Top Stories of 2024, #5: WPT Creates Something Special with $5 Million Freeroll

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Dec 27, 2024 7 min read

Since the inception of the World Poker Tour World Championships (WPTWC) in 2022, the WPT has consistently ensured that each edition of its flagship festival offers something extraordinary to promote the game and give back to the community that has made the WPT one of the most recognizable brands in all of poker.

The inaugural WPTWC set a new standard by featuring a $15 million guarantee on its $10,400 WPT World Championship—the largest guaranteed prize pool in live poker history at the time. Just a year later, the WPT shattered its own record, raising the stakes with an unprecedented $40 million guarantee for its December 2023 showstopper.

For the 2024 instalment, the trend of introducing a marquee feature continued. In the build-up for the 2024 WPTWC, the tour announced an innovative and exclusive event that had never been seen before in poker—the ClubWPT Gold $5M Invitational Freeroll.

An Event Like No Other

The WPT shared that 2,000 Golden Passports, the ticket needed for players to book their seats at the table, would be available to be won. Players could get their hands on one of the coveted passes by participating in qualifiers on ClubWPT Gold, the WPT's new online-based sweepstakes poker platform. Additionally, WPT ambassadors and poker content creators dished out Golden Passports through various competitions and giveaways. Even PokerNews sent one lucky player to the freeroll. From the get-go, waves of poker fanatics and people who'd never squeezed a pair of cards in their lives put a Golden Passport at the top of their Christmas wishlist.

It was a first-of-its-kind opportunity in the pokersphere, made even sweeter with the confirmation that the tournament winner would walk away with $1 million from the $5 million guaranteed prize pool. Of that $5 million, $2,895,100 went into the regular prize pool, while the rest was split between Mystery Bounty prizes, which featured a $100,000 top bounty envelope. A hundred WPT World Championship tickets were also among the other prizes.

"Originally, I think the discussion was what if we did a $2.5 million three-day event, and it just kept going up." reflected WPT CEO Adam Pliska as he explained how the freeroll came to fruition.

"We could really give back to the players through a mechanism that did not only give them a chance to really participate in something that was unique in the middle of the Championship festival but also, you know, get the life-changing money. It just injects a degree of enthusiasm into poker."

The tournament ran from December 13-15, and the players who won entry into the freeroll got even more bang for their back when almost a quarter of the Golden Passport winners failed to show up to Wynn Las Vegas.

On the morning of the opening shuffle-up and deal, the atmosphere in the corridors as players slowly made their way into the tournament room was something I'd never seen or felt before in my time of working in the poker industry. As WPT's Lance Bradley wrote, it really did feel like "first date vibes," as the Passport winners mingled and exchanged how they each got the chance to take part in something historic.

The player diversity was also something to behold. You had the biggest name in poker, Phil Ivey, in attendance, along with Dan "Jungleman" Cates, Brad Owen, Jamie Kerstetter and other figures in poker's echelons. Then you also had first-timers and amateurs. Many poker players commented it had a very local card room feel despite a seven-figure prize on the line.

Cards Go in the Air

At 10 a.m. on December 13, the ever-charismatic face of the WPT, Lynn Gilmartin, took centre stage to kick off the event. WPT CEO Adam Pliska, joined by key figures like Tony Dunst, Vince Van Patten and Matt Savage, followed with heartfelt thanks to the participants for their unwavering support.

Cards then went in the air, and the first story didn't take long to emerge. It was only fitting that the event's first elimination would be something truly remarkable and one that would be remembered for a long time.

Aaron Elam sent one player prematurely packing within the first orbit of play with a sickening bad beat. Elam, a world champion Halo player, picked up aces in the big blind and got his chips in the middle in a five-bet pot that also saw his opponent showdown aces.

Both players expected to chop the pot, but there was a glimmer of hope for the man aptly nicknamed "Ace" as he was freerolling to scoop the entire pot after the flop brought in two clubs. Elam, who held the A?, then picked up the flush draw on the turn. The river brought in a fourth club, giving Elam the checkmark and the perfect start to the tournament.

The pot propelled Elam to a 228th-place finish, good for a $1,700 payout, and the gaming legend can thank his Halo skills for sending him to the freeroll as he defeated WPT Global ambassador Patrick 'Egption' Tardif in a Halo contest where a Golden Passport was up for grabs. Who ever said that video games were a waste of time?

The initial field of 1,457 quickly began to near the 503 paid places, where the min-cash was $1,000. PokerNews Podcast co-host and two-time WSOP Online Player of the Year Mike Holtz was among those with a short stack on the stone bubble. In fact, his stack was so small that he was forced all-in from the big blind. Jack-four may have been good enough for Robbi Jade Lew once upon a time, but it marked the end of Holtz's journey as his less-than-ideal hole cards failed to prevail over Christopher Byers' aces and Poker Hall of Famer Eli Elezra's ace-ten.

When 290 players remained, the Mystery Bounties came out, which ranged from $500 to $100,000, and two six-figure envelopes were available to be won. Victor Avallone, playing to save his mother's home, took one of them. The other went to Josh Guindon, who joined the former on the final table.

By the time the final card was dealt on Day 1, the field was reduced to 49 players, with Floyd Achtzehnter taking the overnight chip lead. WPT Champions Eli Elezra, Darryll Fish, and seasoned grinders Femi Fashakin and Nick Pupillo were among the cohort to make it over the first hurdle.

However, that quintet of players were sent to the wrong side of the rail as Day 2 rapidly progressed to the final table bubble.

The final hand of the second stage saw Ivan Tsao ship in his 1,500,000 stack. Chip leader Gheba called from the small blind for the cards to go on their backs. Tsao tabled ace-five of hearts but was dominated by Gheba's ace-ten. A five came on the flop to give Tsao the lead, but Gheba found running clubs to make a flush and bring the curtain down on Day 2.

ClubWPT Gold Player Walks Away with Luxury Sports Car

Leading up to the freeroll, ClubWPT Gold held prize drawings offering players a chance to win Golden Passports to the exclusive tournament, along with exciting rewards like WPT chip sets, exclusive merchandise, and Wynn Field Club seats for the December 16 Las Vegas Raiders vs. Atlanta Falcons game at Allegiant Stadium.

Yet, one prize had every player talking. Up for grabs was a 2025 McLaren GTS sports car valued at an eyebrow-raising $240,000. Richard Wilson, a Las Vegas magician, was the fortunate recipient of the automobile.

“This is exhilarating. It smells amazing in here. My gosh,” Wilson said as he sat behind the wheel of the McLaren for the first time.

“I’m currently driving a 2010 Subaru Outback, so this is 15 years newer—and about $245,000 more expensive. It’s a big upgrade.”

However, Wilson opted to keep his current set of wheels and traded in the sports car for a $150,000 cash prize.

$0 'Misery Bounty' Steals the Spotlight on Final Table

A few hours after Wilson won the McLaren, the final table of the freeroll began. Gheba, the overwhelming chip leader at the start, bowed out in third. Despite missing out on the $1 million, he picked up a $200,000 bounty prize at the final table to soften the blow. The tournament was eventually won by Chase Bricker, after he bested Jason Christopher in heads-up play.

Christopher took $250,000, but he'll be remembered as the victim of one of the most elaborate trolls in poker.

Among the final table bounties, a cruel $0 was included and Christopher was the one to pull it from the briefcase. His reaction was quickly shared amongst the poker community and will be a huge part of the legacy that the freeroll created.

Pliska detailed why there was a $0 bounty in the mix at the final table, saying "If you go back to Steve Lipscomb and his business model of putting poker on television, he always said he wanted to do a five-act play and that poker was a Greek tragedy.

"Somebody was going to win $1 million — that's a story. And somebody else didn't get anything. But it's all part of the narrative. For the most part, it channelled some enthusiasm, and I think people are still talking about it."

Images courtesy of the World Poker Tour

Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game. Calum has written for various poker outlets but found his home at PokerNews, where he has contributed to various articles and live updates, providing insights and reporting on major poker events, including the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

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