PokerStars PCA roundup: Main Event attendance, and prelim winners

The 2013 PokerStars PCA is in full swing, and so far the 10^th Anniversary event has produced some highs and lows. Below you’ll find the biggest stories coming out of the first few days of the PCA.

Main Event attendance slides for the second straight year

While the attendance in the $100k Super-High-Roller dramatically rose, for the second straight year the attendance for the PCA Main Event dropped. The drop wasn’t the cliff-dive that the PCA attendance underwent from 2011 to 2012 (going from 1,560 entries to 1,072) but the “dip” was still over 100 players, as the PCA Main Event failed to break the 1,000 player mark for the first time since 2007.

Here is a look at the PCA Main Event attendance historically:

• 2004 PCA attendance (WPT Event) = 221 entrants
• 2005 PCA attendance (WPT Event) = 461 entrants
• 2006 PCA attendance (WPT Event) = 724 entrants
• 2007 PCA attendance (WPT Event) = 937 entrants
• 2008 PCA attendance (EPT Event) = 1,136 entrants
• 2009 PCA attendance (EPT Event) = 1,347 entrants
• 2010 PCA attendance (EPT Event) = 1,529 entrants
• 2011 PCA attendance (EPT Event) = 1,560 entrants
• 2012 PCA attendance (EPT Event) = 1,072 entrants
• 2013 PCA attendance (EPT Event) = 969 entrants (unofficial total)

Super-High-Roller awards $2 million first-place prize

Scott Seiver was the recipient of the largest tournament prize outside of the WSOP since the 2011 Aussie Million, beating a tough field of 47 players (with 12 reentries sweetening the pot) to win just over $2 million, the biggest win of his career, even bigger than his 2011 WPT Championship victory.

1. Scott Seiver — $2,003,480
2. David Sands — $1,259,320
3. Nick Schulman — $744,140
4. Cary Katz — $543,800
5. Philipp Gruissem — $400,700
6. Greg Jensen — $286,200
7. Vladimir Troyanovskiy — $257,580
8. Daniel Shak — $228,960

Dibella wins $2k NLHE preliminary event

2012 PCA Champion John Dibella has already booked a win at the 2013 tournament series, winning a $2k NLHE turbo event on Monday.

1. John Dibella — $69,780
2. Charles Yamaguchi — $40,700
3. Matthew O’Brien — $23,260
4. Joe Elpayaa — $17,980
5. Fabio Freitas — $14,280
6. Simon Higgins — $10,580
7. Adam Bennett — $8,460
8. Angelo Recchia — $6,340

Open-Faced Chinese tournament draws 59 entrants

Matching the turnout for the $100k buy-in Super-High-Roller, the first ever Open Faced Chinese Poker tournament was won by poker pro Peter Jetten, besting the 59 player field in the $2,000 buy-in event. The poker variant has been growing in popularity and with a strong turnout may find its way into other major tournament schedules.

1. Peter Jetten — $52,280
2. Nikita Nikolaev — $32,860
3. Maslak Konstantin — $19,420
4. Maxim Panyak — $14,200
5. Florens Feenstra — $10,460
6. Melissa Burr — $7,460
7. David “Bakes” Baker — $6,720
8. David Bach — $5,980