The biggest poker stories of 2019 - part 1
We begin our countdown of the most memorable stories of 2019 with two massive events, the end of an era and topless dealers in Malta.
The PSPC
In a way it was a bigger story in 2018 as the poker world spent 12 months trying to bag a Platinum Pass, but January's PokerStars Players No Limit Hold'em Championship was a huge success and really captured the imagination of the community.
Over 300 players won the coveted pass which included a $25,000 entry into the event with $1 million added to the first prize.
And it was a Platinum Pass winner who took it down, Ramon Collilas of Spain got there for free and defeated a field of 1,039 to win the $5,100,000 and later got PokerStars sponsorship.
It was a big enough success that PokerStars announced the 2nd incarnation of the PSPC will take place next year in Barcelona.
The 2nd biggest Main Event
The Main Event will always be one of the biggest stories of the poker year, especially if you are our new champion Hossein Ensan.
However, the bigger story this year was that it proved poker still had room to grow as it was the 2nd biggest WSOP Main Event in history.
Thanks to late registration on Day 2 for the first time and a record Day 1C, it attracted 8,569 players overall.
It was second only to the 2006 Main Event which attracted 8,773 runners, something the poker world might hope to beat in 2020.
PokerStars remove Power Up
PokerStars made a lot of changes in 2019, some of which we will return to later, but one big one was finally putting Power Up out to pasture.
They have experimented with a lot of new formats in recent years, most of which were only available for a limited time. Power Up, however, had a lot of investment and space on the front of the PokerStars client. Clearly they expected big things from it.
It was a mix of poker, Magic: The Gathering and Hearthstone. The aim was clearly to try and attract gamers to poker, but alas it was perhaps a bit too complicated for new poker fans to pick up.
MPN Network to close
Sad news for online poker fans this year as the MPN Network announced it would be closing in 2020.
After 16 years the network will play its last hand in May 2020, as well as having one last live stop in Madrid.
Keep an eye on this story in the new year as the fate of its 16 skins has not yet been revealed and no doubt we will see some of the other networks snap them up.
Shirtgate
It started almost as a comically misguided attempt at a bit of fun but quickly shined a light on the poor conditions live poker dealers sometimes had to endure.
Somebody at the Battle of Malta thought it was a good idea to make the male dealers work shirtless during the Ladies event for an extra €50, but literally nobody in poker agreed.
Very well said. One of dealers in High Roller told us he refused point blank and was taken off the Ladies event. This was one of the best top professional English dealers
— Dara O'Kearney (@daraokearney) October 20, 2019
If a positive came from the story off the back of it it was that the poker world got a glimpse into the struggles that some dealers faced, including low pay, poor hotel conditions, not getting tips and not being able to speak up for fear of losing work.
Stay tuned to PokerStrategy.com for the next part of the biggest poker stories of 2019.
What were your biggest stories of the year? Let us know in the comments:
