The PokerStars Player’s No Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC) pierced the retinas of the poker people like a fierce ray of sunlight when it broke all records for a $25,000 event in 2018 (it beat the Triton Million for the Global Poker Award of Tournament of the Year). The PSPC became a sunset depiction of everything right with poker, a divergent theme at the time, and for PokerStars’ reputation in particular.
The $25,000 buy-in event attracted 1,039 entrants, 320 of whom qualified for the event via a Platinum Pass (a freeroll), one of whom was the event’s eventual winner, Ramón Colillas, who collected $5.1m and a PokerStars sponsorship for finding the temperament needed to win such a colossus competition.
After turning their sketch into a Renoir, PokerStars had a problem.
How do you follow-up?
At the back end of 2019, we had the answer.
PokerStars would hold a second PSPC, giving away another 320 Platinum Passes, only this time Barcelona would play hosts, not the Bahamas.
The Pandemic Hits
One month after Caesars Entertainment postponed the World Series of Poker (WSOP), PokerStars has done the same with the PSPC and the European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona.
PokerStars has pushed both events northwards to 2021 territory. In a show of good faith, the organisers will add a further 80 Platinum Passes to bring the total number of free rollers to 400.
The success of the inaugural PSPC came down mainly to the hard work of the PokerStars marketing teams. A pandemic cuts the artery of any repeat of those scintillating 12-months. Still, the whole feel of the second PSPC up until Covid-19 has been tepid.
Let’s hope that with the added value of 40-more Platinum Passes, PokerStars can inject more passion into this incredibly promising opportunity once we’re feeling safe to step outside of our front door for anything more than grabbing a bottle of almond milk.
“We realise that this news will come as a disappointment to many, but we know you will understand and appreciate why this is necessary,” Severin Rasset wrote on the PokerStars blog. “Our priority is the safety and good health of all our players and staff, as well as the communities that host such large events.”
The PSPC and EPT Barcelona are not the only Pokerstars events to go the way of a beard in West Point. The Road to PSPC Cannes, Road to PSPC Madrid and the Torrelodones, and 14 stops of the Manilla Super Series have also been swept into a pan heading for the trashcan.