Addamo had top set and Thorel had the nut flush. The river failed to pair the board and Addamo was eliminated after the dealer confirmed the Frenchman had him covered.

Pardo Picks Off Watson’s Colossal Bluff

On Day 3 of the $100K SHR, it was Level 18 (25,000/50,000/50,000) when the biggest pot of the tournament up to that point saw Mike Watson losing the majority of his stack to Juan Pardo after a heroic but failed three-bet river bluff.

The action kicked off with Pardo opening to 100,000 in the cutoff before Watson called out of the big blind. Watson checked on the flop of and Pardo continued for 75,000. Watson called. Watson checked again on the turn and Pardo checked back.

You may be asking, how did all the chips get in the pot? The river is where the real action began. Watson led out for 110,000 on the river and Pardo used a time bank before raising to 440,000. Watson then pushed out two stacks of chips for a three-bet to 1,800,000.

Watson’s raise sent Pardo deep in the tank and he used three time banks before calling. Watson showed for two pair, but Pardo had the for queens and deuces and a better two pair to leave the Canadian as the clear short stack.

Haxton Picks Up Rockets to Double Through Dvoress

In the same level as the hand above, Daniel Dvoress opened to 110,000 in middle position and Isaac Haxton used a time bank before three-betting to 265,000 on the button. Dvoress followed suit in using a time bank before four-bet jamming for 1,615,000. Haxton snapped with a stack of 1,370,000.

Isaac Haxton:
Daniel Dvoress:

Dvoress let out a groan as he saw he had run into aces and he received no help whatsoever from the runout of .

Dvoress thought Haxton had him covered but a laborious count confirmed that he had a few chips left.

“Did I miscount? I would’ve flatted the three-bet,” Dvoress lamented.

“I think you get to re-do the hand if you miscounted!” joked Seth Davies. That hand helped propel Haxton to the winner’s circle, good for a seven-figure payday.

Haxton Continues Heater With 2023 PCA $100K Super High Roller Victory

Executive Editor U.S.

Executive Editor US, PokerNews Podcast co-host & 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.