It was a frustrating day for Daniel Negreanu at the $25,000 WSOP Paradise Super Main Event. Starting Day 3 with 5,795,000 chips and sitting in 39th place out of 297 players, the GGPoker Ambassador had high hopes after a solid Day 2 performance. But the poker gods had other plans. Negreanu’s journey in the $26,000 event ended in Level 17 after a string of tough beats and what he described as a tilt-inducing runout of cards.

“I had no fun today at any point from the start. Once we sat down, nothing about this was fun for me,” Negreanu lamented after busting out in 170th place for $67,300.

The WSOP Paradise Super Main Event delivered all the drama on Day 2 as poker legend Phil Hellmuth became the unfortunate stone bubble. Hellmuth’s painful exit came after a rollercoaster day that saw the 17-time bracelet winner navigate short-stack territory, gamble at a critical moment, and miss out on what would have been a $50,000 min-cash.

The 2024 WPT World Championship has already kicked off in grand style at the luxurious Wynn Encore Hotel in Las Vegas, and Day 1 of the event has not disappointed. With a stellar field of players and some major names in the poker world, the tournament is shaping up to be a memorable one.

This year, a freeroll tournament has been added with a prize pool set at $5 million, with an additional $750,000 in added prizes, including a McLaren GTS worth $240,000. While there’s no guaranteed prize pool like last year, the massive turnout so far shows that WPT is all about the prestige.

Photo Credits: World Poker Tour

The air inside the Hilton Prague was electric as six players returned to chase poker glory in the €5,300 EPT Prague Main Event. What began as a record-breaking field of 1,458 was now down to its final chapter, with Romania’s Paul Runcan holding a commanding chip lead. Yet, the story belonged to Portugal’s Pedro Marques, who staged an extraordinary comeback to claim his first EPT Prague Main Event title and €963,450 after a thrilling heads-up battle.

Alongside the drama of the Main Event, Czech hometown hero Patrik Jaros delivered his own masterclass in the €10,300 High Roller, securing his second trophy of the festival. Here’s how both headline events unfolded in the Czech capital.

The Wynn in Las Vegas has become the epicentre of poker action, hosting a series of high-profile tournaments during the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship. Among the standout events is the historic ClubWPT $5,000,000 Guaranteed Freeroll, the largest freeroll ever staged, featuring a jaw-dropping prize pool, including a McLaren GTS and other incredible rewards. This one-of-a-kind tournament has drawn a thrilling mix of poker pros and amateurs, united by the dream of claiming poker glory. Meanwhile, the $10,400 WPT World Championship, the $1,100 WPT Prime, and the record-breaking $1,100 Ladies Championship add to the epic atmosphere, making the Wynn a true poker paradise.

ClubWPT Freeroll $5,000,000 GTD

The Wynn in Las Vegas is the place where the world’s largest freeroll is being played out. ClubWPT, one of the new additions to the world-famous brand World Poker Tour, surprised all poker players out there with a Freeroll tournament during the WPT World Championship. Not only does the prize pool guarantee a whopping $5M, but they keep on adding epic prizes such as a McLaren GTS car, and much more.

We’ve seen big names popping up throughout this event and one of them made it to Day 2 of the event. Eli Elezra, mostly known for his excellent mixed games skills and for winning the Season III WPT Mirage Poker Showdown and being a WPT champion, has an amount collected in tournament winnings which exceeds the total prize pool of this tournament. He was enjoying himself a lot at the tables and really was put to the test on several occasions. He mentioned in an interview he did with WPT that he hadn’t got much info about his opponents at the table as everyone qualified through giveaways and freeroll satellites. Eventually, he made a deep run in this tournament and was just shy of getting to the final day of the event.

The Final Nine

The tournament resumed this morning at 10 AM local time and was going to be played down until the final table. The final stage of the tournament, where the vast majority of the prize pool is being handed out to nine players who managed to secure their seats at that table. For most of them, this tournament is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to take down one of the most impressive tournaments in poker history. Where $1,625,000 is guaranteed to go out as prize money, a whopping $345,000 is reserved for the Mystery Bounties, ranging from $0 – $200,000.

Place	Prize Money
1	$1,000,000
2	$250,000
3	$125,000
4	$75,000
5	$50,000
6	$40,000
7	$30,000
8	$25,000
9	$20,000

We’ve added the total tournament earnings of all players to make it easier for everyone to follow along. It’s an exciting mix of poker pros and recreational players, all chasing their dream of making history as the winner of this prestigious WPT freeroll tournament. Stay tuned to our social media channels for exclusive interviews with the players before and after the final table is decided!

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Rank	Player Name	Chip Count	The Hendon Mob Cashes
1	Daniyal Gheba	11,725,000	$681,106
2	Jacob Stufflebean	5,175,000	$4,452
3	Patrick Eskandar	4,005,000	$1,657,783
4	Chase Bricker	3,175,000	$347,765
5	Victor Avallone	3,150,000	$0
6	Tyler Hancock	3,075,000	$466,810
7	Jason Christopher	2,850,000	$18,247
8	Josh Guindon	2,075,000	$76,929
9	Eric Zheng	1,500,000	$78,401

$10,400 WPT World Championship – Day 1a

The event where it is all about here at the Wynn in Las Vegas- The WPT World Championships! Whereas this time around the tournament is being held without a guaranteed prize pool, last year it had a guarantee of $40,000,000. It seems that many players do not consider this, to say the least, as many top professionals landed in Las Vegas in the last couple of days just for this event. Perhaps because ‘It’s in the name, not the game’! The World Poker Tour is one of the two leading brands in the poker industry when it comes to live poker, and carries an entire history of many great winners. Several of these WPT winners of the past have been around as well, such as Joe Serock, Eugene Katchalov, Eli Elezra, David ‘ODB’ Baker, Dan Sepiol (Winner 2023), Mark Newhouse, Chino Rheem, Justin Liberto, Mike Leah, Soheb Porbandarwala, Jack Hardcastle, Ryan Tosoc, Dylan Wilkerson, Ryan Riess, Bin Weing, and Masato Yokosawa.

At the moment of writing this article, the late registration had ended for the first opening flight of this event. A total of 751 entries have been made, and currently, 455 seats are being taken.

Other News

Where the WPT Prime is in full swing on the final day of the event, it’s the $1,1K Ladies Championship which is catching the eye. The WPT has overdone itself once again, breaking the record of the previous year when it comes to the total amount of entries. Respectively 485 this year, and 457 in 2023 when Lisa Costello took down the event for $85,297.

The WPT Prime event had a guaranteed prize pool of $5,000,000 and almost doubled in the end, thanks to 9,670 entries. At the moment of writing, there are still 3 players battling it out. We will dive deeper into this tournament with an extended version of the WPT Prime tournament tomorrow.

The PokerListings Experience

It has been a day for the books again! Going to Las Vegas for the first time twists your head a little due to the time difference. Not just that, it’s the continuous action here that keeps the excitement level at a maximum. Still, walking around the Wynn/Encore casino is truly moving, especially considering all the top professionals are all around. While walking through the long hallways of the complex, you need to be careful; it might just happen that you get run over by Mike Matusow in his mobility scooter.

The days are long here, almost endless. It’s very important to stay hydrated at first, as it’s still in the middle of the desert, but it’s of vital importance to make use of the excellent hotel room provided by the World Poker Tour. Absolutely amazing, if you’d ask me! Besides all the poker action, the World Poker Tour is taking great care of both the external and internal media crews. On December 17th, there is a dinner planned for all media platforms present at this event. Of course, PokerListings will be there to cover that special occasion as well!

See you all tomorrow!

The WPT World Championship event series kicked off already on December 3^rd, and the final hand will be dealt on December 23. While the $1K WPT Prime tournament is down to its final 100 players, the ClubWPT $5M Freeroll just kicked off with 1,450 players!

PokerListings is present at the Wynn/Encore resort in Las Vegas, as WPT invited us to create content to give people all over the world an impression of this wonderful event. While the vast majority of players here are from the US, we spotted a reasonable number of Europeans as well who joined in on this festivity called the WPT World Championship.

Melvin Schroen, content creator and social media manager of PokerListings, made the trip to Las Vegas a couple of days back and is now busy creating exclusive insights for the event. The WPT family is very welcoming, and everything is arranged perfectly inside out, which creates an incredibly comfortable working environment. Where it all started with the player’s party last night, of which we took a small piece as well, it now came down to the second flagship tournament of this week, the ClubWPT $5M Freeroll!

ClubWPT Freeroll – Hosting a massive prize pool of $5,000,000

From the very first moments that WPT and ClubWPT revealed a whopping Freeroll tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $5,000,000, all eyes were set on this event by every single media brand in the poker world. It directly caught the attention of players from all over the world, but this freeroll isn’t just for anyone to participate. It’s more kind of a private event, as only players who are registered at ClubWPT can join in on the action. You can figure it out for yourself when you know that to be able to register and validate your account at ClubWPT, you need to be residing in the US, or Canada*.

At the moment, there are 1,450 players sitting at the poker tables here in the Encore Las Vegas. They all started the day with 20,000 starting chips, while the blind levels were set to 100-100. We have seen plenty of big names already in the mix in this Freeroll, among them Phil Ivey, Mike Matusow, Dan Smith, Eric Persson, Dan Sepiol, Kitty Kuo, Brad Owen, Patrik Tardif, Xuan Liu, Vince van Patten, Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates, and Eli Elezra.

The whole event is one big show here in Las Vegas. Not just that, it’s a testimonial of the poker scene as well- Never it has happened to have a freeroll tournament where $5,000,000 in prize money is being divided. The pro players and ambassadors know that as well. Take for example Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates, who entered the poker room dressed as Willy Wonka, being surrounded by oempa-loempa actors. There is much more ‘Showbiz’ to come as we expect plenty of pros will reach far in this tournament.

The Wynn Encore – Las Vegas

The Wynn Encore Las Vegas is a beautiful and luxurious hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. Connected to Wynn Las Vegas, it offers a more relaxed and intimate experience while still being full of excitement. While being welcomed by the bellhops as soon as you arrive at the entrance, when you walk into the lobby, you’ll notice the bright, elegant design and a welcoming atmosphere right away. In other terms, it’s an extraordinary resort.

The suites are spacious and comfortable, with big windows showing amazing views of the Strip or the desert. For fact, the hotel rooms have cozy beds, fancy bathrooms, and all modern features you’d expect and not expect. Take for example our dear friend ‘Alexa’, who follows you instructions and opens/closes the curtains, plays music, puts on your TV, and much more.

The casino is lively and has something for everyone—slots, table games, and a stylish sportsbook for sports fans. If you’re hungry, there are great restaurants like Sinatra for Italian dishes or Wazuzu for Asian flavours. You can also enjoy fresh American food at Jardin, a bright and cheerful spot.

By day, the Encore Beach Club is perfect for relaxing by the pool (although the weather isn’t that great at this point), and at night, XS Nightclub becomes the place to party with top DJs and great music. If you need a break, the Encore Spa is one of these spots which will help you to go into full relaxation mode.

For shopping, the Encore Esplanade has high-end stores with fashion, jewellery, and more, such as supercars! Everything about Encore feels special, making it a perfect choice for a fun and luxurious stay in Las Vegas- Not just for the players and other guests, but especially for the working crew in every single aspect of it!

The PokerListings Experience

Heading to Las Vegas for the first time and working at one of the greatest poker events in the world is truly a privilege. They say Las Vegas can be overwhelming at first, but having been active in the poker industry for quite some time, it feels more natural to me than it might for most newcomers. Sure, it takes a bit of adjustment to adapt to a new environment and different customs (like tipping!), but that’s part of the adventure whenever you visit a place for the first time.

In Las Vegas, you can only be in one place at a time, but there are more places than anywhere else in the world to play poker, grab a bite to eat, or enjoy a drink. It’s easy to feel lost here, but thankfully, the city is full of incredibly friendly people who are always ready to lend a hand if needed. Preparing well before your trip is essential to hit the ground running and find your rhythm in this unique city. Although you have certain things just not in your own hands and are destined to leave them to others, such as luggage, flights, and so on!

Make sure to keep track of our social media channels, where we will share unique insights, interviews, and the overall experience of poker at the Wynn Encore resort.

The European Poker Tour (EPT) Paris 2025, set to light up the City of Light this February, has been canceled. PokerStars and Club Barrière delivered the unfortunate news, citing challenges tied to French government policies and ongoing regulatory uncertainty in Paris. While poker fans are undoubtedly disappointed, the reasons behind this decision tell a broader story about the shaky ground under Paris’s gaming scene right now.

Unfortunately we have to announce the cancellation of EPT Paris 2025.

For further please see https://t.co/O8BQrD1vha pic.twitter.com/S0DfUZxJHs

— PokerStars (@PokerStars) December 12, 2024

Today marks a historic moment in poker as PokerStars hosts the first-ever Mixed Games Main Event at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague. This €2,200 tournament introduces a new level of complexity to the EPT series, bringing ten poker variants together in a single three-day event.