Ognyan Dimov Wins PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $25,000 High Roller for $990,655

Ognyan Dimov has started 2023 in style, cashing four times at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure festival and capping that spree with a record-breaking $990,655 in points. Dimov secured that sum as champion of the latest $25,000 buy-in high roller no-limit hold’em event on the PC extension program, besting a field of 187 entries to capture his fourth live tournament title.

The bracelet winner and two times European Poker Tour The Main Event champion from Bulgaria now has more than $4.4 million in total earnings, placing him second on his home country’s all-time cashes list behind only Dimitar Danchev ($6,656,619).

Dimov took home 1,176 Card player Player of the Year points for winning. This was his second final table of the year, after finishing second in the $20,000 buy-in bounty event earlier in the series. The success of him at the PC extension it put it just outside the top 20 in 2023 POY extension race standings, which are presented by Global Poker.

The large attendance at the Baha Mar Resort & Casino in Nassau, Bahamas translated into a prize pool of $4,444,055. The top 27 finishers cashed, with big names like Bryn Kenney (27th), Michael Addamo (22nd), Martin Zamani (20th), Ryan Riess (15th), Ethan Yau (13th) and Joao Vieira (11th) running .

The third and final day started with 17 contenders remaining, with Ren Lin leading and Dimov in third position. As the field rejoined the final table, Lin held onto the lead while Dimov had slipped into the middle of the pack.

Two-time bracelet winner Elio Fox eliminated two-time bracelet winner Yuri Dzivielevski (9th – $116,400), before finishing in eighth place ($139,700) at the hands of Dimov.

Dimov broke pocket kings recently PC extension Pot-limit Omaha high roller event winner Dylan Smith (7th – $167,700) with pocket tens, winning a set that narrowed the field to six.

Lin then landed a couple of knockouts, picking up a flip against Mustapha Kanit (6th – $201,300) and picking up pocket aces against Brock Wilson’s pocket fours (5th – $261,700) to hold on to the lead going into the foursome action.

Kayhan Mokri’s (4th – $340,200) run in this event ended when her AQ couldn’t overcome Dimov’s pocket tens, who virtually tied with Lin as a result. Anthony Hu battled from the short stack to the lead, only to fall to the bottom of the chip count when Dimov caught a bluff from Hu to overtake the lead.

Hu moved all-in with KJ shortly thereafter and found himself at risk when launching into Dimov’s pocket eights. Dimov rivered a flush to eliminate Hu in third place ($442,300). This was Hu’s fifth POY extension-qualified to the 2023 final table, including a win in a GO Poker Cup high roller event. With 1,889 points and $980,200 year-to-date POY extension earnings, Hu rose to 10th place on the POY extension classification.

The final hand of this event saw Dimov min-raise to 200,000 on the button with Kings10. Lin defended her big blind with 76 and the flop brought 1086. Lin checked and Dimov bet 500,000. Lin check-raised all-in with hers and gutshots and Dimov called with top pair. The 8 time and K river saw Dimov fold to king to secure the pot. Lin secured $619,200 as a runner-up, the second highest finish of her career.

Here’s a look at payments and POY extension points awarded at the final table:

Photo credits: Manuel Kovsca / Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd.