When admission free of charge turns into a mountain of money, that's when it's okay to talk about optimal profit.
Barcelona's Ramon Colillas will have a tale or two on this particular subject to tell his grand-children – about how a synergy of skills, keeping his cool and the key ingredient of good fortune turned him a millionaire with absolutely $0 invested!
In the end, Colillas – who was awarded a free entry Platinum Pass for a poker tourney – walked away with a wealth of $5.1 million in his pockets!
So let us recap how he got there.
The historical event (that turned out to be doubly historical!) occurred in the Bahamas last week during the PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold'em Championship – this particular iteration was the “RICHEST AND BIGGEST ever $25,000 buy-in poker tournament,” as is underlined in the official press release.
Among the select 320 people who were given the free entry for the tourney organized by The Stars Group' poker brand was Mr Colillas himself...
...He was sent the $30,000 package which fully covered his travel and accommodation expenses at Atlantis Resort & Casino. In total, 1,039 players from all over the world have competed for a record-breaking prize sum of $26,455,500 – with an additional $1 million added to the first-place by the organizer!
And Ramon came out on top!
But it's not like he was simply gifted the free pass:
The 30-year old has been at the summit of Campeonato de España de Poker leaderboard after a series of successful PokerStars-sponsored tournaments in his native country. He was a professional poker player for only six years – before that, he was a fitness trainer.
Upon winning, Colillas was quoted as saying – quite collected and composed, given the situation: "A lot of players were saying this was the most important tournament in history, so now it's only about happiness and enjoying the moment.”
PokerStars Director of Poker Marketing Eric Hollreiser congratulated Colillas:
"We couldn't have scripted a better outcome for the tournament and PokerStars congratulates Ramon and all of the competitors for making this an historic event. Ramon's victory is a reminder that with a dream, some talent and a little luck, poker can change your life.
“We're proud to have created a special experience for more than a thousand players, but especially for those like Ramon who had never previously dreamed of playing in such a tournament."
The twenty-six and half a million in dollars prize pool was shared between 181 players and surpassed the previous record of $15,495,750 by far.
26-year-old Julien Martini from Paris was a runner-up – he won $2,974,000. Coming in as third was 45-year-old Marc Rivera from The Philippines who was awarded $2,168,000.
Source:
“Ramon Colillas Turns Free Entry Into $5.1 Million as Winner of Record-Breaking PokerStars Players Championship”, prnewswire.com, January 11, 2019.