Paradise Island Poker Tournament
Table Of Contents
The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is no more.
- Paradise Island Tournament - March 30, 2020. Save hide report. Log in or sign up to leave a comment log in sign up.
- The only time I saw Texas Hold-em at Atlantis was a tournament., and these only accure from Dec/Jan. Meet Daniel Negreanu. Got him to sign a deck of cards.
- Guests of Atlantis have experienced dealers guiding you through an unforgettable gaming experience. On Paradise Island, beginning players and Atlantis high rollers alike quickly discover world class casino games—featuring a state of the art Race & Sports book with year round events ranging from blackjack tournaments to slot tournaments.
- Crystal Palace Casino: The 10,000-square-foot Crystal Palace Casino offers nearly 300 state-of-the-art coinless slot machines ranging from.01 to 25 and 16 table games including Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Midi Baccarat, Three Card Poker, and WSOP Texas Hold 'Em Bonus Poker.
After 16 years, most of it spent being one of the premier live stops on the international poker scene, PokerStars has opted to discontinue the event, according to reporting from PocketFives.
Vanessa Rousso To Teach Winning Poker Strategies On Paradise Island admin, December 11, 2009 8:59 am. Having earned over $2,300,000 from live tournaments including 11 WSOP cashes, a 1st place.
The relevant sentence comes at the bottom of the linked piece, in a quote from PokerStars Marketing Director Eric Hollreiser.
'It’s no secret that after 15 successful years, the PCA [prior to last year’s PSPC] has been losing momentum and there’s been increasing player criticism of the location,” Hollreiser said. “As such, we will not be returning to Paradise Island in 2020.'
History of the PCA
PCA began as a partnership with the World Poker Tour, taking place on a cruise ship in 2004 and hosting a field of 221 players. Poker legend Gus Hansen would ship the inaugural event, then a $7,500 buy-in, for $455,780.
The next year the PCA moved to its famous home at Atlantis Resort, the sprawling and opulent set-up that occupies almost half of Paradise Island.
Over the years there, the series would eventually evolve into becoming part of PokerStars' European Poker Tour, with the buy-in goosed up to $10,300. It would eventually stand as one of just a few remaining $10K main events on the overall live schedule, although the buy-in was dropped to $5,300 for a couple of years, including the one year the event was rebranded as PokerStars Championship Bahamas in 2017.
The PCA peaked in terms of prizes awarded in 2009, when little-known Canadian Poorya Nazari won a monstrous official first-place of $3 million, although it was widely reported thata deal had been struck at some point before the finish. In terms of entries, the PCA Main Event peaked during the two following years when 1,529 and 1,560 turned up, respectively.
The Main Event was far from the only big draw at PCA. It also hosted some of the first and biggest $100K events in poker before that was just another tournament in the procession of high rollers. The $25K High Roller was also usually one of the most well-attended on the calendar.
Declining Attendance
While the PCA for years could count itself a premier live poker stop, it had fallen on somewhat hard times in recent years.
After attendance peaked in 2011, the lack of online satellites available to North American players contributed to a large attendance drop back to 1,072 in 2012 — about two-thirds of the previous year's total. As the poker environment became tougher and edges shrank, the attractiveness of an expensive stay on an island resort went down as well.
A further drop of about 20 percent — from 1,031 to 816 — in 2015 convinced PokerStars brass to try lowering the buy-in to the aforementioned $5,300. The move did little, as a bump of about 100 entries just meant the prize pool dropped massively, awarding its first winner's prize below seven figures since 2005.
Things only got worse the following year, and 2018's return to $10,300 saw attendance drop in the number of entries to 582, a level not seen since 2005 as well.
The PCA received a major shot in the arm in 2019 when the PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold'em Championship was announced. While the landmark event would run alongside the PCA Main Event, the lure of the most lucrative $25K in history was enough to bring out plenty of grinders and push Main Event attendance back up to 865 for Chino Rheem's victory.
However, that always looked to be temporary fix given that the PSPC was thought to be a one-off and certainly looked unlikely to be repeated every year. With the news that the event will move to Barcelona for 2020, it was confirmed that there would be no similar life raft to keep the 2020 PCA afloat, and PokerStars opted to end the long-running event rather than risk continued decline.
Barring a reboot some time down the road, that means Rheem will go down as the final PCA Main Event champion, closing the books on one of poker's longest-running and most lucrative tournament series.
Tables of PCA Major Event Winners
Main Event
| Year | Buy-In | Entries | Total Prize Pool | Winner | First Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | $7,500 | 221 | $1,657,500 | Gus Hansen | $455,780 |
| 2005 | $8,000 | 461 | $3,487,200 | John Gale | $890,600 |
| 2006 | $8,000 | 724 | $5,647,200 | Steve Paul-Ambrose | $1,388,600 |
| 2007 | $8,000 | 937 | $7,063,842 | Ryan Daut | $1,535,255 |
| 2008 | $8,000 | 1,136 | $8,562,976 | Bertrand Grospellier | $2,000,000 |
| 2009 | $10,000 | 1,347 | $12,674,000 | Poorya Nazari | $3,000,000 |
| 2010 | $10,300 | 1,529 | $14,831,300 | Harrison Gimbel | $2,200,000 |
| 2011 | $10,300 | 1,560 | $15,132,000 | Galen Hall | $2,300,000 |
| 2012 | $10,300 | 1,072 | $10,398,400 | John Dibella | $1,775,000 |
| 2013 | $10,300 | 987 | $9,573,900 | Dimitar Danchev | $1,859,000 |
| 2014 | $10,300 | 1,031 | $10,070,000 | Dominik Panka | $1,423,096 |
| 2015 | $10,300 | 816 | $7,915,200 | Kevin Schulz | $1,491,580 |
| 2016 | $5,300 | 928 | $4,500,800 | Mike Watson | $728,325 |
| 2017 | $5,000 | 738 | $3,376,712 | Christian Harder | $429,664 |
| 2018 | $10,300 | 582 | $5,645,400 | Maria Lampropulos | $1,081,100 |
| 2019 | $10,300 | 865 | $8,390,500 | Chino Rheem | $1,567,100 |
Paradise Island Poker Tournament
$100K Super High Roller
| Year | Entries | Total Prize Pool | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 38 | $3,743,000 | Eugene Katchalov | $1,500,000 |
| 2012 | 32 | $3,136,000 | Viktor Blom | $1,254,400 |
| 2013 | 55 | $5,724,180 | Scott Seiver | $2,003,480 |
| 2014 | 56 | $5,433,120 | Fabian Quoss | $1,629,940 |
| 2015 | 66 | $6,402,000 | Steve O'Dwyer | $1,872,580 |
| 2016 | 58 | $5,626,000 | Bryn Kenney | $1,687,800 |
| 2017 | 54 | $5,239,080 | Jason Koon | $1,650,300 |
| 2018 | 48 | $4,737,600 | Cary Katz | $1,492,340 |
| 2019 | 61 | $5,918,220 | Sam Greenwood | $1,775,460 |
$25K High Roller
| Year | Entries | Total Prize Pool | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 48 | $1,200,000 | Bertrand Grospellier | $433,500 |
| 2010 | 84 | $2,057,998 | William Reynolds | $576,240 |
| 2011 | 151 | $3,775,500 | Will Molson | $1,072,850 |
| 2012 | 148 | $3,626,000 | Alex Bilokur | $1,134,930 |
| 2013 | 204 | $4,998,000 | Vanessa Selbst | $1,424,420 |
| 2014 | 247 | $6,051,500 | Jake Schindler | $1,192,624 |
| 2015 | 269 | $6,456,000 | Ilkin Garibli | $1,105,040 |
| 2016 | 225 | $5,400,000 | Nick Maimone | $996,480 |
| 2017 | 159 | $3,895,500 | Luc Greenwood | $740,032 |
| 2018 | 142 | $3,484,800 | Chris Kruk | $836,350 |
| 2019 | 162 | $3,928,500 | Martin Zamani | $895,110 |
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Paradise Island Poker Tournaments
Vanessa Rousso (27) AKA “Lady Maverick” is taking her poker talents on location after organising a series of boot camps designed to teach serious players professional poker winning strategies and give them an edge over their competition.
Rousso’s first boot camp is called “Strategy Symposium Under the Sun,” and gets underway at the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island January 10th 2010 before moving onto Biloxi, Mississippi on the 22nd where she will hold a two day seminar entitled “Poker Tournament Theory Boot Camp & Tournament.”
PokerStars pro Rousso said: “My biggest passion outside of playing poker is in teaching poker strategy. I love watching that light bulb go off in my students’ minds when they discover something new. It is very exciting when their confidence level improves as a result of implementing what they have learned at my boot camp. One of my students raked in $40,000 at the Main Event during the World Series of Poker!”
Vanessa Rousso is well qualified to improve players skill levels, having earned over $2,300,000 from live tournaments including 11 WSOP cashes, a 1st place finish at the 2006 Borgata Poker Open for $285,450 and this year winning the EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final for a $1,021,713 payday.
Noted for her glamorous looks as well as for her poker acumen, Vanessa has been a popular choice as host for a variety of shows including ‘PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge’ (FOX) and Poker After Dark (NBC). As the New Year gets underway Vanessa is looking to impart some of her immense poker knowledge and experience to those poker enthusiasts looking to realise their dreams of playing at the highest skill levels.
In other Vanessa Rousso related news, the enterprising and glamorous poker pro and soon to be Law graduate has appeared on the front cover of February 2010’s Hustler Magazine. The title proclaims “Poker Queen Vanessa Rousso Shows Her Hand,” but before you rush out and order a copy Vanessa is actually one of the few girls actually to keep her clothes on in the magazine and instead devotes her time to a two page article on poker strategy.