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Some of the most popular Platinum Passes were handed out by PokerStars Christmas week. Joey Ingram, Arlie Shaban, and Jeremy Hilsercop tell the full story to [Removed:139] of the events that led to all three of them entering the PokerStars Players Championship.
There's no dinner break today; there are just these 20-minute breaks after every two levels. If you don't need to use the bathroom and already had something to eat, these breaks consist mainly of talking to your friends while waiting for play to resume. Maybe share a bad beat or two if you can find someone to hear you out.
We wandered around in the last break trying to get some quotes from players still in and offering a listening ear to those looking to share their misfortune.
Lew won a lottery-style promotion this morning, essentially getting a freeroll in a tournament he was already planning on playing: "I feel pretty good about it! I was super excited! I was in the room, and someone said 'you won the pass!' That's such random news. I got the call that I won it, and I was super excited. Pretty sick!"
The reaction on Twitter was one that one might expect: some said it was rigged! "It's not rigged; they actually had a video of them doing it," Lew said with a big smile. "Someone has to win the lottery, right? It can be me! It's possible!"
Lew is excited about the tournament: "This is an amazing event. The number is already at 918. I didn't expect it to be so big. I thought maybe 650. That's an amazing number already. Whether I'm sponsored or not, I would still play this event. It's going to be the biggest event of the year. It's nice to start of the year that way. I'm excited to see all these new faces. It's very good for the game, and it's very exciting."
Asked about the field with as many amateurs as there are seasoned pros, Lew said he thought the field was pretty good. "Of course there are a lot of tables that are pretty tough too, but it's a $25,000. Even some of the regs that are playing don't normally play this high. So that might make them a bit more uncomfortable too. It's a good event for sure, and you just need to play your best and not worry about the stakes as much as you can."
David Peters was one of the first ones to win a Platinum Pass, right here at the PCA a year ago. Peters was all smiled when we stuck our dictaphone under his nose: "It's great! This tournament is amazing!"
Peters had a pass to get the buy-in for free, something he kind of had forgotten about: "I actually went to buy in for the tournament and almost paid forgetting I was registered. I was like 'Oh yeah!' It's pretty cool to have it paid for."
Peters praises the tournament, not holding back in his wording: "This is probably the best tournament of all time. There's a nice mix; a lot of amateurs a lot of pros. It's a very amazing tournament. So many different kind of players. It's gonna be a lot of fun!"
Another high roller regular, Steffen Sontheimer had just as big a smile on his face. But, it would turn out, that was more of a charade. When asked if things were going well because he had such a happy expression, he said "Really? No not at all. I just lost 2.5 hours every single hand. But I like it if you don't feel that."
Sontheimer had an interesting comparison for this event: "It's just like a Main Event; just a bit bigger buy-in but the field is the same. It will be interesting to see when the payouts are announced because then everyone feels like 'Oh, it's five times a main event!'
Before the event, it was clear this event was going to be big. But how big? Celina Lin was amazed the tournament clock indicated nearly a 1,000 people had registered by the time the second break came around: "Amazing! I think it's a crazy turnout. I heard some guys on the plane going 1,500. I know that's a long stretch but I actually think 1,000 is such an amazing number. There's so many players that came out. Even from Asia. At least 15 players came out for it; that's a long way to travel."
Every player is looking for less experienced players. In tournaments with a buy-in of $25,000, those are usually hard to come by. In the PSPC, they are not as rare a sight. "I think there's a nice mix of players out there. If you have 2 or 3 value players at the table, that's good. But for a $25k, that's amazing! Usually, when you play a $25k, you get zero."
Lin already had a tough spot early on, facing off against Katie Lindsay. "The one hand that gave me a lot of trouble was against another girl. I flopped a set, and all the cameras were on me. I actually folded the river! She check-raised me all-in."
In any other event, Lin might have been inclined to call, she said: "If this was a $1k event or $2k, I probably call. But this is a $25k! I spent some time breaking down the hand very thoroughly and I came to the conclusion that I was beat. Just let it go. I actually got redemption for it two hands later; I had aces versus her ace-king to double up. I'm back to starting stack so I'm very happy to be still in. The structure is really really good, there's so much play!"
Since being diagnosed with leukemia in 2011, Damon Ferrante has used poker to enhance his quality of life. He chats with [Removed:139] about his daily mindset, and what winning a Platinum Pass has already done for him.
Andrew Neeme has quickly become a household name in poker, recently crossing the momentous 100,000 subscribers milestone on his YouTube channel after vlogging for just over two years. Now, the mid-stakes grinder vlogger extraordinaire and member of Team Run It Up finds himself in unfamiliar territory — playing in a $25,000 buy-in tournament.
Before the event, Neeme was getting dialed in.
“Feeling a big mix of excitement and nervousness," he told PokerNews. "I’m trying to not get too carried away because it’s Day 1 here and I expect today to go fairly slowly. It’s hard to not look too far ahead and just get too far ahead of yourself.”
While he's not a total stranger to bigger buy-in no-limit hold'em tournaments, having played the $10K WSOP Main Event, it's still a bit of a jump from his regular mid-stakes cash games.
“This is 2.5 times the biggest tournament I’ve ever played; normally I don’t play $25K events. Normally I play cash games and the occasional $1,500 and the [WSOP] Main Event is usually the biggest of the year for me.”
Unlike many other mid-stakes players who had to dry fire the PSPC, Neeme was gifted one of the coveted $30K Platinum Passes from PokerStars after co-hosting the YouTube Vlogger in Paradise challenge with PokerStars Pro Jeff Gross. They gave out two passes to the winning vloggers, Oliver Biles and Matt Kiefer, and Stars rewarded the pros with an entry of their own.
“We got a bunch of people involved in the YouTube vlogging world, and we had an awesome turnout of people that made submissions all over the world. As a result for spreading the vlogger love, [PokerStars] gave me a pass as well, so here we are.”
In terms of preparing for the biggest tournament he's played, Neeme is mostly relying on his extensive live poker experience.
"I have so much live poker experience and I’m going to definitely bank on that to carry me through some of the way at least.”
“I got into the lab a little bit here and there but I’m trying not to cram my brain too full of new things," said Neeme. "I think it’s tough to expect to just unleash all these new tricks that you learned recently. I have so much live poker experience and I’m going to definitely bank on that to carry me through some of the way at least.”
When it comes to playing in events above your comfort level, most pros make a habit of selling pieces, and the PSPC is no exception, even if it's a freeroll.
“I sold 20% on Stake Kings, I’m giving away 1% to each of the five finalists from the Vlogger in Paradise competition, and swapped an additional five percent; one percent pieces here and there.”
Neeme is prepared for the long tournament grind and expects an unprecedented mix of players.
“This is my first $25K so I expect there to be a really interesting mix of people in this event. We’re going to have a lot of people that have literally zero dollars on their Hendon Mob sitting next to people that have tens of millions of dollars on their Hendon Mob and I expect to just try to navigate my way through a table that looks like that, and hope for the best.”
So far it seems Neeme is following his game plan of taking it slow, hovering just under starting stack at the third break of the day. And his fans will surely be on the lookout a vlog or more on the experience.
Platinum Pass winner Aleeyah Jadavji takes some time to talk with [Removed:139] about the opportunity to play in the PokerStars Players Championship.
The PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold'em Championship has established a new record for a $25,000 event with 1,014 runners even as registration remains open for another 14 hours or so until the start of Day 2.
That smashed the old mark of 639 set by the 2007 WPT Championship. It wasn't a sweat to beat that number either, as the number was secure from the start of Day 1 and only climbed from there. It seems the $9 million in value added by PokerStars was simply too much to resist for poker players everywhere, as they flocked to Atlantis Resort by the hundreds for this one-of-a-kind event.
With a prize pool pushing north of $25 million, it's safe to say the tournament has surpassed any expectations the PokerStars team harbored.
Talal Shakerchi lapped the field on Day 1 as he turned his 60,000 starting stack into 425,300 when the bagging was done. That's far above nearest competitor Dan O'Brien, who finished with 301,200.
Shakerchi owed his huge stack to a pair of flopped sets that sent him rocketing to the top of the counts starting in Level 6 (300/600/600). He flopped a set of fours and turned a full house, setting Daniel Strelitz all in for 50,000 into a pot of about 40,000. Strelitz called off with only four outs, having flopped second pair, and he missed a river miracle to overcome the boat.
The next level, Shakerchi flopped another set, this time in a three-bet pot with deuces against jacks. All the money went in on the turn again, this time with Shakerchi fading only two outs. After a safe river, he was stacking 260,000 when most of the field was dreaming of reaching the 150,000 mark.
Other players to bag north of 200,000 included Shyam Srinivasan (254,000), Scott Margereson (221,600), Steven van Zadelhoff (210,000) and Kristen Bicknell (207,900). Srinivasan is no stranger to success here, having finished sixth and 10th in PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Events in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
Team PokerStars was also well-represented with Leo Fernandez, Chris Moneymaker, Kevin Martin, Lex Veldhuis and Jason Somerville among the 750 or so making it through.
Golf legend Sergio Garcia was among the busted, as were Joe McKeehen, Bryn Kenney, Erik Seidel, Steve O'Dwyer and Adrian Mateos. Those players will have to move on and find different tournaments to play as this one is a freezeout.
The PSPC continues Monday with Level 9 (600/1,200/1,200). Play resumes at noon, at which point registration will end, and PokerNews will be on hand for more live coverage.
