Outside the WSOP Main and One Drop Events, PSPC Sets Record for Largest Live Poker Tournament Outside the WSOP Main and One Drop Events, PSPC Sets Record for Largest Live Poker Tournament

Registration finally closed at the PokerStars Players No Limit Hold’em Championship at midday on Monday, and the numbers are official: In total, there are 1039 entries, setting new records for a high roller poker tournament.

With a $25,000 rake-free buy-in and $1 million added to first place, the total prize pool stands at $26,975,000. This makes it the 18th largest prize pool among live poker tournaments, and the largest $25,000 buy-in event.

Indeed, outside the iconic World Series of Poker Main Event and the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop charity tournaments at the WSOP and Monte Carlo, it is the largest poker tournament ever held.

As another point of reference, PokerStars’ previous record for its largest ever poker tournament was PokerStars Championship Barcelona in 2017 which, according to The Hendon Mob’s list of the largest poker tournaments, built a prize pool of $9,589,509.69.

The PSPC is almost three times bigger. In fact, even removing all the Platinum Pass entries, which amounted to $8 million injected into the prize pool, and the $1 million added to first place prize, the remaining players—all satellite winners and direct buy-ins—would still amount to over $17 million in prize money, still smashing both PokerStars’ and the $25k record.

With the added money, the first place prize will be $5.1 million—again, by far the largest prize PokerStars has ever paid out (and that almost certainly includes online games, including casino jackpots as well as the biggest online poker tournaments). It is among the 20 largest prizes paid out in live poker history.

You get the picture: The PSPC is big, and it smashed everyone’s expectations. Follow along for all the Day 2 action at one of PokerStars’ live-streaming options, read their blog, follow live updates from PokerNews, and follow on our social media. There’s a lot more action to come.

Biggest Prize Pools in Live Tournament History

Event Entries Prize Pool Winner First Place Prize
2006 WSOP Main Event 8773 $82,512,162 Jamie Gold $12,000,000
2018 WSOP Main Event 7874 $74,015,600 John Cynn $8,800,000
2010 WSOP Main Event 7319 $68,799,059 Jonathan Duhamel $8,944,310
2017 WSOP Main Event 7221 $67,877,400 Scott Blumstein $8,150,000
2011 WSOP Main Event 6865 $64,531,000 Pius Heinz $8,711,956
2008 WSOP Main Event 6844 $64,333,600 Peter Eastgate $9,152,416
2016 WSOP Main Event 6737 $63,327,800 Qui Nguyen $8,005,310
2014 WSOP Main Event 6683 $62,820,200 Martin Jacobson $10,000,000
2012 WSOP Main Event 6598 $62,021,200 Greg Merson $8,527,982
2009 WSOP Main Event 6494 $61,043,600 Joe Cada $8,547,042
2015 WSOP Main Event 6420 $60,348,000 Joe McKeehen $7,680,021
2007 WSOP Main Event 6358 $59,784,954 Jerry Yang $8,250,000
2013 WSOP Main Event 6352 $59,708,800 Ryan Riess $8,359,531
2005 WSOP Main Event 5619 $52,818,610 Joe Hachem $7,500,000
2012 WSOP Event 55 – The Big One for One Drop 48 $42,666,672 Antonio Esfandiari $18,346,673
2014 WSOP Event 57 – The Big One for One Drop 42 $37,333,338 Dan Colman $15,306,668
2016 Monte-Carlo One Drop Extravaganza 26 $27,437,564 Elton Tsang $12,248,912
PokerStars Players NL Hold’em Championship 1039 $26,455,500 TBD $5,100,000
2018 WSOP Event 78 – The Big One for One Drop 27 $24,840,000 Justin Bonomo $10,000,000
2004 WSOP Main Event 2576 $24,224,400 Greg Raymer $5,000,000
2012 Macau High Stakes Challenge Super High Roller 73 $23,511,128 Stanley Choi $6,465,560
Super High Roller Bowl 2015 43 $21,500,000 Brian Rast $7,525,000
2016 WSOP Event 67 – High Roller for One Drop 183 $19,316,565 Fedor Holz $4,981,775
2013 WSOP Event 47 – One Drop High Roller 75 $17,891,148 Anthony Gregg $4,830,619
Super High Roller Bowl 2017 166 $16,800,000 Christoph Vogelsang $6,000,000
2007 WPT Championship 56 $15,495,750 Carlos Mortensen $3,970,415
2013 GuangDong Ltd Asia Millions Main Event 639 $15,376,897 Niklas Heinecker $4,456,885
2011 Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure 71 $15,132,000 Galen Hall $2,300,000
Super High Roller Bowl 2016 1560 $15,000,000 Rainer Kempe $5,000,000
2010 Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure 132 $14,831,300 Harrison Gimbel $2,200,000