The World Poker Tour announce $5 million live freeroll
The biggest freeroll in poker history with a $1 million first prize will take place just before the WPT World Championship at the Wynn.
With the announcement of the $50 million guaranteed Super Main Event at WSOP Paradise, all eyes have been on the World Poker Tour to see how they would respond.
We now know and it will surprise a lot of people. Rather than compete on guarantees, the WPT will be offering a $5 million freeroll with a $1 million first prize at the Wynn, during the World Poker Tour Championship.
This is to launch their US-facing online poker product Club WPT Gold. The freeroll will take place between December 13-15, one day before the start of the $10,400 WPT World Championship. As part of the prize pool, 100 players will win entry into that tournament.
Golden passports
To gain entry for the tournament players have to register a Club WPT Gold account by December 13 and there will be a number of qualification routes to obtain a 'Golden Passport'. This means that non-US players will have to arrive in the States ahead of the tournament to qualify. No word yet, but we hope that rest-of-the-world players will have qualification routes available via WPT Global.
“Our return to Wynn Las Vegas this December is equipped with another monumental investment into the development and growth of not only the WPT World Championship, but the poker industry as a whole,” said WPT CEO and President Adam Pliska. “In celebration of the launch of ClubWPT Gold, we’re aiming for another first for the poker world with the largest freeroll ever offered.”
It appears that there is no guarantee this year on the WPT World Championship, which likely won't stop huge waves of players from entering, as it is still the most prestigious event outside of the WSOP Main Event. The introduction of the world's biggest freeroll to Vegas is a novel one and will no doubt attract a festival-esque feel full of recreational players. It will no doubt be one of the softest tournaments of that size in the world.
What do you think of this promotion? Let us know in the comments:
