Poker.Pro has arrived in style at the 2024 WPT World Championship at the Wynn Las Vegas for what promises to be an amazing 10 days of nonstop action.
The much-anticipated ClubWPT Gold $5M Invitational Freeroll kicked off as we collected our media credentials this morning. This three-day event provides tons of value, with just 1,457 players getting into the mix. This means the epic freeroll for the ages provided $3,432 in extra value without even considering if this was a real-money event, it would also feature rake. The top 503 players, for more than one-third of the field, will walk away with at least a $1,000 min-cash and a memorable experience. Sunday’s winner’s experience will trump them all with a $1 million top prize on tap.
Meanwhile, Diane Zimmerman is in the driver’s seat to win a seven-figure prize as she leads the final 99 players in the $1,100 WPT Prime Championship. The winner will go home with a whopping $1,162,350 top prize.
Poker.Pro will at the Wynn Last Vegas providing news, interviews, and more throughout the week, along with some first-hand experiences from Poker.Pro CEO Jason Glatzer. Read on to learn more about Poker.Pro’s early experiences at the WPT World Championship at the Wynn Las Vegas:
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Long Journey, Familiar Faces
Despite this author being well-known in most European card rooms, I am relatively unknown by many American players. Also, despite being American, I gave myself a 10-year self-imposed break from Vegas 10 summers ago. It was a long journey from where I lived in Lithuania for nearly two decades, and at the time, my son was too young and the time zones too far apart for me to still feel some connection to back home for my life balance.
I recovered from being sick just in time and eagerly awaited the trip to Sin City and the adventures ahead. My alarm was set at 4 a.m. on Thursday (6 p.m. on Friday in Vegas) on two hours of sleep to make it in time for my flight from Vilnius to Frankfurt. Usually, on flights to poker events, I run into at least one, if not an entire group of Lithuanian poker players on the same flight. This was not the case this time, but it was smooth sailing to Frankfurt, where it took more than an hour to clear through the immigration line.
Frankfurt to Los Angeles was next up. It was a 12-hour affair with a packed flight. I managed to sleep for most of the first two hours of the flight, but any plans of working were out the door, with no room to type without bumping my neighbor. My neighbor was a friendly Palestinian musician, and for a change of pace, we kept politics out of the discussion and just had pleasant conversations about music.
I arrived in Los Angeles, where another long queue was awaiting me. I had more than 3.5 hours to connect, so there was no stress, but the exhaustion was beginning to add up. I changed terminals, and the flight to Sin City was smooth, capping out a not-so-bad 24-hour journey after landing around 6 p.m. Vegas time.
I checked in to the Encore, and the room was amazing. Everything was controlled by an iPad, from opening the curtains to controlling the temperature or lights or linking Netflix to the television. I played around for a few minutes before I headed downstairs to the poker action, where a massive $1,100 satellite was on a break.
The first three people I bumped into that I knew weren’t from the States but from Europe. All three were at separate times. I first ran into Northern Ireland’s Josh Stewart, who shared that it has been a rough few days after bricking around half a dozen events. He was entered into the satellite when a drawing took place for more seats to the three-day $5 million freeroll.
Stewart shared that he was confident in the satellite for the $10,400 WPT World Championship and later messaged that he binked a seat before continuing his night, still playing.
Next, we ran into poker training guru, author, and The Chip Race podcast co-host Dara O’Kearney, but he was rushing to get into the satellite at the last minute.
“Hi, Jason. It’s good to see you,” O’Kearney said. Unfortunately, I just busted the WPT Prime in the money, and now I will rush over to try to win a seat in the Championship.”
About an hour or two later, we ran into David Lappin, the other co-host of The Chip Race podcast, who was on his way to the Players Party. I shared that I was partially shattered from the trip, and although the party would be fun, I would be paying the price on Friday, so I opted to get some sleep instead.
Diane Zimmerman Leads Final 99 in WPT Prime Championship
We arrived in Las Vegas on Day 2 of the four-day $1,100 WPT Prime Championship, deep in its action. While a $5 million freeroll certainly is capturing everyone’s attention, the WPT Prime Championship boasts even more to play for, with a massive field of 9,399 entries creating a mammoth $9,379,000 prize pool.
The action was down to just 99 hopefuls, with many notable names hitting the rail in the money on Day 2, including the already mentioned Dara O’Kearney, 2012-2013 WPT Player of the Year Matthew Salsberg, Poker Hall of Famer Kathy Liebert, Brandon Kantu, David “ODB” Baker, and Calvin Anderson all hitting the rail in the money.
Diane Zimmerman ended Day 2 in the driver’s seat with 10,800,000 in chips. This will be good for 86 big blinds when the action resumes for Day 3 on Friday at noon, with blinds at 75,000/125,000 along with a 125,000 big blind ante.
While Zimmerman was the only player to surpass the 10 million chip barrier, four other players will start with at least 8 million including the likes of Fausto Valdez (8,950,000), 2010-2011 WPT Player of the Year Joe Serock (8,925,000), Malik Zaman (8,550,000), and Cole Ferraro (8,000,000).
Meanwhile, Dylan Smith will be multitasking if he decides to use his WPT Golden Passport, which includes an entry into the ClubWPT Gold $5M Invitational Freeroll that he earned by recently winning the $3,500 WPT Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open Championship for a whopping $662,200 top prize.
Smith now can win much more with a massive $1,162,350 top prize on the line along with a free ticket to the 2025 WPT World Championship valued at $10,400. The 99 returning players each locked up at least an $8,600 payout, with payjumps occurring fast throughout the day. You can check out the payouts, the chip counts, and follow along with the action via the eyes of WPT’s live reporting team at WPT.com.
2024 WPT World Championship Schedule (Dec. 13)
The Club WPT Gold $5M Invitational at 10 a.m. will set the stage for an electric day at the Wynn Las Vegas on Friday. The final day of the $1,100 WPT Prime Championship begins two hours later at 12 p.m., with a pair of satellites taking place at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., including one for the Ladies Championship starting on Saturday.
Meanwhile, this author plans to pop into the $600 NLH Turbo at 7 p.m. in hopes of winning a trophy himself. Best of luck to all of the WPT Championship players on Friday, and check out today’s full schedule below:
| Time | Event | Guarantee |
|---|---|---|
| 10 a.m. | ClubWPT Gold $5M Invitational Freeroll (3 Day) | $5,000,000 |
| 12 p.m. | $1,100 WPT Prime Championship Day 3 | $5,000,000 |
| 3 p.m. | $1,100 Milestone Satellite to WPT World Championship Day 1A/B | 25x $10,400 Seats |
| 5 p.m. | $200 Milestone Satellite to Ladies Championship | 10x $1,100 Seats |
| 7 p.m. | $600 NLH Turbo | $50,000 |
Photos courtesy of the World Poker Tour.
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