Jake Schindler has won $1,192,634 after winning the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) 2014 $25k NLH High Roller Tournament. He had to beat Greg Merson heads up in order to win the title.
When the heads up match between Greg Merson and Schindler began, the two made a deal. They set aside $200k of the prize pool and split the rest so that Merson would definitely win $948,996 and Schindler would get $992,624 depending on their chip stacks. According to the terms of the deal, the winner would receive the $200k prize, the trophy, and a Slyde Swiss watch worth $17,500.
During the last four hands of the heads-up match, Merson bet all-in without checking his cards and Schindler decided to do the same on the last hand. Schindler later said:
That was his idea. At first, I was going to wait for a good hand to call with, Q-7 or better, but I didn’t feel like waiting anymore.
After winning the championship title and the large first place prize, Schindler, who was born in Pennsylvania but resides in Florida, said: “I’m pretty numb right now. I don’t know to think. I’m kind of speechless.
On the third day of the tournament, the player field of 247 had boiled down to just eight. Among the finalists were Robert Mizrachi, Ole Schemion, and Merson. Last year, female poker player Vanessa Selbst defeated a field of 204 players to win more than $1.4 million. In PCA 2014, Selbst had finished in the third place and won a prize of $760,640 in the $100k Super High Roller tournament, after which she made a deep run in the main event before folding in the 42nd position.
Expressing his opinion about the final table play, Schindler said:
I thought it was going to be pretty tough, which it definitely was. It was really hard to put them on hands and assess their ranges and what not. It was definitely a really tough experience but a really awesome one.
Stating that he had the most trouble from Selbst, he said: “She (Vanessa) just doesn’t give up. She’s super resilient. She keeps battling.”
Vanessa Selbst, who bust in the third place, won $607,580. The players who finished fourth, fifth, and sixth were Mustapha Kanit, Robert Mizrachi, and Aleksandr Denisov, who won $492,600, $389,720, and $295,920, respectively. The players who finished seventh and eighth were Ole Schemion and Joao Vieira, who won $216,040 and $157,940, respectively.
