The atmosphere was electrifying at the 2024 WPT World Championship at the Wynn Las Vegas with two big events running simultaneously, each promising seven-figure prizes to the winner.
Kevin Calenzo will enter Saturday’s action in an enviable position as he battled his way to the chip lead to kick off the televised final table in the $1,100 WPT Prime Championship across various channels, including the World Poker Tour YouTube channel.
Meanwhile, the much-anticipated ClubWPT Gold $5M Invitational Freeroll began its first of three days on Friday with 1,457 players in the mix hoping to become a millionaire or at least win some amazing prizes in what promises to be the largest freeroll in live poker history. The action ended with just 49 hopefuls, with Floyd Achtzehnter in the chip lead.
Read on to learn more about Friday’s action at the 2024 WPT World Championship and the plan for Saturday at the Wynn Las Vegas:
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Who Will Win $1.2 Million at the WPT Prime Final Table?
The WPT Prime Championship created tons of buzz with a massive field of 9,399 entries, generating a mouth-watering $9,379,000 prize pool. The action was whittled down to just 99 players to start the day, each locking up a tasty $8,600 prize for their $1,100 buy-in with their eyes on much more.
Diane Zimmerman began the day with the chip lead but wasn’t able to parlay that into a final table appearance. According to the live reporting at the World Poker Tour’s website, Zimmerman’s demise came as follows:
Zimmerman first lost a good chunk to double Tjan Tepeh in epic style, with Tepeh improving his pocket aces to quads to defeat pocket nines with the action all-in preflop. James Casement then delivered a bad beat with his short stack when his ace-seven was good against Zimmerman’s ace-jack. Later on, Zimmerman was down to just four big blinds when her ace-ten didn’t hold against the king-queen held by Alfie Poetra.
Poetra then put the nail in the coffin for Zimmerman as his kings were more than good to beat queens in a hand with Bassel Asi getting involved with fives. Asi also coughed up a side pot to Poetra on a cooler with both players improving to a set.
Meanwhile, neither Poetra wasn’t able to parlay Zimmerman’s chips into a final table appearance. Instead, he lost a crucial coin flip at the end of the day to bubble the final table when his sevens came up on the losing end against ace-ten to give Kevin Calenzo the chip lead with 80,800,000, which will be good for 81 big blinds to start the final table.
James Casement was cruising along on Day 2 and nearly ended the day with the chip lead. Instead, he will settle for a second-place stack of 64,600,000 followed by Colin Hong (51,700,000), Joseph Ozimok (43,600,000), Zak VanKeuren (42,600,000), Malik Zaman (42,500,000), Justin Young (34,600,000), Ryan Stiner (13,800,000), and Ralph Marquez (13,000,000).
The action will resume for the final table on Saturday at 5 p.m.with blinds at 75,000/150,000 along with a 150,000 big lbind ante. Poker fans can watch the action at the WPT live stream beginning 30 minutes after the action resumes at 5:30 p.m. with hole cards exposed until a winner is crowned.
2024 WPT Prime Championship Final Table Seat Draw
| Seat | Player | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Casement | 64,600,000 | 65 |
| 2 | Joseph Ozimok | 43,600,000 | 44 |
| 3 | Ryan Stiner | 13,800,000 | 14 |
| 4 | Justin Young | 34,600,000 | 35 |
| 5 | Colin Hong | 51,700,000 | 52 |
| 6 | Malik Zaman | 42,500,000 | 43 |
| 7 | Kevin Calenzo | 80,800,000 | 81 |
| 8 | Ralph Marquez | 13,000,000 | 13 |
| 9 | Zak VanKeuren | 42,600,000 | 43 |
2024 WPT Prime Final Table Payouts
The final nine players have already locked up a huge six-figure prize of $114,000. Tonight’s winner will take home much more than that as they will be an overnight millionaire with $1,162,350 slated to go to the winner. This is not all, as the winner will also be awarded a seat to the 2025 WPT World Championship at the Wynn Las Vegas valued at $10,400.
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | $1,162,350 |
| 2 | $759,890 |
| 3 | $560,000 |
| 4 | $420,000 |
| 5 | $320,000 |
| 6 | $240,000 |
| 7 | $186,000 |
| 8 | $145,000 |
| 9 | $114,000 |
Floyd Achtzehnter Leads ClubWPT Gold $5 Million Invitational
The ClubWPT Gold golden passports were all the buzz the last few days in Las Vegas, with players hoping to secure their passport through a variety of methods, including last-second drawings at the Wynn Las Vegas.
The action began bright and early at 10 a.m. on Friday, with 1,457 passport holders taking their seats in hopes of winning something big. The top 503 players were guaranteed at least a $1,000 payout, and tons of big mystery bounty prizes were revealed, ranging from $500 to $100,000 and including tickets to the $10,400 WPT World Championship once the action was down to 297 players.
During the dinner break, we ran into several players still in contention. Many came out just after winning the freeroll for their first live poker tournament experience. In addition, many noted that as the big mystery bounties were being pulled, their lives would change for the better thanks to the generous prizes awarded by the World Poker Tour.
Floyd Achtzehnter had a day to remember as he bagged the overnight chip lead with 2,265,000 with just 49 players remaining in this three-day affair. According to the live reporting at the World Poker Tour website, Achtzehnter won a few chips near the end of the evening when his ace-ten held against ace-eight to crush the hopes and dreams of Kasey Mills in becoming a millionaire in just two days time.
The formidable Nick Pupillo (1,815,000), Charles Cunha (1,730,000), Patrick Eskandar (1,700,000), and Eric Zheng (1,510,000) round out the top five when the action resumes on Saturday at 10 a.m. with blinds at 20,000/40,000 along with a 40,000 big blind ante with all returning players guaranteed at least $5,000. You can check out the full chip counts at the World Poker Tour website.
While mystery bounty prizes will continue to be pulled today, the winner of the $1 million top prize won’t be known until tomorrow. Stay tuned at Poker.Pro as we will provide updates tomorrow on this epic event.
2024 WPT World Championship Schedule (Dec. 14)
Saturday will be a busy day as not only will a champion be crowned in the $1,100 WPT Prime Championship, but the festival’s crown jewel begins with Day 1a of the $10,400 WPT World Championship beginning at 11 a.m., at the same time as the two-day $1,100 Ladies NLH Championship begins.
Check out the full schedule for December 14 below for the WPT World Championship at the Wynn Las Vegas.
| Time | Event | Guarantee |
|---|---|---|
| 9 a.m. | $1,100 Milestone Satellite to WPT World Championship | 10x $10,400 Seats |
| 10 a.m. | ClubWPT Gold $5M Invitational Freeroll Day 2 | $5,000,000 |
| 11 a.m. | $10,400 WPT World Championship Day 1a | |
| 11 a.m. | $1,100 Ladies NLH Championship Day 1 | $250,000 |
| 12 p.m. | $1,100 5 Card PLO | $100,000 |
| 5 p.m. | $1,100 WPT Prime Championship Final Table | $5,000,000 |
| 6 p.m. | $1,100 Milestone Satellite to WPT World Championship Day 1b | 25x $10,400 Seats |
* Photos courtesy of the World Poker Tour.
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