PokerStars announced that two Platinum Passes to the 2023 PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) will be up for grabs at the EPT London.

In the morning of Saturday, October 22, the Platinum Pass Flipout event presented the first $30,000 prize package. The second is now concealed behind a Mystery Bounty envelope as part of the EPT £3,000 Platinum Pass Mystery Bounty tournament, which begins later today at 3 p.m.

Spulber Awarded PSPC Seat

On Saturday morning, any player who had qualified online for either the £1,100 UK and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) Main Event or the £5,300 EPT Main Event was automatically put into the flipout event, the winner of which would get a Platinum Pass.

Each fortunate Platinum Pass winner will get more than $30,000 in value, including the following:

• $25,000 buy-in to the PSPC 2023 event
• 6 nights’ hotel accommodation for the winner and a guest in a 5* hotel
• Airport transfers
• Bespoke PSPC merchandise
• $1,900 in expenses
• Plus Platinum Pass winner experiences during the event

In a flipout tournament, each participant is instantly all-in, and the person with the best hand after the runout progresses to the subsequent round. This procedure is repeated until a victor is determined.

The final table of ten players received their hole cards. The dealer then shuffled the following board: a-Diamonds-10-Hearts-6-Hearts-5-Clubs-a-Hearts. After the participants handed up their cards, it was revealed that the winner was Iosif Spulber of Romania, who had three aces after being dealt a-Spadesk-Spades.

The 32-year-old Software Engineer is an active member of PokerStars Ambassador Lex Veldhuis’ Twitch community and a self-proclaimed recreational poker player.

“I adore Twitch poker,” he said on the PokerStars Blog. “I believe it has several characteristics that make it ideal for streaming. It is so exciting that the whole crowd “invests” in deep runs, and the anticipation when something monumental is about to occur is wild.”

While clutching the final reward, Spulber said to his rail, “This is the weirdest thing that has ever occurred.”

Hidden Platinum Pass in £3,000 Mystery Bounty

Juan Pardo and Henrik Veldhoem won the £10,200 Mystery Bounty and the £440 UKIPT Mystery Bounty Cup, respectively, in the first two Mystery Bounty competitions held at EPT London. The £3,000 EPT Platinum Pass Mystery Bounty, which starts in a few hours, will, nevertheless, be the focus of all attention.

Although the mystery bounty awards are only eligible for selection on Day 2 of the PSPC tomorrow, participants will still be eager to reserve their spots there, maybe even more so than they would be to win the top mystery bounty prize of £100,000 itself.

Day 1 of that competition begins at 3 p.m., and participants must make it through 12 levels of play to bag and tag a stack for Day 2. In contrast, they may skip the opening flight as late registration is still accepted up to the start of Day 2, which is on Tuesday, October 25. One of the mystery reward envelopes will contain a platinum pass, and only one fortunate player will get the epic bundle.

Throughout the Platinum Pass Mystery Bounty, the PokerNews live reporting crew will be on the scene, so be sure to follow all the developments to see who wins huge payouts.

Nakai Acquires Platinum Pass in Barcelona EPT

At EPT Barcelona in August 2022, Yamato Nakai was the first player to get a golden pass inside a mysterious package.

Toby Stone, the director of the EPT tournament, handed the trophy to an overjoyed Nakai, who was beaming broadly.

At the time, Nakai had only made a meager $15,848 from live performances, with his most recent win being at the EPT Barcelona event. In the Estrellas Poker Tour Main Event, he earned €3,340 after placing 313rd.

Source: www.pokernews.com