2024 has been a historic year for live poker with many tournaments shattering turnout records, offering unprecedented prize pools, and redefining poker’s potential for growth across the globe. From the historic WSOP Main Event and WPT Freeroll in Las Vegas to the WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas and Women’s Winter Festival in London, we saw several record-breaking tournaments in 2024. Here is a quick look at the year’s most standout tournaments with record-breaking prize pools and turnouts.
2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event
The $10K buy-in WSOP Main Event was the crown jewel of poker in 2024. The tournament hosted in July drew a record-breaking field of 10,112 entries for a colossal $94 million prize pool (the largest prize pool in poker history). The tournament surpassed the previous record of 10,043 entries set in 2023, making it the largest and richest main event in WSOP history.
USA’s Jonathan Tamayo, a 38-year-old from Humble, Texas, who enjoys golfing and fantasy sports, emerged as the ultimate winner of the historic tournament, claiming his first bracelet and a career-best $10 million. His win marked the second consecutive year for an American victory as Daniel Weinman from Georgia had also won the WSOP Main Event title in 2023.
2024 WSOP Paradise Super Main Event
The inaugural World Series of Poker (WSOP) Paradise in the scenic Bahamas made history as the biggest guaranteed tournament poker history. The $25k buy-in event in December featured a mind-blowing $50 million GTD prize pool, making it the biggest guaranteed event in poker history. As expected, the prestigious tournament drew players from all across the globe, reaching 1,978 entries but falling just 22 entries shy of its guarantee. Chinese player Yinan Zhou became the event’s first-ever champion after beating the top pros in the game. The 24-year-old overcame the likes of Justin Bonomo, Michael Addamo, and Liv Boeree at the final table to claim a career-best $6 million prize and his first-ever bracelet.
2024 EPT Prague Main Event
The final European Poker Tour Main Event of 2024 also stole the show as a record-breaker, attracting a massive field of 1,458 entries – the largest field in the history of this event. Unfolding in December 2024, the €5,300 buy-in tournament by PokerStars generated a massive seven-figure prize pool, the lion’s share of which eventually went to Portugal’s Pedro Marques, who defeated Romania’s Paul Runcan in heads-up to claim €963,450.
ClubWPT Gold Freeroll at WPT World Championship
Another historic tournament that took place in December was the $5 Million GTD ClubWPT Gold Freeroll, which was held at the iconic Wynn Las Vegas as part of the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship festival. The largest-ever freeroll in poker history saw 1,457 qualifiers through online contests and satellite events and ended with USA’s Chase Bricker claiming the $1 million first-place prize in a remarkable final showdown.
2024 APT Phu Quoc Main Event
The Asian Poker Tour’s final stop of the year in Vietnam broke several records in November. The crown jewel of the series was the VND 36 Million Main Event, which drew a record 795 entries for a hefty VND 25 billion prize pool ($1 million), making it 56% larger and 41% richer than the 2023 edition of the tour. China’s Jinlong Hu claimed victory in the tour’s largest-ever Phu Quoc-based main event, taking home a career-best VND 4.7BN ($185K) in the top prize, along with the coveted 24K Gold Lion Trophy.
2024 Women’s Winter Festival Main Event
Last but not least, the Poker Stars’ inaugural Women’s Winter Festival Main Event drew a record 271 entries, making it the largest women’s live poker event outside Las Vegas. The £400 buy-in tournament hosted at the Hippodrome Casino London in November featured a hefty £100,000 and was won by Argentinian poker pro Maria Lampropulos for £20,000.
The Women’s Winter Festival is aimed at elevating women in poker by allowing them to compete at a higher level in a competitive yet supportive environment. Talking about this women-exclusive event, Founder of the festival and PokerStars Ambassador Kerryjane Craigie said: “This event was a celebration of women, and about championing and empowering women in poker. I’m so pleased that we have created this amazing community event that was accessible for everyone to come and have a go and was filled with fun, laughter, and fantastic poker. Thank you to everyone who joined us, I’m excited to see what’s ahead.“
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