After five glorious day of action at the Atlantis Casino and Resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, PokerStars crowned a winner in the largest $25,000 tournament in history. Ramon Colillas from Spain banked $5.1 million for outlasting a field of 1.039 hopefuls at the PokerStars Players Championship. He defeated French pro Julien Martini heads-up for the victory Martini took home a little less than $3 million for a runner up share.
Ship it to Roman! You could've scripted a better ending if you are a suit from PokerStars. A Platinum Pass winner took down the first-ever PokerStars Players Championship at the Atlantis Casino and Resort in the Bahamas. Roman Colillas, a 30-year old trainer from Spain, won his seat by winning the Spanish leader board, which garnered him a Platinum Pass (valued at $30K, which included a buy-in to the $25K and cash for flights and redonkulous food prices).
In case you just woke up from a serious NYE bender, or woke up from a coma…. PokerStars hosted the largest-ever $25,000 buy-in tournament (with no juice and no rebuys/re-entries). They gave away 320 prize packages a.k.a. Platinum Passes worth over $8 million. The final tally was 1,039 for a total prize pool worth $26.4 million. The suits tossed in an extra $1M to first place, which paid out a whopping $5.1 million. The final six players would walk away with seven figures. Sixth place paid out a cool million. The runner up would bank a shade under $3 million. Not too shabby, eh?
The final day of the PSPC began with eight players seeking the glory and mountain of cash. American pro Scott Baumstein was the chipleader the previous day and went into the final day with the big stack. He would not go wire-to-wire and eventually bowed out in fourth place.
Also heading into the final day of action were French pro Julien Martini, Farrid Jattin, Talal Shakerchi, Jason Koonce, Marc Perrault, Roman Colillas, and Platinum Pass winner Marc Rivera from the Philippines.
British bankster Talal Shakerchi was the first player to bust on Day 5. He hit the road in eighth place and banked $509K. Farid Jattin from Colombia was the chipleader early in the tournament. Word got out that he owed Timex a large sum, which he was unable to collect for three years. Jattin banked $746K for seventh place, so he has plenty of cash leftover to clear his debt with Timex.
Marc Perrault busted in sixth place and he walked away with a seven-figure score worth $1.01M. American Jason Koonce hit the bricks in fifth place and he earned $1.3M. The other Yank, Scott Baumstein, bounded in fourth place, which paid out $1.65M.
Marc Rivera won his Platinum Pass by shipping an APPT event. He clearly had finishing skills, but he failed to close this one out. Rivera walked away with $2.1 million. His elimination set up a heads-up battle between France's Julien Martini and Spain's Roman Colillas. WSOP bracelet winner Martini came into the joust with a decent lead. The deck essentially hit him in the junk at the final table, which is why he became the player to beat. Colillas won a sick sick sick cooler with a full house over a flopped flush. Colillas caught a runner-runner boat. On the final hand, Martini's 
was no match against Colillas' 
.
Martini banked $2,974,000 for a second-place score. I mean… wow. How many events pay out almost $3M to the runner-up?
Colillas won $5.1 million and the PSPC title. The Spaniard will become internet famous for his epic run in the Bahamas.
2019 PokerStars Players Championship
Buy-in: $25,000
Prize Pool: $26,455,500
Entrants: 1,039
Payouts: 181
Final Table Results:
1. Ramon Colillas (Spain) $5,100,000 **
2. Julien Martini (France) $2,974,000
3. Marc Rivera (Philippines) $2,168,000 **
4. Scott Baumstein (USA) $1,657,000
5. Jason Koonce(USA) $1,304,000
6. Marc Perrault (Canada) $1,012,000
7. Farid Jattin (Colombia) $746,000
8. Talal Shakerchi (UK) $509,000
** Platinum Pass winner
