Ian Matakis made it 50,000 to go and earned a flat-call from Giuseppe Iadisernia in the small blind, the latter of which led the flop for 55,000. The call by Matakis followed and the appeared on the turn.
Within a few seconds, Iadisernia bet 80,000 and Matakis then used one time bank extension before raising to 240,000. Iadisernia instantly motioned to see the remaining stack of Matakis before he pushed all in.
Matakis had one time bank extension left and put it to use. With just four seconds remaining, he flicked in the call and the cards were revealed.
Ian Matakis:
Giuseppe Iadisernia:
With a gutshot and flush draw at his disposal, Iadisernia had plenty of outs but missed them all on the river. Matakis doubled for 455,000 and put a dent into Iadisernia's stack.
Jamil Wakil made it 55,000 to go on the button and Andre Marques as the shortest stack on the outer table in the small blind glanced at his cards. He then announced a three-bet to 335,000 with very few chips behind. Almost instantly, Wakil announced all-in and Mitchell Halverson followed that up with a "good luck".
Marques was still all smiles and responded "thank you" before he used the remaining time bank extension on the pay jump.
"I have to wait because the guy has like eight blinds," Marques explained in table chat. He then called it off before the time ran out and the cards were flipped over.
Andre Marques:
Jamil Wakil:
"The seven is always coming?!" Marques exclaimed and had some back door equity on the flop, asking for a six or five. Nothing changed with the turn and river as the Portuguese had to settle for 18th place and $59,100.
Just as the night was wrapping up, action was heads up with more than 500,000 in the middle and a full board of and Jamil Wakil was in the tank while facing a 400,000 bet from Mitchell Halverson. After a few moments of thought, Wakil tossed in the chips to call and Halverson turned over to take the pot with a set of tens.
While Andre Marques' elimination hand was taking place on another table, this hand was playing out on the feature table:
The flop was and Jonathan Little had only 50,000 behind. His opponent, Evan Sparling, had only 27,500 behind. They were stalling, using their time bank cards to delay action, while the all-in played out at the other table. Eventually, they both checked and the turn was the .
Another round of stalling took place and they both checked to see the complete the board. Once they learned a player had been eliminated in 17th place, ensuring a pay jump for the next bust-out, they got all-in and turned up their hands.
Jonathan Little:
Evan Sparling:
Little's pair of queens was good to claim the pot while Sparling was left with crumbs. He was all in on the next hand against Artur Martirosian in the small blind.
Artur Martirosian:
Evan Sparling:
Board:
Martirosian took the pot and ironically it was with pocket tens, the hand that cost Sparling most of his chips in the previous hand. He will collect $68,000 for his 17th place finish.
The 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) $10,300 Main Event is one step closer to crowning a champion. On Day 4 of the competition, the 54 returning players out of an 889-entry-strong field were cut down to the final 16 contenders at the lavish Baha Mar Resort in The Bahamas.
All semifinalists have locked up a payday of $68,000 for their efforts and a pay jump to $78,200 awaits after the next elimination. All hopefuls will have their eyes firmly set on the $1.5 million top prize in two days' time as a new winner in a major PokerStars-sponsored flagship tournament will be crowned.
Over the course of the next two days, the biggest slice of the $8,623,300 prize pool will be awarded and the top four on the leaderboard are separated by only ten big blinds. Portugal's Michel Dattani edged into the lead with 2,900,000 in chips, closely followed by Jamil Wakil (2,840,000), Christoph Csik (2,785,000), and Mitchell Halverson (2,650,000).
Place
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Michel Dattani
Portugal
2,900,000
116
2
Jamil Wakil
Canada
2,840,000
114
3
Christoph Csik
United States
2,785,000
111
4
Mitchell Halverson
United States
2,650,000
106
5
Artur Martirosian
Russia
2,285,000
91
6
Clint Tolbert
United States
1,950,000
78
7
Sergi Reixach
Spain
1,610,000
64
8
Alexandre Raymond
Canada
1,475,000
59
9
Ian Matakis
United States
1,200,000
48
10
Taylor Paur
United States
1,195,000
48
Rising Russian star Artur Martirosian (2,285,000) has 91 big blinds at his disposal. Sergi Reixach, who accumulated the most chips at the end of both Day 1b and Day 3, retained his chance at becoming a PCA Main Event champion and advanced with 1,610,000.
Ian Matakis (1,200,000) and Taylor Paur (1,195,000) are other well-known names to reside in the overnight Top Ten while Jonathan Little (1,195,000) and 2019 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event champion Alexandros Kolonias (900,000) can be found in the bottom half of the chip counts.
When the action resumes on Day 5 at noon local time Saturday, January 28, there will be 03:29 minutes left in Level 23. Returning blinds are 10,000/25,000 with a big blind ante of 25,000 but they will go up almost immediately to 15,000/30,000 with a big blind ante of 30,000. The penultimate tournament day is scheduled to play down to the final six contenders but that plan may be altered.
Dattani was an unlikely chip leader for the end of the night as he was right in the middle of the pack once the final three tables were set. However, a spectacular three-way all-in saw Dattani prevail with aces against the ace-king of PokerStars Ambassador Ramon Colillas and the pocket queens of Elias Gutierrez. Both Spaniards failed to catch any help and received $51,400 for their efforts.
Sam Grafton also represented the red spade on Day 4 but was among the very early casualties, finishing in 52nd place for $29,400. Three former EPT Main Event champions were aiming to add a PCA title to their resumes but Steve O'Dwyer, Anton Wigg, and Noah Boeken were all sent to the payout desk. Boeken fared the best among them but his dominated ace-seven was unable to overcome the ace-king of Giuseppe Iadisernia on the secondary feature table.
Other big names such as Dylan Linde, Justin Bonomo, Alex Kulev, Jesse Lonis, Laszlo Bujtas, Michael Rocco, Chad Eveslage, Chris Brewer, and Nick Petrangelo all suffered the same fate as well.
Maria Konnikova was the last woman standing and once more confirmed her run-good in The Bahamas with another deep run. After her final table appearance in the $1,100 BSOP Bahamas Main Event, the Russian-American writer bowed out in 30th place this time. Once more it was Venezuela's Iadisernia who dealt the final blow when ace-queen suited remained ahead versus ace-ten.
The final 16 hopefuls will return to their seats on the two feature tables at noon local time and try to reach the official final table for the grand finale on Sunday, January 29, 2023. You can follow along right here on PokerNews and on the PokerStars YouTube and Twitch channels with updates available on a 30-minute security delay.