The WPT announced today that its flagship World Championship event would not carry a guarantee in 2024. That comes after it smashed the $15 million guarantee in 2022 and narrowly missed its $40 million guarantee in 2023.
In an exclusive interview with PokerOrg, WPT CEO Adam Pliska said the value this year would come instead from a $5 million freeroll, with a $1 million first prize and 100 $10K World Championship seats up for grabs.
You can listen to the full interview with Adam Pliska here or check out the highlights below.
The WSOP Paradise series is set to run at the same time, and the $25K Super Main Event comes with a $50 million guarantee, the biggest in poker history.
What do players make of the WPT announcement? We canvassed the opinion of three members of the Player Advisory Board – successful tournament players Ari Engel, Faraz Jaka and Andrew Moreno.
Faraz Zaka: WPT decision is smart
"I believe WPT have made a smart decision by not putting a guarantee on the Wynn World Championship event and instead focusing on alternative ways to incentivize players. The escalating competition between WSOP and Wynn over guarantees wasn’t leading to a sustainable outcome for either organization.
Last year, WPT missed their guarantee, and now WSOP has a massive $50 million guarantee on their $25k Super Main, but it comes with four flights and one re-entry per flight, totaling eight bullets. Personally, I would have preferred fewer flights or re-entries, even if it meant a smaller guarantee. Allowing up to eight entries means Day 2 will be filled with tougher competition, primarily from pros willing to fire all eight bullets.
It seems WPT recognized they might face a similar situation and wisely chose a different, more creative approach. We'll only know after the fact if their play works out, but either way, I am a big fan of experimenting because when those experiments work out, it benefits both operators and players across the industry.
Personally, I’m choosing WSOP Bahamas over the WPT Wynn. I was already about 60/40 leaning towards the Bahamas due to a few personal reasons I’ll share below, and this new initiative hasn’t moved the needle for me. I do recognize that I may not be the target customer that the freeroll is targeted towards.
One thing I do not know is if it will be less experienced players who win the 100 seats to the $10K Wynn event or more experienced pros. If it does end up being the former, it could lead to a very soft Championship event, which might make me wish I had gone to the WPT Wynn event instead.
The three reasons I am personally going to WSOP Bahamas over Wynn are:
- I’m already in Florida for the WPT Hard Rock, and it’s a quick and easy flight to the Bahamas immediately after the Hard Rock series ends.
- WSOP is offering 14 free nights plus a daily dinner buffet at Atlantis for players wiring in $100k. That’s a tempting perk for many, given that the high cost of accommodation and food in the Bahamas can be a deterrent.
- Winning another WSOP bracelet holds personal significance for me.
It was a close and tough decision, but if any of these three factors didn't exist, I could easily have opted to attend the WPT Wynn series instead.
A freeroll of this size certainly adds more value than a guarantee, as it literally injects additional money into the prize pools. I’d compare WPT’s freeroll to WSOP’s offer of 14 free nights at Atlantis – both initiatives involve the companies putting money directly into the hands of players. WPT’s freeroll caters more to newer players willing to earn incentives through their online platform, while WSOP’s initiative provides value to high roller players committing $100k+ in buy-ins.
Ultimately, WPT is targeting low-to-mid buy-in players for their December series, while WSOP Bahamas is appealing to both high roller pros and recreational players who enjoy the added bonus of a vacation in the Bahamas."
Andrew Moreno: No guarantee is a warning sign
"I would have preferred to see WPT keep a guarantee. A big guarantee attracts both pros and amateurs alike. Removing the guarantee leads to questions: 'What’s going on? Is everything okay?'
It won’t change my mind. I would still go to the Wynn. However, this gives the WSOP the window to draw big crowds away from the Wynn with their big guarantee in the Bahamas.
The $5 million freeroll is considerable value. To me, it feels like more value to recreational players than pros, which isn’t a bad thing. Keeping the guarantee is good for both. Pretty much all the pros that will attend the festival are playing regardless of whether they win a seat or not. However, giving away those seats does mean a lot more recs will have a chance to play the World Championship.
Catering to recreational players is something any operator should do. Pros understand that.
Overall, though, my concern is with removing the guarantee. I feel it sends a warning signal out that the festival could be in trouble."
Ari Engel: Huge guarantees not always as impressive as they look
"It’s always hard to know how new promotions will play out. But I will say, a lot of the huge guarantees we see in poker are not nearly as impressive as they seem at first glance.
If an event allows unlimited re-entries, or close to unlimited re-entries, and has tons of flights… a lot of the tournaments will even have online flights. Before you know it, it's not nearly as many unique players as you think. Also, the best players in the field are guaranteed to make Day 2.
If there are 100 complete amateurs playing the WPT World Championship that never would otherwise play, or even if you know 60 or 70 of them are in that category, I think that does wonders for the field composition.
It’s not necessarily the worst thing. And if it means a bunch of the best players go to the Bahamas instead, that’s actually a great thing for the WPT field. It’s interesting, and I'm open-minded to see how it plays out."
