The $5 Million ClubWPT Gold Freeroll came to a close, with Texas grinder Chase Bricker walking away as the biggest winner, as he cashed for a grand total of $1,100,000.
Bricker was one of nearly 1,500 players who were fortunate enough to win a Golden Passport and participate in the Freeroll thanks to ClubWPT Gold, the new sweepstakes poker platform that’s getting ready to take America by storm in 2025.
Chase was joined at the final table by eight other hopefuls, all of whom won at least $20,000 for their performance in the event.
Over the three days of action in the biggest freeroll in the history of poker, WPT paid out a total of $5,000,000 in prizes, including 100 seats for the WPT World Championship, and hundreds of other prizes of varying values.
With the Freeroll, WPT Prime Championship, and Ladies Event all in the books, all focus shifts over to the WPT World Championship event, as Day 1C plays out at the Encore Ballroom, the last opportunity to make a run at the most coveted WPT title of the season.
Texas Grinder Awarded for His Efforts
A total of 2,000 Golden Passports were given away by WPT in the weeks preceding the historic event through raffles, contests, and freeroll satellites on the new ClubWPT Gold platform.
Many of the Passports were won by complete amateurs with very little experience playing live poker, while others went to content creators and WPT ambassadors, including the likes of Phil Ivey.
The champion came out to Las Vegas without a Golden Passport and with little hopes of playing the event. Instead, he was there to play the $1,100 WPT Prime Championship, an event similar to many he plays back home in Texas.
Bricker entered WPT Prime Championship and failed to make the money from two attempts, but was fortunate enough to get his Golden Passport along the way.
After busting the Prime for the first time, he went over to the ClubWPT Gold Booth and was lucky enough to pull a Golden Passport among a host of other prizes.
This allowed him to take a seat at the table and compete against hundreds of other hopefuls, eventually coming out on top and taking home the biggest prize of his poker career.
Bricker came into the event with plenty of experience, which he gained through years of playing in underground poker games and official poker tournaments back in Texas.
“I’m not a pro. I’m not a full-time pro. I play for profit and I play to win,” Poker gives me that outlet to stay competitive and it’s definitely a nice second string of income. And now really a first string of income after a score like this, because I can’t make money like that really anywhere…other than maybe a WPT Mystery Final Table.”
These were the words of Chase Bricker, the ClubWPT Gold Freeroll winner, who described his poker career as a side hustle up until the point WPT gave him a chance to become an overnight millionaire.
The Ups and Downs of Final Table Action
When the final table was set, nine players were left with the dream of taking home a million dollars in cash, as well as any money they could find in the eight mystery envelopes that were introduced exclusively for the final table.
Bounties worth between $0 and $200,000 were hidden in those envelopes, which meant one player would be in for a heartbreak. It ended up being Jason Christopher, who eventually came in second for $250k in prize money.
Christopher eliminated a player in a three-way all-in confrontation, and then pulled out an envelope that had a bunch of zeroes on it. Unfortunately, the last number was also zero, leaving him in disbelief.
Yet, Christopher mustered the patience to keep going and take the chip lead, before losing it to Bricker, who eventually went on to win the whole thing.
Chip leader going into the final table, Daniyal Gheba was lucky enough to pull the $200,000 mystery bounty, before busting out in third place for another $125,000.
Here is a look at all the final table payouts:
| Position | Player | Payout |
| 1st | Chase Bricker | $1,000,000 |
| 2nd | Jason Christopher | $250,000 |
| 3rd | Daniyal Gheba | $125,000 |
| 4th | Victor Avallone | $75,000 |
| 5th | Patrick Eskandar | $50,000 |
| 6th | Tyler Hancock | $40,000 |
| 7th | Josh Guindon | $30,000 |
| 8th | Eric Zheng | $25,000 |
| 9th | Jacob Stufflebean | $20,000 |
Quick Heads-Up Match for Bricker and Christopher
The final table of the $5 Million ClubWPT Gold Freeroll was an exciting affair, with a lot of big all-in confrontations and moments that saw the fortunes turn and chip lead change hands.
In the end, Bricker and Christopher were the last two left, and the two were playing for a massive $750,000 pay jump, by far the biggest of both their careers.
Fortunately for Chase, it didn’t take very long for the match to be over, as the two got all the chips in on the very first hand of the match, with Bricker’s AQ dominating the AT of Christopher.
The board brought no help to Jason, which meant the champion would be crowned after just one hand of heads-up play, a massive relief for the newly crowned WPT champion.
Bricker commented that a big part of his success in this event was thanks to all the practice he got playing tournaments back home, saying: “They (Texas Card House) have great tournaments, so it's allowed me to work on my game there because they have great monthly tournaments, great weekly tournaments.”
What’s Next for ClubWPT Gold?
The ClubWPT Gold platform is now launched, and players had the first chance to play on it in the various freeroll satellites for the $5 Million Freeroll over the last few weeks.
Come January, the new sweepstakes poker site will be fully live, which means players will get a chance to play a variety of tournaments and cash games on the site and win valuable sweeps coins along the way.
Once fully launched, the WPT-sponsored poker site should quickly turn into one of the biggest of its kind, giving American players a chance to play large scale online poker with a reputable operator.
