It was a record-breaking opening day for the $25,000 PokerStars Players Championship that saw the field eclipse the 1,000 entry mark, making it the largest $25,000 buy-in event in the history of poker. While many players may have had different aspirations on Day 1 of this exclusive event, the goal will likely be the same when Day 2 gets underway...make it to Day 3.
With around 750 players bagging chips and late registration remaining open until the start of play today, the money bubble still seems to be far off in the distance. The tournament staff will come up with the official prizepool and payouts shortly after the action gets underway, but there will likely be upwards of $25 million up for grabs, a life-changing number for most players.
The most successful player through the first eight levels of play was Talal Shakerchi, who bagged up a whopping 425,300 chips. Shakerchi is widely regarded as a hedge fund manager but definitely won't shy away from battling with the big guys at the poker felt. He has partaken in many high-roller events in the past and his record shows that he is not to be taken lightly.
Some other notables to keep an eye out with healthy stacks heading into the second day of action include Dan O'Brien (301,200) Scott Margereson (221,600), Steven van Zadelhoff (210,000), and Kristen Bicknell (207,900).
There are still plenty of PokerStars Team Pros in the field looking to claim victory in one of their own tournaments. Jason Somerville and Lex Veldhuis have taken time away from the live game for quite some time but couldn't pass up the opportunity to play in this event. Leo Fernandez, Chris Moneymaker, Kevin Martin, and Jen Shahade will also return for Day 2.
The action is slated to get underway at 12 noon again with another eight levels on tap for today. There will be a 20-minute break after every two levels, with the final break of the day being 30 minutes. The blinds will begin at 600/1,200 and a 1,200 big blind ante, allowing any of those players still waiting to register to begin with 50 big blinds.
There will also be a livestream available on Twitch which can be accessed through the 'Livestream' tab. The hole cards will be on display with a 30-minute delay. And, of course, you can keep up to date with all of the action right here as the PokerNews live reporting team will be on site throughout the entire festival.
Nils Pudel opened to 2,500 in the cutoff and was called by Kevin Martin on the button along with the big blind. The flop came and the big blind checked to Pudel who continued for 5,200. Martin raised to 17,200 which forced out the big blind and Pudel tanked a bit before announcing all in for 60,900. Martin responded with a snap call and the cards were on their backs.
Nils Pudel:
Kevin Martin:
While Martin was confident with his top two pair, Pudel flopped bottom set to hold the lead. The on the turn and the on the river did not improve Martin as Pudel scored a full double up.
Martin was left with around 17,000 and would go on to be eliminated just a couple of hands later.
The "First Lady of Poker", Linda Johnson, found quite the present under her Christmas tree. [Removed:139] chats with the Poker Hall of Famer about her Platinum Pass, and what she plans to do with her winnings at the PokerStars Players Championship.
When PokerStars announced the giveaway of a Platinum Pass to a poker media person and asked for nominations via Twitter, the support rolled in for the man behind one of the most helpful Twitter accounts in poker. Kevin Mathers, or “KevMath” as he’s known in the poker world, has become the go-to source for players in search of event details, random poker facts, and the like.
Kevmath is no ordinary mortal. His prompt answers to tournament questions seemingly around the clock prove this. While the Twitter guru has been spotted from time to time playing at the tables, Mathers lives his life mostly on the sidelines, snapping photos undetected and constructing informative and up-to-date tweets on the events that the poker world cares about the most.
I’d say the PSPC qualifies as one of those.
After missing out on the poker media Platinum Pass the first time around, Mathers was bummed but happy for fellow media grinder Aleeyah Jadavji. Less than two weeks later, Mathers was spending Christmas Day at his mom’s house and couldn’t believe what he found under the Twitter tree: a Platinum Pass with his name on it.
What about KevMath?
In their last-minute awarding of Platinum Passes, PokerStars decided that Kevmath should not miss the biggest $25,000 buy-in event in the history of the game. Just like that, he was getting ready to ship out to the Bahamas the following week. Without much time to prepare, Mathers told PokerNews he wasn't going to try to overthink it.
“I’m just going to play my game," Mathers said. "If I thought too much, I would have donked off my stack and I would have felt really dumb. My main goal is to get the min-cash at $25K; Anything after that is going to be great.”
"People are rooting for me and it’s really cool."
Just taking it one day at a time, Mathers had 85,000 from the 60,000 starting stack at the final break of Day 1 and said he would be happy to bag that amount coming back to blinds of 600/1,200 with a 1,200 ante. He was already doing some calculations, figuring on around 180 players to be in the money, setting his sights on that target.
“I definitely got a bit of a journey ahead of me.”
With some tough players at his table on Day 1 in Christoph Vogelsang and Niall Farrell, Mathers was focused on hanging in there for the final two hours of the day. He was successful, putting 75,900 in the bag at the end of the day to return with a healthy stack for Day 2 - and he was enjoying every minute of it.
“It’s pretty awesome," Mathers said of the support he had been getting. "I’m doing my updates, getting all the hearts and everything. People are rooting for me and it’s really cool. So I’m just hoping to ride that wave, to the min-cash and beyond, that’s all I’m hoping for.”
Team Poker Media Bands Together
The group of five finalists in the Poker Media Platinum Pass decided before the pass winner was announced that whoever won, would give each of the other four a 2.5% freeroll. Jadavji was awarded that pass and that meant that Lance Bradley, Nick Jones, Robbie Strazynski, and Mathers had 2.5% of Jadavji’s action in the PSPC. When the poker gods smiled down on Kevmath on Christmas Day, he decided to extend the previous freeroll agreement to the same fellow media finalists.
“Since I won a pass myself, I would have felt bad if I didn’t offer that same free 2.5% to those players.”
His appreciation and excitement for the chance to play in the PSPC is apparent, and not even playing in a $25K tournament can keep him from providing constant twitter updates for onlookers.
Level 5 hat:
— Kevin Mathers @ Atlantis (@Kevmath)
While most players bag at the end of a long day and head for a late dinner and some rest, Mathers’ work isn't done. After bagging on Day 1, he posted all the end-of-day tournament information and even offered to provide specific table draws for individual players looking for them. The Twitter guru confirmed to PokerNews that not even playing in the biggest tournament of his life could keep him from updating the people.
"I can't stop tweeting; it's in my blood. I can't not do it. It's my duty. It's what got me here. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the Platinum Pass so I gotta keep doing that."
Today, KevMath has a new table to battle as he rides the wave to the money with the Twitter world looking on.
The Day 2 PSPC Table Draw is now online at the @PokerStarsLIVE app. I get @TOPDOLLARMAN and @hathaipoker to start t… https://t.co/3UDwUjOJSs
— Kevin Mathers @ Atlantis (@Kevmath)
You can (and should) follow Mathers on Twitter @Kevmath for all the poker updates.
Within two consecutive hands, Umang Dattani and Maria Lampropulos sent their short stacks over to Theo Da Cruz Lima.
Hand #1
Dattani was all in and at risk in a classic flip with and Lima held the . The board came and Lima turned the straight.
Hand #2
The three-way flop of was checked by Christopher Kennedy in the big blind and Lampropulos in the cutoff. Lima bet 3,500 on the button and Kennedy called. Lampropulos check-raised to 12,000 out of a total stack of 26,000 and Lima reraised to 30,000 to force out Kennedy. Lampropulos called it off and the cards were turned over.
Maria Lampropulos:
Theo Da Cruz Lima:
The turn and river brought no miracle split pot for Lampropulos and she headed to the rail.
The prize pool has been made available to the players with an official registration count of 1,039 entries. The total prize money is $26,455,500, counting the $1 million added to first by PokerStars. The winner of the event will bank $5.1 million ($4.1 million plus $1 million added), and five other players at the final table will take home seven figures. A total of 181 places are paid, with a min-cash being worth $25,450.
Check the "Payouts" tab above for a full breakdown of the pool.
A big pot had built between Ramin Hajiyev in the big blind and Katie Lindsay in middle position and the completed board showed . Hajiyev had moved all in with the pot around 65,000 and Lindsay had approximately 60,000 behind. After some time, the clock was called on Lindsay and she was given 30 seconds to act once the tournament director arrived.
"I call," Lindsay said with few seconds left and Hajiyev rolled over for trips deuces, Lindsay only held for kings and deuces.
According to Hajiyev, he had defended and check-raised the flop from 3,000 to 9,200, which Lindsay called. Hajivev bet the turn for 20,000 and picked up a call before he put ultimate pressure on the river.
Lindsay quickly collected her belongings and headed out of the tournament area.
While Gustavo Kein and David Peters both entered the tournament via the Platinum Pass, you could say one player has a more distinguished poker resume. Kein from Argentina has a mere $22,700 in career earnings while Peters sits inside the top 5 all-time earners with over $29.5 million to his name.
However, once you sit down at the poker table, you can toss all those numbers away and put everyone on an even playing field. The two players were seated at the same table and got involved in a hand that saw Peters put himself at risk. The American shoved all in for 20,400 in the hijack and Kein pushed all in over the top from the small blind.
Gustavo Kein:
David Peters:
The board ran out and Kein got the best of Peters this time around, sending him to the rail prior to the first break of the day.
PokerStars has pulled of an incredible feat; organizing the biggest $25,000 buy-in event in the history of the game with 1,039 players signing up. The atmosphere in the tournament room was, as a result, more than good with smiles all around. One of the bigger smiles belonged to Lex Veldhuis when we talked to him on Day 1 of the event. And while he has since been eliminated, Veldhuis stands by his words on this event being incredible.
You're wearing a PokerStars patch so being excited about this event is mandatory, but I imagine you'd feel the same had PokerStars not been your sponsor.
Yeah, I think the response has been very positive, enthusiastic overall. We had a party for the Platinum Pass winners the night before the event started and I heard all these stories about how the people came here. I met the guy who qualified through my twitch stream promotion. I mean, it's incredible. The stories you hear; this is such a big thing for them.
"People from pure fandom level get to play an event like this, it's incredible."
People from pure fandom level get to play an event like this, it's incredible. You really sense that the people love it. There's a lot of chatter at the tables about it.
And, of course, there are the nerves. I had a guy at my table wearing sunglasses and a hat. I had no idea whether he was a qualifier playing an event like this for the first time, or an online pro. Then, when he raised for the first time, the chips almost fell out of his hand he was shaking so much. Yeah, that is kind of a tell for sure.
There are, of course, also Platinum Pass winners who'll play extremely solid, but just the whole event is sick. I said from the get-go I expected the event to get over 1,000 players, but it was more speaking about what I was hoping. It's just cool to start the year with an event like this.
There's a mix of players; from unexperienced qualifiers to top pros and from people that are taking a shot to people coming back from retirement not to miss out. What do you think about the field?
It's an excellent field. It's better than some $10,000 events. If you crushed poker four years ago but since haven't played as much anymore but coming back to play this one, that also adds to this event being so good. You see quite a lot of those players. But even though they haven't forgotten about everything, the fact remains that they haven't kept up to date on poker. A lot of stuff happened in the last four years; new little tricks have been discovered, certain spots are now better figured out. I like to think I'm better up to speed on such developments. I'm pretty confident playing in a field like this.
Where do you rank yourself in a field like this?
That's a tough question. When I walk through the tournament room, I don't recognize most of the online crushers. If you play the Daily $500s and are a regular in the $1,000 Sunday Warmup, you'll be better than me, and it's likely I won't recognize you. I'm not sure how many of these players are here, so it kind of depends. I think I'll do well against the rest of the field. If you have two or three of these guys at your table, it makes things tough. But in any other $25,000, there'll be at least five or six of them at the table.
So Top 5 percent of the field?
I don't think I'm in the group of best 50 players in this tournament, but Top 100 isn't a stretch I think.
Your hands don't tremble while playing a $25,000 buy-in event, even though you're not a regular in these things?
I fired two $25,000 bullets in the last WCOOP, but that was such a strong field I wasn't really even expecting to be winning in the long run. Even though the pots themselves were sometimes stressful, the overall feeling wasn't stressful.
I've played quite a few $2,000s and $5,000s last year, so I feel pretty confident about my tournament game. I know what my strong and weaker points are, I know from what kind of spots to stay away. I've also played a lot live in recent months and enough $25,000s in my life, so the experience is there. I've been here before so that releases some of the tension of playing in such an event.
"I don't think I'm in the group of best 50 players in this tournament, but Top 100 isn't a stretch I think."
Last year at the PCA, I interviewed you about your Twitch stream and how you kept reinventing yourself. Now, with 2018 behind you, how do you look back at your stream since?
It really couldn't be better. If I had only half of it, I would've taken it. I'm just thinking how great it's all been. I can't believe where I'm at right now with my Twitch stream.
The last five or six months I've been very consistent with my viewership numbers, it's been quite steady. It's hard to really grow fast.
Have you reached a ceiling when it comes to concurrent viewers?
No, not a hard ceiling. It's really up to me now to grow the poker directory on Twitch. With the numbers I'm now getting, I get pretty high up in Twitch's overall directory. When I stream on a Sunday and get 9- or 10,000 viewers, I make the Top 15 of Twitch's overall directory. That means that a lot of people who browse Twitch see my stream. Hopefully, they think 'oh cool, poker' and start watching. And those are the exact people I want to attract and the people I need to grow my channel. But that's a tougher demographic to reach and to get to tune in again, compared to those who are already poker fans.
I think there's a lot more potential in Twitch and poker. It's my goal for the year to get more mainstream attention for poker and introduce more new people to poker through my channel.
Do you think poker is important for Twitch just as much as Twitch is important for poker?
I think poker is unique to Twitch because people who are playing buy in themselves. They pay money to play and win money. When you watch a Hearthstone streamer, he or she is invited to a tournament because they're good at the game, but they don't have their own money on the line. That's unique to poker; the players are uniquely invested, and as a viewer, you can feel that. Sweating with someone who has money on the line is a different experience, I think.
Professional poker players need to try to not give away too much. On top of that, with 15 years of experience as a professional poker player, you must have seen it all by now. Do you need to act when on stream - screaming it out when you get a bad beat - or is that your true nature?
I think, when you're playing a competitive game, it's triggered automatically. The emotions come naturally. At least for me. When I lose a pot live, I won't be jumping out of my chair. But when you're at home, it's a lot different.
There are stories of Patrik Antonius throwing his computer mouse through the window after losing a pot playing online. The stoic Fin supposedly is as engaged as anyone when playing online poker.
Twitch gives people a view into the real life of an online poker pro. There's so much happening and with Twitch you get to see it all; the raw emotion. On top of that, the community fuels that emotion. When you win a hand and the whole chat explodes, you just feel the hype. You just go with it; you get fired up when something big happens and the community responds. I really see through their eyes how cool it is to be a poker pro. It's a poker party where everyone is hyped up when you go deep, and everyone is invited.
Talking about showing emotions in poker, a debate arose yesterday about players covering their faces in events like this. Christoph Vogelsang had his head buried in his hoodie, and Kenny Hallaert argued on his twitter that wasn't the way to go. Jake Cody, on the other hand, argued he would not object to his attire at all. Where do you stand in all of this?
Let me put it like this; I agree with Jake that I would never tell someone what to wear or force someone to be engaging at the poker table. But, if you bury your face in a hoodie, you're the last person I want to hear anything from in terms of what is and what isn't good for the game because you're not doing anything yourself to improve the situation.
"He has every right to play his game the way he does, but I have the right to have an opinion on that."
To be fair, I don't hear Vogelsang complain about 'what's good for poker' usually.
True, so I'm talking more broadly. There are people enough who are critical, who don't help their own cause by any means either. Someone like Vogelsang does nothing for the game but win, and he has every right to do so. But I don't enjoy watching it, especially not during an event like this. I would say we should all try to make things fun at the table, but that's no obligation. He has every right to play his game the way he does, but I have the right to have an opinion on that.
Do you take some extra effort in events like this to show Platinum Pass winners a good time?
Yeah, I might show a hand that I usually wouldn't, for example. And I might engage with some people at the table a bit more than I usually would. I think that's important in a tournament like this. That doesn't mean I don't take this tournament serious or that I don't play as hard as I can, but I do want to create a fun environment.
Busted 3rd hand of the day AA vs QQ. I don’t even know what to say anymore.
In a hand that occurred on the stream, Dimitry Urbanovich raised to 4,500 from under the gun with and was called by John Andress in the small blind who held . Phil Hellmuth was sitting in the bg blind who three-bet to 13,500 with . Urbanovich considered his options for a while and then opted to fold. Andress shoved with the bigger stack and Hellmuth snap-called for the 38,500 he had behind.
The flop came for Andress to hit the higher pair of queens immediately and Hellmuth shook his head.
The turn brought them the which didn't change the situation and Hellmuth got up from his chair already.
The river completed the board with the , Hellmuth shook Andress' hand and wished the rest of the table good luck before leaving the feature table stage while mumbling about the ace-queen call by Andress.
![[user339872]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
and the big blind checked to Pudel who continued for 5,200. Martin raised to 17,200 which forced out the big blind and Pudel tanked a bit before announcing all in for 60,900. Martin responded with a snap call and the cards were on their backs.
on the turn and the 
on the river did not improve Martin as Pudel scored a full double up. 
and Lima held the 
. The board came 
and Lima turned the straight.
river brought no miracle split pot for Lampropulos and she headed to the rail.
for trips deuces, Lindsay only held 
and Kein got the best of Peters this time around, sending him to the rail prior to the first break of the day.
. Urbanovich considered his options for a while and then opted to fold. Andress shoved with the bigger stack and Hellmuth snap-called for the 38,500 he had behind.
which didn't change the situation and Hellmuth got up from his chair already.
