Recently, we saw the conclusion of the historic 2024 WSOP Paradise $50 Million GTD Super Main Event where the 24-year-old Yinan Zhou of China created history by outlasting seasoned pros to win the inaugural tournament for a career-best $6 million in top prize money. While Zhou took down the title, Marcelo Aziz, who made it to the tournament via a freeroll, stole the show as the runner-up finisher. His journey as a freeroll entrant reaching the final table and then finishing as the runner-up captivated the poker world, highlighting his skill, determination and grit.
The 27-year-old poker pro from Sao Paulo, Brazil, stunned the poker world with his sensational run in the $50 million Super Main Event. Aziz battled through a 1,978-entry field featuring the likes of Michael Addamo, Liv Boeree, Justin Bonomo, Chris Moneymaker, Ren Lin, Nick Petrangelo, Danny Tang, Adrian Mateos, Alex Foxen, Erik Seidel and Daniel Negreanu, making it to the coveted final table with a middle stack. Returning to the final table, he played some top-notch poker, picking up the right spots and chipping up nicely to reach the heads-up against Zhou. Unfortunately, he couldn’t overcome the massive stack of Zhou and was eliminated as the runner-up. While he could not win the dream title, he ended up earning a career-best payout of $4,600,000, a historic and memorable milestone for someone who made it to the tournament via a freeroll and went that far in one of the world’s most prestigious events.
Aziz, who entered this WSOP Super Main Event with $263k in live earnings, has now surpassed the $4.8 million mark, propelling him to a 3rd place on Brazil’s all-time money list behind Bruno Volkmann and bracelet winner Yuri Martins Dzivelevski. The recent years have been great for the Brazilian pro. In 2023, he won his career first circuit ring in the $100 NLH 6-Max Event WSOPC Online for $15,499. Aziz kickstarted his WSOP journey back in the Summer of 2024, with a 162nd cash finish in the $10,000 WSOP Main Event for $70k, and just before this impressive runner-up finish, he won the Progressive KO Event at the BSOP 2024 for $21,246.
How Aziz Made It To WSOP Super Main Event For Free?
While most players paid $25k to compete in the 2024 WSOP Super Main Event, there were some players who made it to the tournament via an online freeroll, including Marcelo Aziz.
Aziz didn’t pay a penny to be at the 2024 WSOP Paradise Main Event. He qualified for the tournament through an online freeroll to get a shot at winning the $6 million top prize. Aziz told the press “I satellite from a continental freeroll on GGPoker.” Continental freerolls are a type of freerolls offered by GGPoker, which gives players a shot at the live World Series of Poker. After outlasting dozens of players online, Aziz advanced to the online starting flight of the Super Main Event. He built a massive chip stack of 11 million and came to the Bahamas for his shot at winning a share from the record-breaking $50 million guaranteed prize pool in the main event.
This is the real beauty of poker where players can turn free entries into life-changing winnings. Aziz wasn’t the only player this December to score millions of dollars through online freeroll. Chase Bricker also made it into poker history by winning the historic $5 Million Invitational Freeroll at the 2024 WPT World Championship. Bricker made it into the tournament through a freeroll satellite on ClubWPT Gold and ended up winning the title for a massive $1 million.
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