By WPT Staff
Nearly 1,500 hopefuls attended the WPT® World Championship festival at Wynn Las Vegas to participate in the largest freeroll in poker history, the ClubWPT™ Gold* $5M Invitational Freeroll. Following an exciting three days of poker, Chase Bricker became the newest WPT-made millionaire.
“Just a completely surreal moment. What an amazing three days. The tournament was incredible,” said Bricker. “Playing here at Wynn with my rail, just a first-class experience, something I’ll never forget. Obviously, my biggest score, life-changing money, so I’m living the dream right now.”
The first-ever freeroll of its kind ran December 13-15, allotted $5 million to the prize pool, and awarded a prize for players who finished in the top 503 spots. A total of 1,457 Golden Passport recipients participated in the extravagant event, which celebrated the launch of ClubWPTGold.com – the newest sweepstakes-based poker platform.
“I am still in awe at the overwhelming reception this event garnered from its inception to its finale,” said WPT CEO Adam Pliska. “We aspire to push the boundaries each year and do our best to invest in the foundation of the World Poker Tour®, the players, so I cannot thank the poker community enough for truly elevating the ClubWPT Gold $5M freeroll.”
Coming in second place during the televised final table was Jason Christopher, winning $250,000. He was preceded by Daniyal Gheba (3rd place – $125,000), Victor Avallone (4th place – $75,000), Patrick Eskandar (5th place – $50,000), Tyler Hancock (6th place – $40,000), ClubWPT member Josh Guindon (7th place – $30,000), Eric Zheng (8th place – $25,000), and Jacob Stufflebean (9th place – $20,000).
Along with the designated payouts, eight final-table mystery bounties were up for grabs. Bricker secured the most bounties with four, totaling $110,000. Gheba secured three knockouts and drew the most lucrative ticket worth $200,000, ultimately earning $235,000 in bounty prizes. And rounding out the bunch, unluckily, Chirstopher drew the one bounty worth $0.
adding $200,000 to his winnings. Before the final-table bounties, a separate batch was drawn from, in which each Avallone and Guindon pulled a $100,000 ticket.
