Day 4 of the $25,000 PokerStars Players Championship is over here in The Bahamas. We started the day with 52 players and played all the way to the final six contestants.
For the first time, every player that sat down today had already earned a payday. Early eliminations came fast and furious, partially a result of an extremely long bubble on Day 3 causing stacks to be shallower than usual at that point of the tournament. It helped that everyone had five figures to their name, too.
The story now shifts to the final six, who have all locked up over $1 million dollars. That's right, all six players are millionaires from this tournament alone. Congratulations are certainly in order, but there is still work left to do. There is over $4 million to play for at the top.
On top of the leaderboard sits Nacho Barbero with 19,325,000. He has 77 big blinds entering the fifth and final day to try and take down this marquee event and the astounding trophy that comes along with it.
Barbero was involved with nearly every pot on the final table after taking a commanding chip lead. With ICM implications and enormous pay jumps, he was bullying the smaller stacks relentlessly. When he did face resistance, he seemed to flop his way out of trouble time after time. Tomorrow, his path may not always be so easy with some strong players behind him in the counts.
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Counts | Big Blinds |
| 1 | Nacho Barbero | Argentina | 19,325,000 | 77 |
| 2 | Aliaksandr Shylko | Belarus | 12,200,000 | 49 |
| 3 | Philipe Pizzari | Brazil | 11,975,000 | 47 |
| 4 | Pedro Marques | Portugal | 10,475,000 | 41 |
| 5 | Max Menzel | Germany | 5,025,000 | 20 |
| 6 | Niclas Thumm | Germany | 1,800,000 | 7 |
It's very exciting to see that Two Platinum Pass winners have made the final table. Max Menzel (5,025,000) and Niclas Thumm (1,800,000) both entered the tournament via Platinum Passes and have now locked up seven figures.
There are a few great stories to highlight before we call it a night here. Tom Parsons made a deep run, cashing for $165,600 in 16th place. He was a Platinum Pass winner who won a scavenger hunt put on by Lex Veldhuis. That led to the beginning of his journey that took him here to The Bahamas. He was all in for seven big blinds on the bubble of this tournament when he woke up with pocket aces. They held, and he rode that double all the way to the final two tables.
Exiting just before Parsons was Nadya Magnus. If that name sounds familiar, she made a splash on The Big Game as the loose cannon back in the day when she made over $60,000 against some of the best in the world. She went on to make the deepest run of the ladies who entered the field, scoring $142,100 for her efforts.
Tomorrow, we will play down to a champion. Blinds will be 125,000/250,000/250,000 and play will continue starting with the first hand of Level 31.
Six players have locked up million-dollar paydays. Who will add a few million to that number and take this one down? Follow along with us tomorrow to see this one to an exciting finish.
Thanks, poker fans, we'll see you tomorrow.
