I recently saw that Borgata had a huge $3,000,000 guarantee with an advertised $1,000,000 guarantee for first place for the BetMGM Poker Millionaire Championship event.
They ended up hitting the $3,000,000 guarantee. First, big props to Kellie de Celis, the poker room manager over there. It was a huge accomplishment for them, but it did cause some controversy in the poker world when 2025 WSOP final table finisher Adam Hendrix posted on X:
What makes a gimmick?
I do have some thoughts on ‘gimmicky payouts.’ That's Adam’s word, not my word. Let's talk about that.
First, I want to talk about why someone might have these types of payouts. In my opinion, it becomes gimmicky if you do it after the prizepool has been established.
For instance, if you didn't advertise anything for first place and then you adjust first for some sort of reason or another. Similar to what the WSOP did when they increased the first prize for the 2023 Main Event to $12,100,00 to top the prior $12,000,000 top prize of the biggest tournament ever. To me, that's a little gimmicky.
The Borgata did everything correctly. They posted that first place would be $1,000,000 well before the tournament ever started. They said the word millionaire over and over and over again in their advertising on their structure sheet, and everywhere they're supposed to. To me, this is a feature, not a gimmick. If you play this tournament, you have a chance to become a millionaire. That was their hook, which is fine with me.
But this raises the question: What is the best way to get a room to stop with these ‘gimmicks?’
As someone who has organized huge tournaments with large guarantees that missed, I can tell you there is a better and worse way to get this accomplished. When I say I missed, I mean, seriously. If there were a Tournament Director for most Hendon Mob missed guarantees, I would be the all-time money leader in four different states.
When you miss a big guarantee or post a payout in this spot, there is a long line of people who are ready to tell you what you did wrong. After it happens, everyone can tell you what you should have done in order to make it not happen. That’s not hard to find.
What is hard to find is somebody who could tell you before the tournament starts, ‘Hey, you're making a huge mistake. This event is about to go wrong.’
It was a $3,000,000 guarantee with a $1,000,000 guarantee for first. Most of us in the industry can probably look at that and figure out this isn't going to be a standard payout. There is going to be a pretty big gap between first place and second place.
Speak up if you notice something wrong
That would be the time to reach out to somebody and tell them, ‘Hey, I think what you're doing is wrong.’ So how do you reach out and let somebody know?
I know the Tournament Director, Kellie, personally. She is one of the most accessible, open-minded individuals in the industry. If you saw something wrong with what she was doing, she is the perfect type of person to reach out to on Twitter or contact somehow. She is very willing to listen and do what she needs to do.
When you come up with something like this, I can tell you somebody in charge of running this tournament believes that it'll bring in more players.
Who is that person? It could be a lot of people. It could be the person who's actually organizing it. It could be the Tournament Director. It could be someone in a suit who's super important, who opens the door and says, ‘Make sure it's a million for first,’ and then closes the door.
In the end, you want an event with a hook. You want to have an exciting feature added to market the event. And I'm not saying I agree or disagree with offering $1,000,000 for first place.
What I can say is I applaud the people in the industry who make an effort to do something different. They’re trying to build something so that poker players in their area have something fun to play.
And if they decide to make somebody a millionaire, I'm all for it. I don't think it's gimmicky.
So to answer Adam’s question: Can we stop it with these gimmicky payouts? Probably not.
Do you have a tricky ruling you'd like my take on? Drop it in the comments — I’ll feature some of the best ones in future columns.
Justin Hammer is the Live Events Director for PokerAtlas, online Tournament Director for the Texas-based poker app Hijack, and a Tournament Director for Thunder Valley Casino Resort. He also brings his expertise as a consultant and minority owner of Desert Bluffs Casino in Kennewick, Washington. With years of experience across live, online, and casino operations, Justin has established himself as a trusted leader in the poker world.
For more info visit PokerAtlas.com, HijackPoker.com, and bluffs.poker. Follow Justin on X
