Christopher Kruk wins PCA 25K High Roller for $836,350

(Photo: Pokerstars.com)

For a man who only started mixing it with the biggest live tournament high rollers in the game back in August, Christopher Kruk has already made a name for himself and yesterday he scooped the $25K High Roller at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas to lay claim to a place among the best.

His 6th place finish at the Super High Roller in Barcelona was followed by a 3rd in Prague in December and just a few days ago he cashed in 7th in the one-day $25k, so it was no real surprise when he was among the leaders in the extended version – Daniel Negreanu, Igor Kurganov and Jonathan Jaffe among his new table-mates in the high stakes world.

A huge 144 entries has ponied up the $25k buy-in this time, a mouth-watering $3,484,800 up for grabs as the PCA in Paradise Island draws to a close – everyone looking for a final big payday to finish off what has been a most spectacular festival.

With 20 of the field getting paid, notable names in the money included Isaac Haxton and Liv Boeree (15th and 14th respectively for $55,740 each) and Steffen Sontheimer (11t spot for $69,730) but the final table is where the big money lay, Canadian legend Daniel Negreanu bubbling it, walking away with $83,640 and a PS4 to soften the blow…

Those who did make it to the last 8 – including Justin Bonomo and sole German representative left Stefan Schillhabel – had to watch on in amazement as the US pro Jonathan Jaffe ‘decimated this finale, eliminating four of his seven opponents’ as Jack Stanton described it on the PokerStars blog.

This meant that what could have been a very late night with the world’s best fighting their traditional to-and-fro battle was reduced to a 5-hour knockout session, with Jaffe holding almost 90% of the chips by the time he was left with just Christopher Kruk to deal with.

Kruk, however, had ideas other than lying down and accepting his fate – doubling and doubling again before catching Jaffe out in a huge bluff, described by Stanton on the river as, ‘Jaffe fired huge for 1.9 million, and Kruk looked anguished. He would eventually make a great call with the A♣K♦ for top pair, while Jaffe had the A♠7♥ for ace-high. The chip stacks had completely reversed.’

When Kruk finally finished off Jaffe with picket jacks against pocket fours the reversal was complete, the victor telling reporters:

"I thought I played pretty well when the stacks got more even. Then when he was short, it was always going to go all-in. I was just lucky enough to have the jacks and not the fours."

As for his ‘shit’ interview, Kruk explained his relative non-appearance in US events, stating:

"It's a little tricky as I can't play tournaments in the States. Most guys say they want to win a [WSOP] bracelet but, as a Canadian with the taxes, it's impossible. I'll come and do my thing at the EPTs and hopefully I can keep running good!"

PCA 2018 $25,000 Single Re-entry High Roller