Life-changing money will be handed out to the eight remaining players in the $25,000 PokerStars Players Championship on Thursday. Well, except for Talal Shakerchi who is already worth an estimated nine figures.
CardsChat ambassador Jacki Burkhart was unable to run up her short stack on Wednesday. She was the first to go on Day Four as she was eliminated by Kristen Bicknell in 38th place out of 1,039 entries ($86,400).
PokerStars Players Championship Made Dreams Come True
There have been numerous interesting story lines throughout this historic event. Hundreds of players got the opportunity of a lifetime, a shot to compete in a $25,000 buy-in event for free. And many of them certainly made the most of it. That includes Burkhart and also Michael Robionek whose story is almost unbelievable.
Robionek won a freeroll to earn his Platinum Pass and turned that into $150,600 for a 21st place finish. But even more important, he got to live out his dream of playing in a big tournament. Never before had he cashed in a live tournament and, likewise, he had never won more than a few bucks online.
PokerStars awarded 320 Platinum Passes worth $30,000 each ($25,000 for a PSPC ticket and also $5,000 for travel expenses). Many of those lucky winners, including Robionek, were amateurs who got an opportunity to face the pros in a high-stakes tournament, something they may have never been able to experience if not for PokerStars.
And then there Were Eight
Florian Duta from Romania was eliminated in ninth place ($405,000), so the final table is now set. The remaining eight players, which includes two Platinum Pass winners, are all guaranteed at least $509,000. The champion will get a nice cool $5.1 million.
PSPC Final Table Chip Counts
- Scott Baumstein (USA) 10,725,000
- Marc Rivera (Philippines)* 10,350,000
- Julien Martini (France) 8,600,000
- Farid Jattin (USA) 8,525,000
- Ramon Colillas (Spain)* 8,300,000
- Jason Koonce (USA) 7,125,000
- Talal Shakerchi (United Kingdom) 5,525,000
- Marc Perrault (Canada) 2,275,000
*Denotes Platinum Pass winner
Shakerchi is the only player left with much high-stakes poker experience. He has over $6 million in lifetime cashes and is a regular in high-roller events such as the $300,000 Super High Roller Bowl, which he finished in fourth place last month ($1.18 million).
Shakerchi, founder of Meditor Capital Management, is the only player left who isn’t about to receive life-changing money. Even if he wins the tournament, which pays $5.1 million, he’ll barely notice a difference in his bank account.
But even though he’s beyond wealthy, he loves the game of poker. So, winning this massive field tournament would still be quite an accomplishment.
Wednesday’s session began with 38 players and ended with eight. Among those who busted that we haven’t mentioned include former NFL Pro Bowler Evan Mathis (35th for $86,400), young high-stakes phenom Mikita Badziakouski (34th for $86,400), German star Marvin Rettenmaier (27th for $126,000), and 2016 November Niner Griffin Benger (14th for $229,700).
The final table starts at 1:30 pm ET on Thursday. Fans can watch every hand on a 30-minute delay over at PokerStars’ Twitch channel.
