December has been a blockbuster month for live poker with three of the prestigious international live poker brands – WSOP, WPT and EPT – paying out the record-breaking prize pools, amounting to over $200 million.
2024 WSOP Paradise – A Huge Event With Record Prize Pools
Running simultaneously, each of the WSOP, WPT and EPT festivals drew attention with massive prize pools and world-class competition. The most prominent of the three festivals, the WSOP Paradise series, which has returned for its second year in The Bahamas, has been running since December 6. The crown jewel of the series is the Super Main Event.
Currently down to the final table, the WSOP Super Main Event stole the spotlight with the record-breaking $50 million guaranteed prize pool, making it the poker calendar’s most ambitious tournament. Other big highlights include the $5 million GTD GGMillion$ NLH Championship and a $5 million GTD Mini Main Event, which drew an impressive 2,031 entries for a $5,077,000 prize pool and crowned a champion in Jeffrey Hakim from the USA.
2024 WPT World Championship- Stunning Promotions & Prizepools
In Las Vegas at Wynn, the WPT World Championship that kicked off on December 3 has drawn attention with standout promotions, including the $5 million GTD ClubWPT Gold Freeroll, the largest Freeroll in history, which saw an impressive 1,457 entries and found a champion in Chase Bricker, who took home $1 million up top prize and $20,000 in mystery bounties.
The $10,400 buy-in WPT World Championship event serves as the key highlight of the series. The tournament has drawn a massive 2,392 field across three starting flights, collecting a prize pool of $23,441,600. The winner here will be awarded $3,138,900, plus a $10,400 ticket to next year’s WPT World Championship. Currently, the tournament is down to the final 61 players led by Michael Berk holding a stack of 8,110,000 chips.
2024 EPT Prague – Record-Breaking Fields & Prizepools
In the Czech Republic, PokerStars’ EPT Prague made headlines for its record-breaking turnouts and prize pools. The festival kicked off on December 4 with the Eureka Main Event. The €1100 buy-in event attracted a record 4732 entries, generating a prize pool of €4,542,720 and surpassing 2023’s turnout of 4403 entries and 2022’s field of 4017 entrants.
The lion’s share in the end went to Bulgaria’s Martin Tsvetanov, who took home the coveted PokerStars trophy and a career-high €449,034 payday.
The 2024 EPT Prague festival, which took place at the Hilton Prague, wrapped up on December 15 with the record-breaking €5,300 buy-in Main Event. The tournament brought in a record 1,458 entries, generating a whopping €7,071,300. In the end, Portugal’s Pedro Marques topped the record-breaking field and banked a massive €963,450 up top prize.
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Image Credit: WSOP, WPT & PokerStars
