On day 3 of the $25K high roller tournament at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, it was Christopher Kruk who emerged victorious pocketing a total of $836,350 for all his efforts.
He was able to beat Jonathan Jaffe in a heads-up play. During the heads-up play, Jaffe was the overwhelming chip leader and has continued to increase his lead. While Jaffe had 180 big blinds in play, Kruk was able to just have 7 big blinds at one point. But in a classic game of one double up leading to another, Kruk was back in the game.
He was able to slowly chip away Jaffe’s stack and assumed the lead when Jaffe flopped middle pair but instead rivered two pair. Not long after, it was Jaffe who bluffed majority of his stack with a dry ace. It was Kruk who called him off using top pair and held the chip lead. It was on the last hand of the day when Jaffe had four of spades and four of hearts while Kruk answered back with Jack of spade and Jack of club.
Kruk has been playing in many high rollers events recently. He is known for his online play and his best performances behind the computer in 2017. From behind a computer into live high stakes poker, Kruk first made his first live tournament win at the PokerStars Championship in Barcelona in 2017. It was a €5,200 No Limit Hold’Em Hyper Turbo for €79,400. He went home with a total of $1,193,391 winnings from live tournaments before winning PCA in the Bahamas. After winning the latest tournament, he has already surpassed the $2 million mark.
What Else Happened During the Event?
The final table went underway by the end of day 2. However, it was Felipe Ramos who became the first player to fall. He ended up paying off Seymour in a big pot, and then doubled up Bonomo which left him with only five big blinds which he lost the following hand.
Then, it was Stefan Schillhabel who became the next one to fall since he can’t get anything going during the final day of the event. Schillhabel then got all his chips in the middle against Jaffe with an open-ended straight draw against Jaffe’s top set. The board was left with just six players after.
It was Mikita Badziakouski who came into the day with just 7 big blinds and climbed the ladder with a couple of positions. Though he looked poised to hang around after a double through Seymour, it was Jaffe who had a pocket of aces against his ace-nine that sealed the deal for him. After Badziakouski, it was Bonomo followed by Seymour that got eliminated in the race leaving Kruk and Jaffe to face off in the final table.
This kind of prestigious event attracts the world’s best poker players. However, there wasn’t enough room for everyone to join. For instance, even the defending champion Luc Greenwood wasn’t even around for this event. It could’ve been interesting if names such as Ryan Riess, Bryn Kenney, and Ben Tollerene were part of the event.
