Yes, It's Free

Known as PCA, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is one of the premier live poker tournament destinations of serious online poker players around the world. The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure takes place every January in Atlantis at the Atlantis Resort and Casino, which is located on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. The PCA is part of four different PokerStars Tours, which are the newly started North American Poker Tour, the Asia Pacific Poker Tour, the Latin America Poker Tour, and the European Poker Tour and is the largest live poker tournament that is played outside of the USA. Due to the premier location and because it is part of three large poker tours, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure attracts many of the top names in poker.

The first PokerStars Caribbean Adventure was played in 2004 and was originally part of the WPT. While the PCA is played in a casino presently, it was originally played on board a cruise ship. The very first PCA fielded 221 players was won by one of the most feared tournament players in the world, Gus Hansen. In 2005, PCA came ashore and played at its home today (Atlantis), where the tournament field more than doubled. John Gale was the eventual winner of the 2005 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event and he took down over $890K in prize money.

In 2006, while the field did not double in size, PCA attracted over 720 players due largely in part to PokerStars giving away over $.5 Million in free entries to the event via free online satellites, which were played at PokerStars. First place went to Steve Paul Ambrose, who is part of Team PokerStars Pro. Steve won nearly $1.4 Million for topping the 720+ field. In 2007, PCA featured an American final table. In fact, poker players from the United States did quite well, as each of the top thirteen were US poker players. First place paid over $1.5 Million. Ryan Daut took down the 2007 PCA, besting the field of 937 players.

In 2008, another PokerStars Team Pro took down the PCA Main event. For the first time ever, PCA broke the thousand-player barrier. In fact, 1136 poker players were registered for the 2008 PCA Main Event. Bertrand Propeller (A.K.A. – Elky) outlasted the field and took down the $2 Million first prize. The PCA Main Event continued to grow in 2009, as nearly 1350 players registered in this record field. First prize for the 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event paid $3 Million and was won by Poorya Nazari.