Former top-ranked online player, Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen on Tuesday racked up the highest live tournament score of his career by topping a field with 43 entries and winning the Partypoker $25,000 Caribbean Poker Party Super High Roller in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Other participants included Partypoker Ambassador Kristen Bicknell, Fedor Holz, Rainer Kempe as well as Steve O’Dwyer – the tournament which was hosted by the Melia Caribe Tropical Resort recorded 43 entries that added up to a cumulative prize pool of $1,042,750.
Rainer Kempe joined Chris Hunichen to be one of the latest winners of the 2017 Caribbean Poker Party. Kempe had to defeat a field of 812 entries to get a shot at the Caribbean Poker Party Festival $1,100 MILLIONS Open Event which he took down to seize the first-place prize of $200,000. The German poker star further managed to score 912 Card Player Player of the Year points for his $200,000 win earning him his second title and his twelfth final table finish this year. So far, his 2017 earnings are at $2,651,132 which when considered alongside his 4,139 Player of the Year Points puts him at the 13th place on Commerce Casino and Hotel’s overall 2017 Player of the Year Leaderboard. Of all the five live tournaments that Kempe has captured in his career, this was the largest field size – all his other wins were in small-field super high roller events which include the $5,000,000 he won when he took down 2016’s Super High Roller Bowl $300,000 buy-in event. At the moment, his total lifetime live tournament earnings stand at over $11.2 million.
Of the 43 entries that were made in the $25,000 buy-in, $1,000,000 guaranteed Caribbean Poker Party high roller event, Chris Hunichen managed to outlast the stacked final table which in turn earned him the title as well as the $400,000 top prize. Two bullets into the poker game, Hunichen got to the stacked final table that included a couple of other poker heavyweights like Sam Greenwood, Adrian Mateos, Steffen Sontheimer, Rafael Moraes, and Sam Trickett. Sam Trickett won the first two eliminations amassing over half of the chips in four-handed play. Trickett’s luck, however, ran out when he put a lot of these chips back into the game before busting Adrian Mateos who was in the fourth place. Trickett’s stack shifted in favor of Hunichen and Greenwood who were able to get hold of huge chunks of it.
To secure his win, Hunichen began by eliminating all the others with Sam Greenwood coming second ($242,750), Sam Trickett following at third place ($165, 000) and Adrian Mateos attaining the fourth position at $110,000. 420 Player of the Year points were awarded to Chris Hunichen for this win – which also raised his rank in the overall standings to the 23rd.
Like Rainer Kempe, this win was the largest of his career and raised his total live poker lifetime earnings to $2,595,552. This amount when added to the over $10.1 million won playing online, puts Hunichen at the 8th position on the North Carolina all-time money list.
