The Pokerstars $10 000 buy-in Caribbean Adventure main event moved into its fourth day Saturday, with tournament officials releasing some interesting statistics on the 2010 epic.
The record field of 1 529 entrants hail from 57 countries, with 739 players from the United States, 164 from Canada, 100 from Germany, 60 from Holland, 56 from the United Kingdom, 44 from France, 37 from Brazil, 27 from Spain and the same number from Sweden, 21 Argentinians and the same number of Italians. The remainder were undisclosed, although it is known that U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos and Bermuda pokerheads are in action.
Saturday’s action saw 62 players whittled down to 24 by the end of play, with Internet pro Ryan D’Angelo holding the chip lead on 6 million as the survivors close in on the final table. D’Angelo’s nearest rival is EPT founder John Duthie on 4.6 million.
The spread of wealth in the PCA was also illustrated when officials gave a breakdown on the distribution of the prizes as follows:
1st Place: $2,200,000
2nd Place: $1,750,000
3rd Place: $1,350,000
4th Place: $1,000,000
5th Place: $700,000
6th Place: $450,000
7th Place: $300,000
8th Place: $201,300
9th to 10th Places: $150,000
From 9th downwards the cashes are still significant – even the lowest earners – 217th to 224th places – will comfortably cover their buy-in with cashes of $15,000 each.
Like many of the top-ranking tourneys, the PCA will also be watched for the many prop bets between the top players in the event. It has been reported that Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey have some exciting and potentially expensive side action going on in which if one cashes then the other has to pay out that amount. PokerListings bloggers report that the Ivey-Dwan wager is a 100 percent bet.
That means that if Ivey makes the final table, Dwan will have to pay out at least an extra $150 000…and if he actually wins, he will double his PCA main prize of $2.2 million by receiving another $2.2 million from Dwan. And of course the converse applies.