The 30th Anniversary Los Angeles Poker Classic (LAPC) kicked off at The Commerce back on January 13 and is slated to run through March 5. This past week, the $400 Mixed Omaha tournament attracted 91 runners who competed for a $30,030 prize pool. Coming out on top of that tournament was poker legend Perry Green, 86, a three-time bracelet winner from the early days of the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

It marked Green’s first tournament victory in 35 years with his last victory coming back in the 1987 Pot of Gold $225 NLH for $14,130.

$400 Mixed Omaha Final Table Results

_{*Denotes heads-up deal.}
 
Others to cash the tournament but fall short of the final table were Eric Hamilton (9th – $840), Emiliano Figueroa (10th – $840), Lisa Clay (11th – $760), Joseph Deluca (12th – $760), and Sirous Baghchehsaraie (13th – $720).

Three Bracelets & Battling Ungar

Born in Seattle in 1936, Green worked as a successful fur trader in Alaska for the vast majority of his life. In 1976, he ventured to the WSOP where he took down Event #4: $1,000 Limit Ace to Five Draw for $68,300 and his first gold bracelet. The next year, Green won Event #6 $5,000 Limit Ace to Five Draw and then returned two years later to win Event #6: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Non-Pro for $76,500.

With three bracelets under his belt, Green made a go at the 1981 $10,000 Main Event, which attracted 75 players including Johnny Moss, Hal Fowler, Betty Carey, “Amarillo Slim” Preston and Jesse Alto. The field was reduced to just 38 players by the end of Day 1, and those 38 were reduced to 17 on Day 2. On Day 3, Doyle Brunson was eliminated, leaving Bobby Baldwin and Ungar, the defending champ, as the only former winners remaining. Both went on to make the final table. Green ultimately finished runner-up to Ungar.

Old School: Perry Green Celebrates Decades of Poker With Big Bet Cash

Green Still Passionate About Poker

Over the past decade, Green has made periodic appearances at the WSOP in Las Vegas. Back in 2015, he made the final table of Event #43: $1,000 Super Seniors, ultimately finishing in eighth place for $24,034, and more recently placed 71st in the 2021 WSOP Event #5: $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better.

“Oh, I think more so,” Perry expressed when asked last summer if he’s still as passionate about poker as he was in his younger days. “This might be nostalgia coming here to play, but I just like to play against the younger fellas. I don’t play golf anymore, I don’t do the physical things. But poker is a good stimulus for my brain. When you get to be over 85, you’ve got to do something to keep abreast of what’s going on, especially in this changing world that we have.”

Coincidentally, Green finished runner-up to Gabe Kaplan back in the 1980 Amarillo Slim’s Superbowl of Poker $10,000 Main Event, good for $62,500. Kaplan recently made headlines for retiring from his long-time commentary gig on High Stakes Poker.

Perry Green’s Top 10 Poker Cashes

My First WSOP: Perry Green Talks About the Camaraderie and Staff from the Old Days

_{*Images courtesy of LAPC.}

Executive Editor U.S.

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

The 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event has reached boiling point with only six of the original 889 players still in the hunt for the $1,500,000 top prize and the all-important winner’s trophy. The final six Main Event hopefuls return to their seats at the Baha Mar Resort in The Bahamas at 12:30 p.m. local time on January 29, with Portugal’s Pedro Neves leading the way.

Day 5 saw the field of 16 players whittled to only six. The final day should be an amazing spectacle because Jamil Wakil (755,000) aside, the finalists have at least 39 big blinds in their stacks, so have some wiggle room when play resumes.

$10,300 PCA Main Event Final Day Seat Draw

Mario Ferreria Pais was the penultimate day’s first casualty. Pais was joined on the rail first by Giuseppe Iadisernia, then Clint Tolbert, Ian Matakis, and Spanish superstar Sergi Reixach.

Neves received a significant boost to his stack when his pocket kings prevailed against Mitchell Halverson‘s queens, resulting in Halverson crashing out in 11th. The elimination of Brazil’s Allan Mello reduced the field to nine, and those nine took their seats at the unofficial final table.

Jonathan Little busted on the first hand after the players sat down on a table of nine. Little’s ace-nine couldn’t get there against the dominating ace-queen of Alexandre Raymond. Raymond would later, correctly, fold a full house against Neves, showing his opponents that he is on top of his game.

Eighth place went to Taylor Paur after he lost a flip against Artur Martirosian before a short-stacked Alexandros Kolonias‘ ace-jack was outdrawn by the ace-seven of Neves to conclude Day 5.

Joining Neves under the spotlight on the PCA Main Event’s final day are the aforementioned Raymond (5,995,000), Martirosian (5,855,000), and Wakil (755,000), in addition to Michel Dattani (4,000,000) and Christoph Csik (3,905,000).

Fire up the PokerNews live reporting pages from 12:30 p.m. local time to discover who becomes the 2023 PCA Main Event champion.

Jeremy Ausmus Leads the Final 10 in the $25,000 PLO High Roller

Ten of the original 44 players are in the hunt for the title of 2023 PCA $25,000 PLO High Roller champion. Jeremy Ausmus (385,000) is the man taking the chip lead into the second and final day’s play, although he is flanked by some supremely talented pot-limit Omaha players.

Ausmus has form in high-stakes PLO tournaments, having won the $50,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller at the 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP). He’s also fresh off the back of winning the $2,200 No-Limit Hold’em Deep Stack in The Bahamas, so is high on confidence; not that Ausmus lacks any in his game.

Finnish PLO specialist Joni Jouhkimainen (336,000) is Ausmus’ closest rival when play resumes at 2:00 p.m. local time on January 29. Others still in the mix to secure the $364,440 top prize from the $1,056,440 prize pool include Ukraine’s Andriy Lyubovetsky (274,000), Oliver Weis (246,000), Andrew Pantling (206,000), five-time WSOP champion Shaun Deeb (200,000), and short stack Adam Hendrix (41,000).

$25,000 PLO High Roller Top 10 Chip Counts

Bonomo and Cobian Capture PCA Titles

Two players became 2023 PCA champions while the Main Event and $25,000 PLO High Roller were taking place. Justin Bonomo won the $25,000 8-Handed for $574,529, which took his lifetime live poker tournament winnings to $59.5 million, extending his lead in the all-time money listings.

Samuel Cobian of Indianapolis took down the $3,000 PCA Mystery Bounty for $239,658 plus at least $15,000 worth of bounties along the way. Cobian defeated Andy “BowieEffect” Wilson heads-up and reeled in the largest live score of his career.

It was another beautiful day for poker at the luxurious Baha Mar Resort in the Bahamas and after just under six levels of play on Day 2 of PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Event #25: $50,000 8-Handed, Jonathan Jaffe of the United States emerged victorious for a payout of $194,814.

This event attracted six runners with two needing a reentry on Day 1 to create a prize pool of $389,664, with the top three players paid. Jaffe came into the day as the chip leader and kept his foot on the pedal throughout.

When asked how it felt to win his first PCA title, he replied, “It feels really good to finally get a trophy, although I did win a Heads-Up Battleship Tournament back in the day when we put our laptops together.”

Jaffe isn’t really seen much these days in the live scene, and he explained why…

“Yeah, I really haven’t been playing much lately; I’ve just been focusing mainly on private coaching.”

$50,000 8-Handed Results

Day 2 Action

Only six players returned for Day 2 play, and although more entrants were expected, registration ended up closing early due to the bustout of Stephen Chidwick. After losing the majority of his stack the previous hand to Kisacikoglu, Chidwick got it in with king-three against Davies’ king-ten and was sent to the rail after failing to connect.

Mikita Badziakouski was next to exit in fifth as he ran his ace-three suited into Davies’ ace-king and failed to improve.

After a couple of big hands, Jaffe regained the chip lead and began taking control of the table, putting pressure on the smaller stacks. He then eliminated Daniel Dvoress on the money bubble when he turned trips with his king-nine against Dvoress’ ace-seven.

Jaffe’s next victim was Davies, who decided to get it in with his pocket sevens after being faced with an open-jam from Jaffe. Jaffe was behind with his king-five, but a king appeared on the flop to give him the lead. The board bricked out for Davies and he was eliminated in third.

Heads-up play between Jaffe and Kisacikoglu only lasted for half a level before Kisacikoglu check-raised all in on the turn with a straight and flush draw while Jaffe had a pair of queens. Another queen on the river was the nail in the coffin for Kisacikoglu, and he was eliminated in second as Jaffe was announced the winner.

“The $25,000 should be starting soon, right?” the players asked, eager to get back in the mix.

That wraps up coverage of the $50,000 8-Handed, but be sure to check out the PokerNews live reporting team’s coverage of Day 4 of the $10,300 PCA Main Event and other events here at the 2023 PCA.

Poker’s all-time money leader Justin Bonomo extended his lead early this morning when he took down $25,000 8-Handed at the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) for $574,529 after a three-handed ICM chop with chip leader Rui Ferreira (2nd -$664,820) and Isaac Haxton (3rd – $491,550), who was a few runouts away from winning his second trophy of the series after a victory in $100,000 PCA Super High Roller for $1,082,230.

Bonomo had $58.9 million in Hendon Mob-reported earnings before the six-figure haul that puts him at a historic $59.5 million. It will take a multi-million dollar score for anyone to pass the American as he sits comfortably ahead of Bryn Kenney ($57.2 million) and Erik Seidel ($42.4 million).

The victory marks Bonomo’s first tournament win outside of Las Vegas since 2019 and just his second cash out of Vegas since that time. The first came earlier this week when he finished 44th in the $10,000 PCA Main Event for $29,400.

“Just like any other tournament, you have to play your best, you have to get lucky, catch the right cards at the right time,” Bonomo said when asked what propelled him to his latest victory. “Just a combination of things coming together, really.”

While many of the high rollers so far at PCA have attracted intimate fields with just a few dozen runners, the $25,000 8-Handed ballooned into a massive field of 140 players, an astonishing number for an event at this buy-in, to generate $3,361,400 in prize money.

“It was a great field,” Bonomo told PokerNews in a winner’s interview. “I’m used to playing these high-roller tournaments against a lot of the best players in the world, a lot of the same people over and over. So it’s definitely exciting when I get to play with new people, people I don’t recognize.”

Other players who made deep runs in the event include Alex Kulev (9th – $108,450), Seth Davies (7th – $130,600) and Jean-Noel Thorel (5th – $220,700), who received a round of applause from Steve O’Dwyer and several others as he exited the final table.

2023 PCA $25,000 8-Handed Final Table Results

A Massive Field Dwindles

The tournament was already shaping to be a big one when 78 players registered on Day 1, but another 62 joined during the late-reg period on Day 2 to turn the high roller into the biggest of the series so far.

The field included all the normal high-stakes pros, including Stephen Chidwick, Michael Addamo, Mike Watson and Ben Heath, as well as some players who aren’t seen in any many PCA high rollers like Ethan “RampagePoker” Yau.

Only 20 places paid in the event and Tauan Naves bowed out on the money bubble in a three-way pot between himself, Bonomo and Dan Shak, who himself went out in 18th place when he moved in with ace-nine only to find himself dominated by the ace-queen of Haxton.

Several familiar faces fell after that, including Timothy Adams (17th – $43,050), Dan Smith (15th – $56,950) and Chad Eveslage (14th – $56,950) before Daniel Dvoress went out in tenth on the final table bubble.

Battle of Poker’s Greatest Minds

Kulev went out in eighth place when he open-jammed with pocket threes in the small blind, and Bonomo woke up with pocket queens in the big blind. Mario Mosboeck managed to double up through the Bonomo before Ferreira picked up jacks, and the Austrian couldn’t get ahead with his king-ten.

Bonomo and Ferreira, who took down €10,300 EPT High Roller at EPT Barcelona for €767,750 in August 2022, exchanged chip leads at the final table and both did their part to apply pressure on their shorter-stacked opponents.

“What you want to look for are spots where you can pressure them using only a small amount of chips and make them afraid that they’re going to lose their whole stack,” Bonomo explained. “Because you don’t just want to go all-in for heaps every hand, because then you can actually lose a bunch. But just by putting in small bets (or) small raises, every hand they’re afraid that they might go bust. They might end up in sixth instead of third place, or whatever.”

After Carlos Chadha went out in fourth as his pocket eights were pipped by the pocket nines of Haxton, the three high-stakes crushers agreed to chop and flip for the trophy.

Bonomo, who celebrated the victory with his girlfriend, told PokerNews he agreed to chop in part because he was playing against “playing against two great players.”

“Isaac and I go way back,” he said. “I think he’s one of the best players in the world, possibly the greatest poker mind in the world. And Rui is a tough player as well.”

That wraps up the PokerNews live reporting team’s coverage of the larger-than-anticipated $25,000 8-Handed. Be sure to check out the team’s coverage of other events here in The Bahamas.

There were 22 players who returned to the felt for the third and final day of the $3,000 PCA Mystery Bounty and it was Samuel Cobian who topped them all to take home the first-place prize of $239,658.

Cobian overcame a star-studded field of 763 entries to record his largest career poker score after defeating Andy Wilson in a heads-up match. He will also add 15 bounties to his total, all of which were of the $1,000 minimum variety, but he couldn’t wipe the smile off his face after capturing the illustrious PokerStars trophy.

$3,000 PCA Mystery Bounty Final Table Results

Winner’s Reaction

“This feels great man,” Cobian told PokerNews in his post-win interview. “I never thought this could happen. But it does, and it did.”

The recreational poker player from Indianapolis said this isn’t often where he and his wife travel in the winter, but his wife convinced him to come to the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

“We usually go to Florida in the winter but my wife convinced me to come to The Bahamas and play some poker this year.”

Cobian can often be seen at the WSOP in Las Vegas where he’s cashed the Main Event on multiple occasions. He’s already won a seat for this upcoming summer trip.

Cobian was off to get his winner’s photo taken but said the chances of playing in the PSPC later this week is definitely a possibility.

“You’ll just have to buy in!” his wife shouted with exuberance on their way out of the tournament room.

Cobian has guaranteed this will be the most successful winter getaway that he’s experienced, and he plans to keep the run-good going.

Day 3 Action

With 22 players returning for Day 3, there was no shortage of action in the opening levels of the day. There were 10 eliminations in the first two hours of the day that included PokerStars ambassador Rafael Moraes, David Stamm and Kitty Kuo. During the rush of eliminations, Kayhan Mokri was busy at the “tickle trunk” redeeming his bounty tickets. A burst of excitement was overheard as Mokri managed to find the last $100,000 bounty prize, going along with Sebastien Aube, who pulled his six-figure prize last night.

When the field finally reached the final table, Wilson came in as the chip leader and extended his lead with the quick eliminations of Michael Uguccioni and David Peters. With seven players still remaining, Wilson had accumulated over one-third of the chips in play. The talkative Mokri was next on the chopping block as one of the short stacks and was forced to settle for just over $37,000 and seventh place. However, the $100,000 and change in bounties will no doubt keep his spirits high.

Justin Steinbrenner was down to less than four big blinds but managed to double up and then go on to eliminate the next two players in Rui Bouquet and Matthew Lambrecht. Steinbrenner went from 600,000 to 6,000,000 chips in the blink of an eye and was all of a sudden in the running. Yuliyan Kolev bowed out in fourth place which set up a dynamic three-handed battle.

Wilson started three-handed play with a huge chip lead and over half of the chips in play. He continued to grow his lead and looked poised to capture his first PokerStars title. However, the tide turned and not just once, but on multiple occasions. The three remaining players exchanged chip leads over the course of nearly two hours, with Cobian finding himself with just four big blinds after a failed bluff attempt. Cobian managed to double-up on three straight attempts and was right back in the match.

Steinbrenner also held the chip lead at one point but it didn’t last very long much to the dismay of the German rail cheering him on. Steinbrenner eventually shoved all in from the small blind and was called by Cobian’s ace-high in the big blind. An Ace on the flop spelled disaster for Steinbrenner who was kicked to the rail in third place.

Cobian took a healthy lead into the heads-up duel with Wilson and never looked back as he managed to finish the match in just a few hands. On the final hand of the day, Cobian’s king-high was ahead of Wilson’s jack-high with all of the chips getting in the middle preflop. Wilson was unable to find any help on the board and fell just short of the PCA title.

Click here for more on the 2023 PCA Live reporting hub