A Platinum Pass Qualifier is Chip Leader
At the PokerStars Players Championship!
Spain’s Ramon Colillas leads the field with 1.9 million chips.
Breaking news from the floor of the conference hall of the Atlantis Resort & Casino, Bahamas: As it stands right now the chip leader of the PokerStars No Limit Hold’em Players Championship won his entry through the Platinum Pass system!
At the start of Day 3, a Platinum Pass winner seemed like a longshot; indeed, it looked quite possible than one would not make the final table. The field was down to just 25% Platinum Pass winners, and they were heavily weighted towards small stacks. None in the top ten was a Platinum Pass hopeful.
But now, out of the ashes, gallops in Spain’s Ramon Colillas. With 1.9 million in chips, he’s has the chip lead right now. Obviously things are moving fast, but it is still a big turnaround. And not far behind him is Alexandre De Zutter, another Plat Pass winner, with 1.2 million in chips among the 100 remaining leaders.
A PSPC winner from a Platinum Pass would be a huge coup for PokerStars, a particularly from a large, established and regulated European market like France or Spain. There’s a long way to go, but it’s a great sign that at least we’ll get some deep runs from a wide mix of players.
As always, keep up with all the latest updates from the PokerStars blog.
MILLIONS Online Will Return in 2019
After setting several records, partypoker is set to host MILLIONS Online once again in 2019.
A historic moment was created on December 4 as partypoker pulled off an incredible feat by setting the record for the biggest tournament in the history of online poker.
A total of 4367 entries were made across the five starting flights of the $5300 buy-in MILLIONS Online to create a mammoth prize pool of $21,835,000.
Portuguese player Manuel “Sheparentao” Ruivo living in the Netherlands took down the event last night with a massive $2,329,943 first-place prize which is also a record for the biggest prize ever awarded in an online poker tournament. He made a heads-up deal with Pim “ForMatherRussia” de Goede from Malta who also took home well over $2.3 million—the second biggest prize ever.
Two more players pocketed seven-figure prizes including the Slovenian player 'Scarmak3r’ who finished third for $1.3 million by qualifying via a $5.50 feeder satellite and winning almost 250,000 times the buy-in.
Apart from setting the record for the biggest online tournament prize pool and awarding the biggest prize, MILLIONS created several other mind blowing records.
Here are the following records which MILLIONS created:
The room has already made its plan to host another MILLIONS Online tournament in 2019.
“...following on from the success of the 2018 $20,000,000 GTD MILLIONS Online. 2019 will end with another phenomenal MILLIONS Online festival, where multiple millionaires will be made,” party wrote on its website.
However, no further details have been revealed yet including what the guarantee will be. Looking at how it went down, partypoker could return MILLIONS Online with yet another $20 million guaranteed if not more.
If they do, we’ll find out soon.
Knitting Mom Scores $30,000 Poker Package
Jennifer Carter knitted her way to a $30,000 Platinum Pass from PokerStars, granting her entry into the PokerStars Players No Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC) taking place in the Bahamas in January.
Watch & Learn: Phil Ivey Playing Short Deck Hold'em
Short Deck Hold’em, AKA 6+ Hold’em, is one of the hottest poker variants being played today, and courtesy of these highlights from the HKD 500k ($64k USD) buy-in Short Deck Event at the Triton Poker SHR Jeju 2018 series, you can learn from one of poker’s all-time masters, Phil Ivey.
OP-Poker Takes a Look at PokerStars VR
OP-Poker, a team of Twitch streamers and official ambassadors of PokerStars’ Power Up, was recently invited to have a look at PokerStars’ brand new upcoming Virtual Reality Product PokerStars VR held at EGX conference at Birmingham.
Watch: PokerStars Team Pro Liv Boeree's Recent TED Talk
PokerStars Team Pro Liv Boeree in her latest TED Talk gave a six-minute speech on how poker taught her three important lessons that can be used in life.
Rounders Turns 20
Continuing the celebration of Rounders turning twenty this year, The Ringer now brings us “Going All In: An Oral History of Rounders” —which doesn’t disappoint.
Molly Bloom To Speak At Unibet Open Bucharest
Unibet has announced that the Poker Princess, Molly Bloom, who’s “Hollywood high stakes poker game was the subject of the Oscar-nominated and critically acclaimed film Molly’s Game“ will be their special guest!
ICYMI: Phil Hellmuth's Grand Entrance at 2018 WSOP Main Event
Words escape me. Prepare yourself for the grand entrance from WSOP 14 time bracelet winner, Phil Hellmuth (as captured by PokerNews).
Do You Think This is Collusion?
This story still has the poker community talking. Real life poker couple Kristen Bicknell (who is signed by partypoker) and Alex Foxen made the final table of a tournament at The Venetian in Las Vegas last month. Their alleged soft-play and collusion has the poker community riled up with the likes of Doug Polk and Justin Bonomo still talking about it long after play finished up.
Doyle Brunson Will Retire From Poker After Last WSOP Outing This Summer
*Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson has announced his retirement from poker so that he can spend more time with his wife, who is in failing health.
Watch Chris Ferguson's Nothingburger Full Tilt Statement
It has only taken 7 years for Chris “Jesus” Ferguson to apologise for his part in the Full Tilt fiasco that followed Black Friday. He has finally commented via Vimeo. Check it out below.
Jaime & Matt Staples Win Prop Bet!
A year on from agreeing to a crazy prop bet with billionaire Bill Perkins, the Staples brothers have walked away with $150,000 and won their bet to get within 1 lb of each other.
#QUEENRULES At Unibet
Unibet have worked with creative agency FCB Inferno to release a custom deck of cards to accompany the launch of a new poker format where the Queen outranks the King.The project is intended to help draw attention to gender equality and unconscious gender bias in poker.
Daniel Negreanu: "Forget Books...Watch Twitch Streamers"
Daniel Negreanu has taken to Twitter to let his followers know that he thinks Twitch streamers are “more engaging and entertaining than a book”.
The Kevin Hart Hand Everyone is Talking About
You need to see it to believe it!
Watch: Kara Scott's Top 5 Poker Topics of 2017
888poker’s The Poker Brief with Kara Scott released its year in review episode last week focusing on the “top 5 topics that matter” in poker.
Welcome to a New Dawn: PokerStars Announces the PokerStars Player Championship
PokerStars has revealed the PokerStars Player Championship NL Hold’em event for January 2019.
Liv Boeree Stars in Video Sponsored by Hewlett Packard
Professional poker player and PokerStars sponsored pro Live Boeree appears in a video released last week about artificial intelligence and poker.
WATCH: Doug Polk Gives Advice on Avoiding Poker Scams
In Doug Polk’s latest video, the subject is all about “scams, hacks and angles” that players should watch out for in the poker community.
Phil Hellmuth Thinks He'd Have Made A Good US President
In this great interview with CardPlayer Lifestyle, Robbie Strazynski goes one-on-one with Phil Hellmuth ahead of the launch of his new autobiography “The Poker Brat”—which Hellmuth hopes will become a New York Times Bestseller—to really find out the man behind the famous name.
2017: The Year of The Durrrr Challenge?
It looks like 2017 might be the year that Tom “Durrrr” Dwan and Daniel “Jungelman” Cates can resurrect the Durrrr Challenge.