Marques Tops Day 1a in 2023 PCA Main Event; Akkari and Dzivielevski Bag Big Stacks
The first of two starting days of the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) $10,300 Main Event has concluded and a field of 166 entries has been cut by more than half after completing eight levels of play. After a hiatus of three years, the operator returned to The Bahamas and switched locations to the luxurious Baha Mar Resort, which has already been home to large live poker festivals throughout the last few years.
In the flagship Main Event, it was Portugal's Andre Marques who topped the leaderboard with 197,500 in chips after a late surge to surpass Maximilian Silz (182,500). There is a significant chip gap to third-place Alberto Meran (155,900). The overnight top ten also includes some of Brazil's poker finest as Andre Akkari (136,900) and Yuri Dzivielevski (130,900) advanced with top five stacks.
Other familiar faces of the international poker scene such as Chance Kornuth and Steve O'Dwyer enjoyed a successful start as well.
2023 PCA Main Event Day 1a Top 10 Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andre Marques | Portugal | 197,500 | 165 |
| 2 | Maximilian Silz | Germany | 182,200 | 152 |
| 3 | Alberto Meran | Dominican Republic | 155,900 | 130 |
| 4 | Andre Akkari | Brazil | 136,900 | 114 |
| 5 | Yuri Dzivielevski | Brazil | 130,900 | 109 |
| 6 | Chance Kornuth | United States | 127,000 | 106 |
| 7 | James Harvey | United States | 113,100 | 94 |
| 8 | Steve O'Dwyer | Ireland | 104,800 | 87 |
| 9 | Diego Ventura | Peru | 103,300 | 86 |
| 10 | Thomas Muehloecker | Austria | 103,000 | 86 |
Akkari was one of several PokerStars ambassadors to enter the competition and he climbed into the top ten on the leaderboard in the final level of the night. This was in large part due to the elimination of Kitty Kuo, who ran into the pocket aces of Akkari, before the Brazilian further increased his stack before bagging and tagging.
Lose QQ << AA on last 15 mins day 1A https://t.co/QL2xOMFsEb
— kitty kuo (@kittykuopoker)
The only other PokerStars ambassador to advance was Sam Grafton (53,400), while Parker Talbot and Alejandro "Papo MC" Lococo both failed to advance. Veldhuis was among several players to fire two bullets but found no fortune as his dominated pocket pair failed to improve in the final level of the night.
Many other notables joined the rail throughout the eight 60-minute levels including Anthony Zinno, Dario Sammartino, Michael Wang, Alexandros Kolonias, Chris Oliver, Chris Hunichen, Pascal Lefrancois, Dylan Linde, Mustapha Kanit, Mikita Badziakouski, Nicholas Marchington, Pablo Brito Silva, Rodrigo Seiji, Fabiano Kovalski, and Artur Martirosian to name a few.
All those and many more of poker's biggest names are likely to join the action for Day 1b, which is slated to kick off at noon local time on Tuesday, January 24, 2023. A large turnout is expected for the second and final starting day. Whether or not the 865 entries of the 2019 edition will be reached and surpassed remains to be seen. Late registration for the 2023 PCA Main Event closes after the end of level 10 on Day 2 at approximately 3:40 p.m. local time on January 25.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor throughout this major live poker event and several other marquee events of the 2023 PCA series including the second-ever PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold'em Championship.