Home » News » PCA 2023: Canada’s Allan Barnes Wins BSOP Bahamas Main Event For $86,650, India’s Sriharsha Doddapaneni Finishes 9th ($9,300)

PCA 2023: Canada’s Allan Barnes Wins BSOP Bahamas Main Event For $86,650, India’s Sriharsha Doddapaneni Finishes 9th ($9,300)

Namita Ghosh January 25, 2023
3 Minutes Read

The 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) has been up and running at the Baha Mar Resort in Nassau, Bahamas, since January 22. The 13-day-long fest has crowned its first three champions. American pro Isaac Haxton shipped the $100K PCA Super High Roller for $1.082 Million (3-way deal) on Tuesday. Still, the Indian rail was glued to the $1,100 Brazilian Series of Poker (BSOP) Bahamas Main Event proceedings, where India’s Sriharsha Doddapaneni entered the final day`s play chip-leading the 37 players.

After over 15 hours of play, Canada’s Allan Barnes won the BSOP Bahamas Main Event for his maiden live title and a career-best $86,650, defeating Spain’s Vincente Delgado heads-up. Delgado took home the runner-up payday of $54,550.

A recreational player, Barnes is a regular in the Bahamas and has seven scores in the Caribbean. His first recorded cash came at the 2015 PCA Turbo Edition. “It feels very, very good. It’s a monkey off my back. I’ve had some cashes down here, and I’ve gone deep in some tournaments where I busted out before it really got exciting. This one here is a nice victory,” he said after winning his first-ever live tournament.

He added – “I wasn’t intimidated by the professionals. I’ve played enough poker, and I understand the game, so I know that if you’re patient enough, the cards will come to you, and tonight was the perfect example of that. At one point, I was at 400,000 in chips, and I climbed back to win the thing. It was all about patience and getting the money in at the right time.”

The Indian rail was keenly following Sriharsha Doddapaneni’s run. Arguably one of the most experienced Indian stalwarts, Doddapaneni has a long record of domestic and international scores and has titles like the 2019 WPT India ₹25K Big Bounty on his poker resume. In the 2022 WSOP Main Event, Doddapaneni posted a 249th-place finish ($46,800).

Chasing his first live title in over three years, the Indian pro made a late-night sprint on Day 2 to storm into the final day with a towering 1,087,000 (109 BBs). Early into Day 3, Doddapaneni won a 2 Million pot off Iliodoros Kamatakis.

As the field whittled down, Doddapaneni rallied among the chip leaders and held the fourth-biggest stack at the start of the nine-handed final table. A favorite to make a top-five finish, the Indian pro suffered a massive setback when his aggressive bluff on a dry board with queen-high got hero-called by Brunno Botteon, who showed ace-high. Doddapaneni lost a staggering 1.170 Million in the hand, and Botteon soon finished the job, eliminating him in ninth place with his cowboys holding out against the Indian pro’s ace-king. Opening India’s scorecard at the series, Doddpaneni banked $9,300 for his efforts.

The second Indian in the BSOP Main Event, PSPC Platinum Pass winner Rajat Sharma fell out of the money on Day 2.

The top 63 finishers earned a share of the $446,200 prize pool. Some notables who made the payouts included Poker Hall of Famer Maria Ho (20th for $4,100), Katie Lindsay (22nd for $3,550), Dinesh Alt (27th for $3,100), Satish Surapaneni (30th for $2,700), Andras Nemeth (32nd for $2,350), Day 1 chip leader Graydon Kowal (46th for $2,050), and PokerStars Team Online Team Pro Benjamin Spragg (60th for $1,850).

On the side, New Zealand’s David Yan overcame the 31-player field in Event #14: $50K 6-Handed to win the PCA title for $485,690 following a heads-up deal with Turkey’s Orpen Kisacikoglu (2nd for $458,058).

The nine-handed final table was set into motion following the elimination of Sebestian Toro (10th for $7,750).

Final Table Chip Counts

Steven Fandozzi – 3,050,000
Jonathan Little – 2,575,000
Maria Konnikova – 2,500,000
Sriharsha Doddapaneni – 1,820,000
Brunno Botteon – 980,000
Allan Barnes – 880,000
Vicente Delgado – 635,000
Mateusz Moolhuizen – 370,000
Christian Rudolph – 330,000

Final Table Recap

Early on the final table, Sriharsha Doddapaneni made a questionable bluff but got caught by Brunno Botteon, practically costing him a shot at the title. With almost 200K in the pot and the flop open , Botteon checked from the middle position to Doddapaneni, who bet 100K from the cutoff. Botteon took some time before calling. Botteon checked the turn to which Doddapaneni made another c-bet of 225K. Botteon called to see the completing the board. Botteon checked for the third time, and Doddapaneni quickly jammed, covering the 545K Botteon had left behind. Botteon went into a minute-long tank before flicking a chip in the middle. Doddapaneni revealed for queen-high while Botteon tabled a better , his hero call winning him the pot. Doddapaneni lost almost two-thirds of his stack in one blow, sliding to 650,000.

Shortly after that, Botteon opened, and Sriharsha Doddapaneni made it 175K from late position. Botteon bumped it to 300K, and Doddapaneni announced all-in for his remaining 850K. Botteon snap-called and the cards were on their backs.

Sriharsha Doddapaneni

Brunno Botteon

The board kept Botteon ahead, ending Doddapaneni’s Main Event run in ninth place.

Within 15 minutes, Mateusz Moolhuizen hit the rail in eighth place.

The players went on a dinner break, and shortly after play resumed, Vicente Delgado doubled up through Maria Konnikova.

Maria Konnikova lost some more of his chips to Jonathan Little. Down to crumbs, she hit the rail in seventh place, losing the remainder of her stack to Christian Rudolph.

Nearly 90 minutes later, Vicente Delgado dispatched Steven Fandozzi in sixth place, followed by another elimination, that of Brunno Botteon in fifth.

Christian Rudoph continued to rise up the ranks even as Jonathan Little got short-stacked. Little was sent packing in fourth place by Allan Barnes in a classic cooler, Little`s pocket kings busting to Barnes`s pocket aces.

Christian Rudoph quickly followed Little out in third place, his ace-nine bested by Barnes’ king-queen, that spiked a queen on the river.

Heads-up, it was Barnes starting out with 7,500,000 to Vincent Delgado’s 6,300,000. Delgado took an early lead but lost a massive pot to Barnes. The match ended quickly, and on the final hand, Barnes took it down after his hit a full house on the runout against Delgado’s .