The 2012 PokerStars PCA Main Event is down to the final day of play, as just eight of the original 1,071 players are still in the hunt for the title. While the fin al table didn’t produce any big-names, there are two young players who have the chance to breakthrough with a good showing at Friday’s final table.

The 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) has already proven one of my 5 Poker Predictions for 2012 with a dramatic decrease in the attendance numbers, now the PCA may be making yet another of my predictions a reality –that 2012 would truly be the Year of the Women in poker– as Xuan Liu is one of the biggest stacks at the final table.

Liu burst onto the poker scene last year with a 3rd place finish in the EPT San Remo Main Event, and the young Canadian is seen as one of the up-and-coming women in the poker world, a title that a final table at the PCA Main Event should cement.

Joining Liu at the final table will be Faraz Jaka, who has been on the cusp of poker greatness over the past few years. Jaka has proven to be as talented in the live arena as he was playing online under the screen-name “The Toilet” with back-to-back years of $1.8 million and $360k in tournament winnings in 2009 and 2010, Jaka dropped off the map a bit last year, but 2012 is definitely starting off good for him!

Jaka is still looking for his first major championship –in 2009 he finished 2nd and 3rd in WPT Championships, as well as a 3rd place in the $5k NLHE tournament at the WSOP– which should elevate him out of the second-tier category he currently resides in when it comes to sponsorships and mainstream recognition.

Joining Liu and Jaka at the final table are poker pros Kyle Julius and Ruben Visser, as well as 2009 PCA Main Event runner-up Tony Gregg, who would be very happy if he could improve just a single spot over that finish!

Here is a look at the seating assignments and chip counts for the eight remaining players in the 2012 PCA Main Event:

* Seat 1: Mark Drover – 1,430,000

* Seat 2: Tony Gregg – 1,160,000

* Seat 3: David Bernstein – 1,960,000

* Seat 4: Ruben Visser – 4,400,000

* Seat 5: Faraz Jaka – 6,470,000

* Seat 6: John Dibella – 3,465,000

* Seat 7: Xuan Liu – 6,355,000

* Seat 8: Kyle Julius – 6,450,000

The PCA Main Event final table will begin at 1 PM local time, with the entire final table streamed live at PokerStars.tv on a 40-minute delay –so not really “Live”, but live for poker!

Each of the remaining players is guaranteed at least $156k with the winner set to earn $2 million and the coveted title of PCA Champion.

Tags: Attendance Numbers, Caribbean Adventure, Coming Women, Cusp, Dramatic Decrease, EPT, Greatness, Jaka, Kyle Julius, main event, Mainstream Recognition, Poker Pros, Poker World, PokerStars, Seating Assignments, Sponsorships, WPT, WSOP, Xuan Liu, Year Of The Women

This entry was posted on Friday, January 13th, 2012 at 10:35 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.