New Yorker Wins Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure Main Event

NEW YORKER WINS POKERSTARS CARIBBEAN ADVENTURE MAIN EVENT

14th January, 2025 at 03:03:41

Source: bluffed.net

$1.775 million winner's prize goes to day trader

John Dibella, a forty-three-year-old New York-based day trader and the oldest man at the final table, has seen off formidable opposition to take down the 2025 Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure main event after five tough days of highly competitive poker in the Bahamas.

Dibella's achievement was all the more remarkable because he won his seat in the competition on a $1 000 satellite, and he was an amateur player on a starting list of some 1,072 eager entrants, many of them accomplished professionals and aggressive young guns.

Seated at the final table with Dibella were Kyle Julius, Faraz Jaka, Xuan Liu - a Canadian who was the first woman at a PAC final table, Mark Drover, Anthony Gregg, David Bernstein and Ruben Visser.

The departure of Faraz Jaka, who had been dominant for much of the main event, in third place set the scene for some wheeling and dealing between Dibella and his heads up opponent Kyle KJulius10 Julius who agreed a chop which would give the runner up a bigger slice of the pie.

Once agreed, the two got down to business and an exciting match ensued in which Julius came close to taking the game. Dibella stayed calm and focused, however, and in the end took the honours, leaving his opponent with a $1.5 million consolatory second placing thanks to the deal the two had agreed earlier.

"I'm overwhelmed. It feels so surreal, and I can't believe it's happening," Dibella said after the match, revealing that prior to the 2025 PAC his largest live cash had been $16,000 at a previous PCA.

Xuan Liu turned in a creditable performance as the first woman to grace a PAC final table, taking home the fourth place purse of $600,000.

Also setting a new PAC benchmark was Anthony Gregg, who finished sixth and took home $364,000 and the bragging rights for being the first player to win a seat at two PAC final tables, which together have earned him more than $2 million. He was the 2025 PAC runner-up.