Over the weekend, two newly branded millionaires were crowned at the 2024 WPT World Championships at the Wynn Las Vegas. Saturday witnessed Zac VanKeuren win the $1,100 WPT Prime Championship before history was made on Sunday when Chase Bricker won the largest freeroll in poker history after defeating a field of 1,457 players, including Jason Christopher heads-up, in the epic ClubWPT Gold $5 Million Invitational Freeroll for the $1 million top prize along with tons of mystery bounty prizes including $110,000 at the final table alone.
Bricker would not have likely had this opportunity of a lifetime if he didn’t play the WPT Prime Championship. In between the two bullets he unsuccessfully fired, Bricker headed to the ClubWPT Gold Booth in the Wynn hallways and was fortunate enough to win himself a coveted ClubWPT Gold passport which was the first step to his epic victory.
“It’s just surreal right now; it’s just an amazing experience to have all my friends on the rail for me,” Bricker shared with WPT after the victory. “And just this amazing tournament with these bounties. The final table there’s a lot of swings and I just got hot at the right time – it’s incredible. Cloud nine.”
While adding seven figures to your bankroll might lead players to grinding high rollers, instead, Bricker plans to improve the quality of life of his family.
“This is life-changing money,” Bricker shared about his newly found riches. “Security. That money needs to mean something is how I look at it,” he said. “I look at it as an opportunity, frankly, to elevate my life, and my family’s life, and my future family’s life. I’m definitely going to still compete in tournaments, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to go play high rollers or stuff like that…well, maybe every once in a while.”
As one might imagine, Bricker (and many others) will remember the three-day invitational and the overall experience at the Wynn Las Vegas for the rest of their lives.
“Playing here at the Wynn with my rail was just a first-class experience, something I’ll never forget. My biggest score, life-changing money. I’m living the dream right now, I’m living the dream.”
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2024 ClubWPT Gold $5 Million Invitational Freeroll Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chase Bricker | $1,000,000 |
| 2 | Jason Christopher | $250,000 |
| 3 | Daniyal Gheba | $125,000 |
| 4 | Victor Avallone | $75,000 |
| 5 | Patrick Eskandar | $50,000 |
| 6 | Tyler Hancock | $40,000 |
| 7 | Josh Guindon | $30,000 |
| 8 | Eric Zheng | $25,000 |
| 9 | Jacob Stufflebean | $20,000 |
Daniyal Gheba Earns $200K Minutes Into the Final Table
Huge rails gathered before the start of the final table on Sunday evening, with the action live streamed at the World Poker Tour YouTube channel from the beginning to the end on a 30-minute delay with hole cards exposed. New and improved mystery bounties were introduced with as much as $200,000 on the line. As a unique twist, and a troll to one player in particular which we will get into soon enough, one bounty was dubbed a “misery bounty” and had $000,000 for one unfortunate soul.
Daniyal Gheba kicked off the final table with the chip lead, with eventual champion Chase Bricker starting in the middle of the pack with 25 big blinds.
Fireworks erupted nearly straight out of the gate, with Jacob Stufflebean losing his second-place stack to start the final table on the 13th hand of the day. Stufflebean stuffed his stack with a sizeable four-bet jam on a ten-four-deuce rainbow flop and was called by the chip leader Gheba. Gheba was far ahead with ace-ten against sixes, and bricks came the rest of the way for Stufflebean to head to the cashier to collect the $20,000 ninth-place prize.
The suspense of who would win the $200,000 top bounty was over just after it began, with Gheba pulling the lucky envelope to the delight of his rail.
Gheba was back at it again. After he doubled up the short-stacked Patrick Eskandar, he eliminated Eric Zheng in eighth place for $25,000. Zheng jammed his short stack of 3.5 big blinds from under the gun with king-trey suited and was called by Eskandar from the hijack and Gheba from the cutoff before Gheba bet his opponent off the ten-five-four flop with two clubs. Gheba turned over the ace-six, and it was a coin flip for Zheng with both his cards live and a flush draw to boot. His impressive run was in the books after blanks came on the turn and river, and Gheba collected another bounty, this one worth $25,000.
Jason Christopher Trolled With Misery Bounty
Jason Christopher woke up with queens and was involved in a three-way pot where chips were in preflop against the shorter-stacked Josh Guindon with king-queen and the chip leader Gheba with ace-eight. The queens held to send Guindon to the rail in seventh place for $30,000 while it was time for a different player other than Gheba to pull a bounty.
Christopher looked on in dismay as the envelope was opened revealing “$000,000” as his prize. That being said, Christopher appeared to take the troll well after the event and shared his unfortunate circumstance on social media. However, all the final table players understood how fortunate they were to make it this far in the largest freeroll in poker history and also the quarter of a million that he won from the prize pool later in the event certainly well help him sleep well at night.
Gheba, at this point, was still cruising along and had nearly half the chips in play and almost triple his nearest competitor, Victor Avallone, when the first break took place.
Bricker Gets Hot After the Break
Bricker eliminated back-to-back players short after the action resumed. StakeKings CEO Tyler Hancock jammed his five-big blind stack with ace-six suited. Avallone jammed over the top with sixes before Bricker called off his stack with jacks. Bricker eliminated Hancock in sixth place for $40,000 while collecting a $25,000 bounty after neither Hancock nor Avallone found any love on the board.
Shortly after, Bricker collected another mystery bounty. Again, it was worth $25,000. Eskandar jammed for seven big blinds with ten-nine suited and earned $50,000 for fifth place after not improving enough to get ahead of Bricker’s king-queen.
Shortly after, things began to fall apart for Gheba as he lost a pot to Christopher to cough up the chip lead to his opponent. Bricker then doubled through Gheba for his first taste at the chip lead at the final table when his queens held against king-jack suited.
Gheba was down but not yet out. He managed to collect another bounty, this one worth $10,000. His aces proved to be more than good against Avallone’s sixes. Any drama was over after Gheba flopped a set, and shortly after, Avallone was awarded the fourth-place payout of $75,000.
Christopher regain the lead and had more than half the chips in play. However, his tens were no good against kings for Bricker to become the table captain once again. However, this didn’t last long as Christopher once again assume control until Bricker doubled again through Christopher to regain the lead, and this time for good.
Gheba got his hand caught in the cookie jar as he unsuccessfully jammed seven-trey suited into Bricker’s cowboys to exit in third place for $100,000. Bricker collected a $50,000 mystery bounty this time around to double his bounty haul to $100,000, leaving just one $10,000 mystery bounty envelope to be opened.
Bricker began the heads-up action with a 5:2 chip advantage over Christopher. It took just one hand for the match to end in a cooler for Christopher.
Christopher three-bet jammed from the big blind with ace-ten for 17 big blinds and was called by Bricker with ace-queen. The board ran dry for Christopher to end his impressive run in second place for a cool $250,000, while Bricker collected the final $10,000 bounty.
A massive congratulations to Chase Bricker for winning one the most lucrative poker freeroll to date in the ClubWPT Gold $5 Million Invitational for $1 million plus bounties and entering your name in the poker history books.
* Photos courtesy of the World Poker Tour.
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