One of the most anticipated poker festivals of the year begins today: the WPT World Championship. Once the action kicks off at the luxurious Wynn Las Vegas, the series will continue until December 23, as in the last two years. This year there will be a great novelty: the ClubWPT Gold $5 Million Freeroll. The buzz surrounding that latter event in particular has been incredible, with hundreds of players having already secured their Golden Passports to participate in the freeroll, with hordes more still clamoring to try and win their way in via various social media contests and promotions over the coming days.
The World Poker Tour and Wynn Las Vegas have combined to forge a successful and very popular alliance among poker players. This is demonstrated by the numbers from the last two editions:
WPT World Championship | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
Total Events | 23 | 29 | 46 |
Total Entries | 22,762 | 33,702 | TBD |
Total Prize Pools | $52M | $101M | TBD |
| Countries represented by event winners | 4 | 11 | TBD |
In this article we will be reviewing the 2022 and 2023 editions of the WPT World Championship, followed by Matt Savage (WPT Executive Tour Director), Tony Dunst (WPT commentator and champion) and Ryan Beauregard (Executive Director of Poker Operations at Wynn Las Vegas) sharing with us what they anticipate for this year’s edition.
READ MORE: 2024 WPT World Championship Full Schedule Revealed
The 2022 WPT World Championship Festival
WPT Prime Championship
The tournament at the festival that attracted the largest attendance was the WPT Prime Championship, which had 5,430 $1K entries and paid out $5.2M in prize money, more than doubling the $2M guaranteed prize pool. The winner was Stephen Song, who earned a prize of $712K.
The final table was defined as follows:
- Stephen Song (USA) – $712,650
- Lara Eisenberg (USA) – $481,500
- Young Eum (USA) – $354,000
- Alon Messica (Canada) – $265,000
- Albert Nguyen (USA) – $200,000
- Giorgii Skhulukhiia (Georgia)- $153,000
You can relive the exciting 3-handed action in the video below:
WPT Ladies Championship
The women-only tournament was well attended with 578 players taking part and the top 72 players splitting the $560K prize pool. The grand champion was Lina Niu, who won the biggest prize of her career: $105K. Second place went to “Game Of Gold” contestant Olga Iermolcheva, who won $70K.
The players who made the final table were:
- Lina Niu (Canada) – $105,136
- Olga Iermolcheva (Ukraine) – $70,008
- Dusti Smith (USA) – $51,538
- Cindy Spier (USA) – $38,380
- Kathy Liebert (USA) – $28,847
- Jamie Kerstetter (USA) – $21,934
The video below depicts some of the most notable hands from that final table:
The 2022 WPT World Championship
The festival’s richest tournament had 2,960 entries and awarded $29M in prize money, almost doubling the $15M guaranteed prize pool. The top 371 players made it into the money and the grand champion was Canadian Eliot Hudon, who took home a massive $4.1M after defeating Englishman Benny Glaser heads up.
The players who made the final table were:
- Eliot Hudon (Canada) – $4,146,400
- Benny Glaser (England) – $2,830,000
- Jean-Claude Moussa (USA) – $2,095,000
- Adam Adler (USA) – $1,608,000
- Frank Funaro (USA) – $1,301,000
- Colton Blomberg (USA) – $1,001,050
Watch the video below for some top-notch final table highlights:
These were all the champions of the festival:
| Event | Buy-In | Entries | Prize Pool | Champion | Prize |
| No Limit Hold’em | $600 | 2,999 | $1,559,480 | Sean Banahan (USA) | $136,220 |
| No Limit Hold’em | $600 | 310 | $161,200 | Constantinos Psallidas (Canada) | $27,179 |
| H.O.R.S.E. | $600 | 261 | $134,416 | Rafael Concepcion (USA) | $23,377 |
| No Limit Hold’em | $600 | 1,243 | $646,360 | Gerald Morrell (USA) | $101,415 |
| Limit Omaha 8 or Better | $600 | 269 | $138,535 | Calen McNeil (Canada) | $21,305 |
| Seniors Championship | $1,100 | 708 | $690,300 | Sergio Grosso (Canada) | $130,806 |
| Pot Limit Omaha | $600 | 297 | $154,440 | Eric Hayes (USA) | $30,423 |
| WPT Prime Championship | $1,100 | 5,430 | $5,267,100 | Stephen Song (USA) | $712,650 |
| 8-Game Mix | $3,000 | 131 | $360,250 | Esther Taylor (USA) | $100,000 |
| Pot Limit Omaha | $600 | 407 | $211,640 | Lawrence Berg (USA) | $46,307 |
| High Roller NLH | $25,200 | 108 | $2,700,000 | Ethan Yau (USA) | $894,240 |
| WPT World Championship | $10,400 | 2,960 | $29,008,000 | Eliot Hudon (Canada) | $4,136,000 |
| H.O.R.S.E. | $1,100 | 272 | $263,840 | Tyler Willse (USA) | $63,967 |
| Limit Omaha 8 | $1,100 | 228 | $221,160 | Allen Kessler (USA) | $52,104 |
| NLH Bounty Turbo | $1,100 | 368 | $351,440 | Unknown | $79,576 |
| No Limit Hold’em | $3,000 | 907 | $2,494,250 | Peter Cross (Japan) | $429,406 |
| WPT Ladies Championship | $1,100 | 578 | $560,660 | Lina Niu (Canada) | $105,136 |
| Mystery Bounty NLH | $1,600 | 3,715 | $3,529,250 | Federico Cirillo (Argentina) | $482,852 |
| No Limit Hold’em 6-Max | $3,000 | 391 | $1,075,250 | Rodney Turvin (USA) | $234,868 |
| NLH Progressive Bounty | $3,000 | 181 | $532,140 | David Peters (USA) | $532,140 |
| High Roller NLH | $10,100 | 144 | $1,440,000 | Dylan Linde (USA) | $434,304 |
| No Limit Hold’em | $1,100 | 736 | $721,280 | Cherish Andrews (USA) | $131,9132 |
| Tag Team | $600 | 119 | $61,880 | Nikita Kalinin + Giorgiy Skhuluhiya (Russia) | $9,742 |
The 2023 WPT World Championship Festival
WPT Prime Championship
Once again this event attracted the greatest number of participants, with 10,512 entries, making it the largest $1K buy-in tournament in World Poker Tour history. The prize pool was $10.1M, more than doubling the $5,000,000 guarantee. The top 1,310 players cashed and the winner was American Calvin Anderson, who earned the biggest prize of his career: $1.3M. Anderson has been playing the tournament circuit for 15 years and has earned $6.1M live and $7.7M online under the handle “cal42688”.
The players who made the final table were:
- Calvin Anderson (USA) – $1,386,280
- Aaron Pinson (USA) – $910,000
- Jay Lu (USA) – $675,000
- Jon Glendinning (USA) – $505,000
- Bob Buckenmayer (USA) – $380,000
- Valeriy Pak (Uzbekistan) – $290,000
You can relive the final table by watching this video:
Big One For One Drop $1M
The festival saw the return of the million dollar tournament that raises funds for the One Drop Foundation: the Big One For One Drop. Seventeen players paid the $1,000,000 buy-in and the top four shared the $15,810,000 prize pool. The champion was Belarusian Mikita Bodyakovsky, who earned his biggest ever live prize of $7.1M. He has earned $57.5M on the tournament circuit and is now ranked 5th on the All Time Money List.
Players who received prizes at the event included:
- Mikita Bodyakovsky (Belarus) – $7,114,500
- Mario Mosbock (Austria) – $4,663,950
- Dan Smith (USA) – $2,806,750
- Isaac Haxton (USA) – $1,224,800
Watch things play out at the final table here:
WPT Alpha8
Another tournament that returned for the 2023 WPT World Championship festival was the Alpha8 event, which registered 69 entries for $50,000 apiece and distributed $3,346,500 in prizes among the 9 finalists. The player who managed to get all the chips in the end was the Chinese Tony “Ren” Lin, taking home a prize of $1,045,781.
Among the High Rollers who cashed were:
- Tony “Ren” Lin (China) – $1,045,781
- Jason Koon (USA) – $669,300
- Martin Kabrhel (Czech Republic) – $468,510
- Biao Ding (China) – $334,650
- Seth Davies (USA) – $249,314
- Nikita Kuznetsov (Russia) – $192,424
- Brad Owen (USA) – $152,266
- Isaac Haxton (USA) – $125,494
- Justin Bonomo (USA) – $108,761
The 2023 WPT World Championship
The festival’s richest tournament ran from December 12-21 and had a massive $40,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. There were 3,835 buy-ins of $10,400 and the top 496 players cashed. Every player who made it to the televised final table of six received million-dollar prizes, and the big winner was Daniel Sepiol, who won his first World Poker Tour title along with a $5.2M check.
Four nations were represented at the final table, which you can watch in the video below:
- Daniel Sepiol (USA) – $5,282,954*
- Georgios Sotiropoulos (Greece) – $4,167,246*
- Andrew Lichtenberger (USA) – $2,798,700
- Chris Moorman (England) – $2,095,300
- Benjamin Heath (England) – $1,583,100
- Artur Martirosyan (Russia) – $1,207,000
*DEAL
These were all the champions of the festival:
| Event | Buy-In | Entries | Prize Pool | Champion | Prize |
| Limit Omaha 8 or Better | $600 | 152 | $78,250 | John Cernuto (USA) | $16,592 |
| No Limit Hold’em | $600 | 4,950 | $2,554,400 | Michael Rossitto (Italy) | $340,698 |
| No Limit Hold’em 8-Max | $10,000 | 77 | $770,000 | Ian Bradley (England) | $240,625 |
| Seniors NLH | $1,100 | 805 | $780,850 | David Larson (USA) | $141,385 |
| Mystery Bounty NLH | $1,600 | 3,421 | $3,215,740 | George Tomescu (Romania) | $500,202 |
| No Limit Hold’em 6-Max | $1,100 | 367 | $355,990 | Michael Berk (USA) | $70,045 |
| PLO/NLH Mix | $1,100 | 376 | $364,720 | Martin Kozlov (Australia) | $74,373 |
| WPT Ladies Championship | $1,100 | 457 | $443,290 | Lisa Costello (USA) | $85,297 |
| WPT Prime Championship | $1,100 | 10,512 | $10,196,640 | Calvin Anderson (USA) | $1,388,280 |
| ClubWPT Challenge | $500 | 239 | $102,770 | Wasim Assaf (USA) | $16,728 |
| Mixed Games 8-Game | $2,200 | 146 | $291,000 | Mike Leah (Canada) | $77,841 |
| WPT World Championship | $10,400 | 3,835 | $40,000,000 | Daniel Sepiol (USA) | $5,282,954 |
| H.O.R.S.E. | $1,100 | 286 | $277,420 | Maxx Coleman (USA) | $60,240 |
| Pot Limit Omaha | $1,100 | 547 | $530,590 | Mike Leah (Canada) | $99,916< |
| NLH Turbo Bounty | $1,600 | 403 | $382,850 | Shunsuke Tokoo (Japan) | $73,657 |
| NLH Progressive Bounty | $3,000 | 582 | $1,017,960 | Clemen Deng (USA) | $156,530 |
| No Limit Hold’em | $3,000 | 2,196 | $6,039,000 | Dennys Ramos (Brazil) | $1,001,377 |
| Limit Omaha 8 or Better | $1,100 | 209 | $202,730 | Nathan Gamble (USA) | $47,472 |
| High Roller NLH | $25,300 | 194 | $4,850,000 | Bin Weng (USA) | $958,279 |
| Big One For One Drop | $1,000,000 | 17 | $15,810,000 | Mikita Bodyakovsky (Belarus) | $7,114,500 |
| No Limit Hold’em | $1,600 | 2,109 | $3,036,960 | Frederic Normand (Canada) | $417,828 |
| Seniors High Roller | $10,000 | 162 | $1,539,000 | Daniel Lowery (USA) | $394,636 |
| No Limit Hold’em 6-Max | $3,000 | 572 | $1,573,000 | Dong Chen (China) | $290,048 |
| Dealer’s Choice | $3,000 | 77 | $211,750 | Nick Pupillo (USA) | $66,171 |
| WPT Alpha8 | $50,000 | 69 | $3,346,500 | Tony Lin (China) | $1,045,781 |
| Pot Limit Omaha | $10,500 | 123 | $1,227,233 | Quan Zhou (China) | $282,513 |
| No Limit Hold’em | $1,100 | 436 | $427,280 | Atanas Pavlov (Bulgaria) | $82,204 |
| No Limit Hold’em 8-Max | $10,100 | 133 | $1,330,000 | Joris Ruijs (Netherlands) | $359,099 |
| No Limit Hold’em | $1,100 | 250 | $245,000 | Adam Swan (USA) | $50,115 |
If you’d like to reminisce a bit more about last year’s festival, be sure to check out this article, plus we also highly recommend watching the documentary “The Ultimate Stack” about the 2023 WPT World Championship.
Looking Forward to the 2024 WPT World Championship
We reached out to Matt Savage (WPT Executive Tour Director), Tony Dunst (WPT commentator and champion) and Ryan Beauregard (Executive Director of Poker Operations at Wynn Las Vegas) to ask what they are looking forward to at this year’s festival, specifically during the debut of the ClubWPT Gold Invitational Freeroll. Here are their responses:
Matt: “I truly expect the WPT World Championship Festival to continue to be the gold standard for poker and with the partnership with beautiful Wynn Las Vegas heading into its third year it is a can’t-miss event for every poker player. The ClubWPT Gold $5,000,000 Freeroll promises to be the softest tournament in poker history filled with first time live tournament players who won entry from contests and drawing across America and Canada. The unique payout and format ensures 500 players will share in the massive prize pool.”
Tony: “I expect another huge turnout for WPT World Championship at Wynn this year, and I think the Prime event could be record-breaking. With the best European players in Prague and the high-rollers in Bahamas, I think the World Championship could be a surprisingly soft $10k event. Part of what’s cool about the ClubWPT Gold Freeroll is that 100 players who cash the tournament will also win a seat into the World Championship, and many people playing the freeroll have never played in a major tournament before. So there could be some wild tables!”
Ryan: “I expect the entire festival to be amazing; even better than last year. There are so many events, and so many exciting things happening that will create such an incredible energy in the tournament areas. On December 15, the entire World Championship field is going to witness someone winning a McLaren, compliments of ClubWPT Gold. It doesn’t get much more exciting that! The ClubWPT Gold Freeroll Invitational is going to be incredible and fun to watch. I’m so excited to see the variety of players. So many will be new to casino tournament poker, and for those that have dabbled this will most certainly be the biggest prize pool they have ever played for.”
Best of luck to everyone participating in the festival in Las Vegas! 🤞
Some extra fomo for y’all while you wait for these passport qualifiers 😇
Find our @ClubWPTGold booth from Dec 8 at @WynnLasVegas and spin our golden prize drum!
Comment your dream prize with #GoldenPassport for rungood 💛 pic.twitter.com/oubnfB1mvN
— ClubWPT Gold (@ClubWPTGold) December 3, 2024
