The PokerStars Players NL Hold’em Championship (PSPC) drew a record-setting field of 1,039 entries to generate a huge prize pool of $26,455,500. The largest $25k buy-in tournament in history reached the money after the bubble burst in the 182nd place yesterday on Day 3. There are now just 38 players left in contention and all of them are guaranteed at least $86,400. The top 181 finishers are getting paid out in this event with a min-cash of $25,450 and a massive top prize of $5.1 million.
The USA’s Scott Baumstein (4,740,000) leads the final 38 into Day 4 . The second biggest stack is the U.K.’s Yiannis Liperis with a stack of 4,210,00. The other big stacks include Julien Martini (3,250,000), Louis Boutin (3,040,000), and the Platinum Pass winner Ramon Colillas (2,895,000).
Baumstein won the tournament’s largest hand. He called a 5-bet jam by Farid Jattin. Baumstein’s pocket queens held up against his opponent’s ace-king and the player scooped a massive pot that helped him to cross the 4 million mark. Shortly after that pot, he eventually took the chip lead.
Some notables left in contention include Platinum Pass winner Mikita Badziakouski – (1,910,000), Griffin Benger – (1,560,000), Jake Schwartz – (1,530,000), Day 1 chip leader Talal Shakerchi – (1,330,000), 2018 GPI Female POY winner Kristen Bicknell – (1,115,000) and Marvin Rettenmaier – (630,000). The Day 3 chip leader Farid Jattin – who lost a big pot last night in a Queens vs Ace-King scenario to the chip leader Scott Baumstein, is still in the contention with a stack of 640,000 chips.
Day 3 Play
207 survivors from the 1,039-player starting field began Day 3 and it took a little over an hour-and-a-half for over a dozen of them to hit the rail, with Team PokerStars Pros Celina Lin and Leo Fernandez, Darren Millar, Omar Del Pino and Frank Ditz being among the unlucky ones. Ditz actually exited the tournament in a kings versus aces scenario, before the bubble was reached.
Money Bubble
A few hands later, the bubble came. Ireland’s Paul Leckey put his stack at risk versus Tianle Wang. Unfortunately for Leckey, he held kings and Wang had aces. Leckey exited as money bubble in 182nd place. As a consolation prize, he got a free entry into EPT Monte Carlo this coming spring.
After Bubble, the day saw another 143 entrants exiting the event, with Platinum Pass winner Dariusz Paszkiewicz becoming the last elimination. It was a big day at the PSPC with over 24 Platinum Pass winners making money along with a host of notables, including all 3 brothers – Luc Greenwood (98th for $39,500), Sam Greenwood (49th for $69,100), and Max Greenwood (47th for $69,100).
The final 38 players will return today at 12 noon to battle it out for the top prize $5.1 million. Out of these, 10 are the Platinum Pass winners. Each one of the final 38 is guaranteed at least $86,400.
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 3 End:
| 1.Scott Baumstein | 4,740,000 |
| 2.Yiannis Liperis | 4,210,000 |
| 3.Julien Martini | 3,250,000 |
| 4.Louis Boutin | 3,040,000 |
| 5.Ramon Colillas | 2,895,000 |
| 6.Luigi Knoppers | 2,715,000 |
| 7.Jack O’Neill | 2,525,000 |
| 8.Jason Koonce | 2,235,000 |
| 9.Luke Marsh | 2,065,000 |
| 10.Marc Perrault | 1,935,000 |
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