Day 5 of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure saw 21 players return to the felt to battle it out for one of the eight spots at the final table.
Among them were a crop of big-name pros that included WSOP, WPT and EPT champions, but in the end it was American Jerry Wong who bagged the biggest stack to take into the finale.
Wong, a poker professional from Pittsburgh, finished the night with 7.4 million, more than 100 big blinds at the 30k/60k level we'll be returning to tomorrow.
Sitting in second and third as far as stack sizes go are American Joel Micka and Russian Andrey Shatilov.
Next in line is Canadian Owen Crowe who has cashes on the EPT, WPT and WSOP to his credit.
Joining Crowe at tomorrow's finale are two other Canadians in recent WPT Montreal champion Jonathan Roy who's sitting with the smallest stack, and Yann Dion who final-tabled the Aussie Millions main event in 2012.
Here are the official final-table chip counts heading into the 2013 PCA main event final table:
1. Jerry Wong - 7,400,000 2. Joel Micka - 6,475,000 3. Andrey Shatilov - 3,220,000 4. Owen Crowe - 2,900,000 5. Joao Nogueira - 2,890,000 6. Yann Dion - 2,535,000 7. Dimitar Danchev - 1,995,000 8. Jonathan Roy - 1,525,000Charania, Mizrachi, Busquet Close but No Cigar
Day 5 of the 2013 PCA main event began with just 21 players and saw big-name players like Mohsin Charania, Robert Mizrachi and Olivier Busquet bust before the final table of eight were decided.
The second player out the door this afternoon was American Mohsin Charania, last year's EPT Grand Final champion.
The man known as chicagocards1 online began the day severely shortstacked and didn't waste much time before open-shoving from under the gun with pocket deuces. Two other players came along, one of whom flopped top pair with A-T to eliminate Charania.
Out shortly after was APPT title holder Eddy Sabat, another pro from the US.
Sabat has been posting solid results over the last year, highlighted by a fourth-place finish at the WSOP this summer worth over $300k.
Sabat got into a raising war with Darren Elias and watched helplessly as his A-K failed to improve against pocket jacks. Sabat took $56,000 for 17th place.
Getting even closer to the final table was Robert Mizrachi, brother of poker legend Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi.
Robert, an elite tournament player in his own right with a WSOP bracelet and over $4.2 million in earnings, busted in 12th after losing an all-in race with pocket sevens against A♦ J♦.
Following Mizrachi out the door in 10th was the 2012 WCOOP player of the year Mikal Blomlie.
Blomlie, who won his way here thanks to his POY victory, scored $120,000 but narrowly missed out on the big money at the final table.
And after a protracted period of nine-handed play it was Ryan "toetagu" Fair who went out on the final-table bubble.
Fair, who won the SCOOP main event on PokerStars in 2010 for $1.1 million, busted after getting all-in with A-6 against Joel Micka's A-T.
The final table begins tomorrow at 1pm EST when a PCA champion will be decided.
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