It’s taken four days to complete, but the $25,000 buy-in Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure NLHE High Roller tournament has crowned a winner after several changes in chip lead among a number of internationally respected poker aces.
The ultimate winner was not Vanessa Selbst, Ole Schemion, Robert Mizrachi or even former WSOP champ Greg Merson, all of whom appeared at one stage or another to be about to take the event down, but the relatively unknown Florida player Jake Schindler.
Schindler survived a field of 246 top professionals to reach a final table populated by eight formidable opponents, but he played through them all to end up in a heads up with Greg Merson.
The two immediately agreed a chop that would leave $200,000, the trophy, and a Swiss watch from Slyde worth $17,500 on the table for the winner, but generous prizes for both finalists.
Schindler then went on to demolish his last opponent in surprisingly quick time due to a series of all-in blind moves on almost every hand which quickly brought the game to a – for Schindler – very positive conclusion.
A still-stunned Schindler claimed the winner’s prize of $1,192,624 and the extras from the chop, leaving Merson with a runner-up windfall of $948,996.
Other final table pay-outs included:
3. Vanessa Selbst $607,580
4. Mustapha Kanit, $492,600
5. Robert Mizrachi, $389,720
6. Aleksandr Denisov, $295,920
7. Ole Schemion, $216,040
8. Joao Viera, $157,960