Chase Bricker Chases Down $1M in ClubWPT Gold Freeroll
It was the most sought-after ticket in poker. Nearly every player in or around the poker world tried to win a Golden Passport, a symbolic but very real seat into the ClubWPT Gold Invitational Freeroll with its $5M prize pool. With approximately 2,000 passports available and awarded randomly – mostly – over the past few months, people from all levels of poker entered contests and submitted entries to try to win one of those seats.
One purpose of the freeroll was to create awareness around the new ClubWPT Gold website, which is a new sweepstakes-based online poker site. The site will be available in many parts of the United States where standard real-money online poker is not legal. Players can compete on ClubWPT Gold for coins – some earned and some purchased – for prizes. Another purpose of the freeroll was to bring new players into poker, giving many of them a chance to play a live poker tournament for consequential money at no cost – no buy-in required.
All in all, the ClubWPT Gold Invitational Freeroll was a promotional tournament but one that received great amounts of publicity. Anticipation was high, and players were excited to compete for $5M in cash and prizes, with the top prize promised to be $1M.
Freeroll Numbers
Most people who won a Golden Passport were responsible for getting themselves to Las Vegas in December to play the tournament. Not all of them were able to do this, so the final number of entrants in the event was 1,457. The top 503 players were promised at least $1K in cash.
The money bubble burst on Day 1 (December 13) of the three-day event, and hundreds of players cashed out, won seats to the $10K buy-in WPT World Championship Main Event, and pulled bounties totaling approximately $100K.
Play ended with just 49 people still in the tournament. Floyd Achtzehnter was the chip leader, with poker pro Nick Pupillo second in chips. And Day 2 then played down to the final table of nine, with Pupillo exiting in 14th place and Achtzehnter out in 13th.
Final Nine Freerollers
The last nine players in the tournament were each guaranteed at least $20K, but the $1M was awaiting the sole winner, and there was a $200K bounty in the mix. There was a clear chip leader, but as most poker players know, anything can happen at the final table.
- Daniyal Gheba (started Day 2 in 18th) 11,725,000 chips
- Jacob Stufflebean (started Day 2 in 6th) 5,175,000 chips
- Patrick Eskandar (started Day 2 in 4th) 3,995,000 chips
- Chase Bricker (started Day 2 in 15th) 3,175,000 chips
- Victor Avallone (started Day 2 in 7th) 3,150,000 chips
- Tyler Hancock (started Day 2 in 36th) 3,075,000 chips
- Jason Christopher (started Day 2 in 42nd) 2,850,000 chips
- Josh Guindon (started Day 2 in 26th) 2,075,000 chips
- Eric Zheng (started Day 2 in 5th) 1,225,000 chips
One of these guys is winning $1,000,000 today.
— ClubWPT Gold (@ClubWPTGold) December 16, 2024
Three of them have lifetime earnings of less than $20k.
The final table stream starts tonight at 5:30pm PST on YouTube pic.twitter.com/axqsQ9CZfY
Playing for First
Despite the payouts being so top-heavy, play was serious and started with some caution. But a big hand developed that saw Gheba eliminate Stufflebean in ninth place. Gheba then pulled the largest mystery bounty of $200,000 before busting Zheng in eighth place. Gheba pulled another mystery bounty, that one for $25K.
Christopher eliminated Guindon in seventh place, but when he pulled the mystery bounty, it was a trick one for $000,000.
Congratulations to Jason Christopher for winning back his buy-in! pic.twitter.com/LrlrvgEdXp
— ClubWPT Gold (@ClubWPTGold) December 16, 2024
The final six played a slow but steady game. Hancock doubled through Christopher but fell in sixth place when he lost his all-in to Bricker. The latter then pulled a $25K bounty. Bricker stayed on a roll and busted Eskandar in fifth place and pulled another $25K bounty.
Round after round saw Gheba stay ahead in the chip counts, but Christopher rose to a solid second place, with Bricker and Avallone tied with the short stacks. But Christopher made a run for the lead and took it from Gheba, while Bricker doubled through Gheba. But Gheba did mount a comeback by eliminating Avallone in fourth place.
Bricker doubled through Christopher to take the lead for the first time. Those two continued to trade the lead back and forth until Bricker busted Gheba in third place.
Heads-Up for Big Bucks
The two stacks were not quite even going into heads-up play, as Bricker had 25.825M chips to the 10.6M of Christopher.
It took exactly one hand to finish the match. Christopher shoved with A-T, but Bricker called with A-Q. The board changed nothing, and Bricker won the $1M top prize.
No chops. pic.twitter.com/Thfvn5EMd5
— ClubWPT Gold (@ClubWPTGold) December 17, 2024
The final table payouts were:
- 1st place: Chase Bricker = $1M + $110K bounties
- 2nd place: Jason Christopher = $250K
- 3rd place: Daniyal Gheba = $125K + $235K bounties
- 4th place: Victor Avallone = $75K
- 5th place: Patrick Eskandar = $50K
- 6th place: Tyler Hancock = $40K
- 7th place: Josh Guindon = $30K
- 8th place: Eric Zheng = $25K
- 9th place: Jacob Stufflebean = $20K
Detailed play courtesy of WPT Live Updates team.
Feature photo courtesy of WPT.
