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PSPC Crowns Shylko Champion to Cap Successful PCA

Written by: Jennifer Newell 5 min read
As the second PSPC in history began at Baha Mar in the Bahamas, we took a look at the winners of the high rollers to that point, as well as the BSOP Main Event and the PCA Main Event. Baha Mar was clearly the place to be. Poker players…
PCA and PSPC

As the second PSPC in history began at Baha Mar in the Bahamas, we took a look at the winners of the high rollers to that point, as well as the BSOP Main Event and the PCA Main Event.

Baha Mar was clearly the place to be. Poker players from around the world few to the resort to play, some even at the last minute as FOMO (fear of missing out) set in. The pictures of the huge tournament fields – not to mention the pools and beaches and palm trees and parties and you get the idea – were too much for some poker players to handle.

All of that was good news for the biggest event of them all – the PSPC. The second iteration of the wildly successful high roller tournament was ready to go.

PSPC In Numbers

The first day of the $25K buy-in NLHE Championship brought in 1,005 entries, though only 680 survived to bag chips. Registration remained open until early on Day 2, and that delivered another nine entries. That put the following numbers on the board:

  • Total entries: 1,014 (including 418 Platinum Pass winners)
  • Total prize pool: $24,843,000
  • Players paid: 175
  • Minimum payout: $35,100
  • Platinum Pass cashes: 68 for $7,794,690

From there, the field thinned to 255 on Day 2. The following day brought 175 players into the money and then ended with just 52 survivors. Day 4 brought it down to six, and Day 5 was the final table.

Shylko in PSPC

One of the players who made it to said final table was Aliaksandr Shylko of Belarus. His trajectory in the tournament was notable.

  • Day 1: ended with 94K in 264th place of 680 players
  • Day 2: ended with 450K in 22nd place of 255 players
  • Day 3: ended with 1.52M in 13th place of 52 players

Shylko didn’t take long to chip up on Day 4, busting Bruno Volkmann to sit on 2.2M, but he later lost a pot to Matthew Hunt to drop to 1.1M. He then fell below the million-chip mark before climbing back to 1.5M. Staying off the radar for a while, he carefully climbed over 4M. As Fedor Holz and Nadya Magnus busted, Shylko stacked up to more than 5.8M (third in chips) as the field condensed to just two tables.

The Belarusian then busted Tom Parsons in 16th place to stack 11.34M chips. Jeremy Ausmus and Sam Grafton were among the subsequent eliminations, as Shylko kept up with Nacho Barbero and Pedro Marques at the top of the leaderboard.

The final nine took to one table. Barbero busted Andrei Boghean, Shylko took care of Petar Kalev, and Philipe Pizzari ousted Thomas Eychenne. All the while, Barbero became a thorn in Shylko’s side as the former climbed to 19.3M chips by the end of the night.

The final day brought back the final six, with Barbero holding 19,325,000 and the lead, with Shylko in a distant second. The two remaining Platinum Pass winners were on the shortest of the six stacks.

Thumm doubled through Menzel on the first hand to stay in action. Soon after, Shylko won a huge pot from Barbero when the latter made an error while not paying attention. That put Shylko in the lead.

Pizzari took some chips from Shylko, but the latter climbed, courtesy of some chips from Marques. At the same time, though, Barbero was making moves, as he busted Thumm and chipped up through Marques and Menzel. Shylko fell to third in chips by the first break and appeared to struggle a bit, but he found his spot against Pizzari. He doubled through with A-T over A-K when a queen on the river gave Shylko the straight.

Pizzari busted Marques in fifth place and then Barbero in fourth.

The final three paused to discuss a deal, and they did agree to one. These were the payouts, with an extra $100K for second place and $200K and the trophy for first.

  • Shylko with 26.1M chips = $2,921,838
  • Menzel with 20.6M chips = $2,759,990
  • Pizzari with 14.15M chips = $2,524,871

Pizzari lost ground when play resumed, and Shylko lost the chip lead to Menzel. Shylko doubled through Menzel with pocket aces versus queens, but Menzel went on to eliminate Pizzari in third place. It took just one hand of heads-up to end the tournament, and Shylko’s full house beat Menzel’s straight.

The final table payouts for this PSPC were:

  • 1st place: Aliaksandr Shylko (Belarus) $3,121,838
  • 2nd place: Max Menzel (Germany) $2,859,990
  • 3rd place: Philipe Pizzari (Brazil) $2,524,871
  • 4th place: Nacho Barbero (Argentina) $1,551,300
  • 5th place: Pedro Marques (Portugal) $1,251,500
  • 6th place: Niclas Thumm (Germany) $1,001,200
  • 7th place: Thomas Eychenne (France) $801,000
  • 8th place: Petar Kalev (Bulgaria) $621,300
  • 9th place: Andrei Boghean (Romania) $449,700

 

Notable Winners Close PCA 2023

We listed many of the High Roller tournament winners in the last PCA rundown, but more events played out as the PSPC found its winner.

  • $250K Super High Roller: 39 entries / $9,498,060 prize pool / Sam Greenwood won for $3,276,760
  • $25K PCA High Roller: 187 entries / $4,444,055 prize pool / Ognyan Dimov won for $990,655
  • $100K NLHE 7-Handed: 46 entries / $4,508,460 prize pool / Isaac Haxton won for $1,555,360

Notably, Haxton closed out the high rollers with a win, just as he opened with one. Both of them were $100K buy-in tournaments, and they added up to more than $2.6M in winnings for those two events alone.

As the series came to an end, three women won tournaments, one of which was the obvious – the Women’s Event.

  • $330 buy-in Women’s Event: 79 entries / $22,989 prize pool / PokerStars ambassador Georgina James won for $6,539
  • $550 buy-in Mystery Bounty: 738 entries / $357,930 prize pool / ACR ambassador Monika Zukowicz won for $32,180
  • $550 buy-in Hyper-Turbo Freezeout: 79 entries / $38,315 prize pool / Alexandra Botez won for $10,815

 

 

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