Freeroll To A Milly

Dallas-based Chase Bricker took home the top prize at the WPT $5M Freeroll, outlasting 1,457 players winning a cool $1,000,000. Not bad for a part-timer! 

Luck of the draw. He wasn't even supposed to play the tournament. After failing to qualify for the freeroll online, Bricker was talked into going on a Vegas trip after all.

Bricker decided to tag along and play the $1,100 WPT Event, but after firing two bullets, he found himself on the sidelines. After busting both entries, he decided to try his luck at a raffle for a ticket at the Wynn hallway and got one on his first try. 

Lifechanging. That freeroll ended up changing Bricker’s life. 3 days of battling and 1,457 players later, he was all-in with AQ vs the AT of Jason Christopher for the massive $1 million first place prize. 

A safe runout allowed Bricker to secure the $750k pay jump from 2nd to 1st place. On top of that, he earned an additional $100k in mystery bounties at the final table by eliminating three of his opponents.

“This is life-changing money. That money needs to mean something is how I look at it,” he said. “I look at it as an opportunity, frankly, to elevate my life, and my family’s life, and my future family’s life.”

A fairytale ending to the WPT Freeroll. We love to see it.

In The News

• Bubble boy. Phil Hellmuth became the bubble boy of WSOP Paradise’s $50M GTD Main Event after going all-in with his 2.5bb stack holding AK. Facing two opponents, his AK-high couldn’t hold, ending his run on the stone bubble.

• Stone cold. What’s worse than taking away a gaming console from a kid? How about pulling a bounty envelope that reveals your grand prize of… $000,000? That’s exactly what happened to Jason Christopher, the eventual 2nd place finisher in the WPT $5M Freeroll.

• Pass, says Tony Parker. The retired NBA star Tony Parker was one of the many entrants in the WSOP Paradise’s $25k Super Main Event. And, boy, did he garner some attention! Especially after folding his KK preflop to a 4bet vs a sub 30bb stack who turned out to have AQo. 

Live Poker In Ireland Under Pressure

What’s happening? A new gambling legislation is about to be introduced in Ireland that threatens the future of live poker in the country. 

Here’s why: The 220-page behemoth of a law is meant to protect Irish sports bettors by introducing max wager of just €10, and max winnings of only €3,000. Unfortunately, poker falls under the umbrella of this law.

Despite only being mentioned once in what's essentially a footnote, poker is likely to be affected by these laws

Exceptions. However, there’s still some hope - horse racing has been exempted from the law on the grounds of being classified as a “sport.” There’s hope poker can be reclassified as well. 

Otherwise, we might lose the 2nd longest-running tournament series ever - the Irish Open - which was first organized in 1980, and face the potential extinction of legal live poker in Ireland. 

Not just Ireland. Similarly, PokerStars recently canceled EPT Paris originally scheduled for February due to unforeseen regulatory changes in France. 

ICYMI

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