Ron Adams was supposed to go home after he finished the ClubWPT Gold $5 million freeroll tournament. He’s been married to his wife Bridget for 13 years. He should know better by now: don’t promise your wife you’re coming home until you’re sure you’re coming home.
Adams’ face could have been on a promotional poster for the $5 million tourney. He’s a Northwestern graduate, juggler, and a onetime Philadelphia political candidate. He’s also a self-professed amateur player. When the Willy Wonka brains behind the Golden Passport came up with the idea for a $5 million free-to-enter tournament, they had clearly had people like Adams at the top of mind. He is an Everyman. Well, he's a powerlifting Everyman, but an Everyman nonetheless.
ClubWPT Gold, the new America-focused sweepstakes arm of the World Poker Tour's vertical sanctuary, conceived an event for the masses: 2,000 free seats, 503 money-winners, and a $1 million first place payout. On top of that, the tournament promised a panoply of impressive prizes (including a shiny gold McLaren and 100 free seats to the $10,000 WPT World Championship). The last of those is what got Adams in trouble. But we’ll get back to that.
WPT Wonka World: Just be happy!
Of the 2,000 Golden Passports awarded in a two-month giveaway frenzy, nearly 75% of Passport winners showed up to registration to claim their free seats. It took only seven hours of play to make it to guaranteed money and the chance to draw for one of 100 $10,000 WPT World Championship seats. One in every five money-finishers will play this weekend in the World Championship.
Hence, it was no surprise, the $5 million freeroll was happier than just about any 1,500-player tournament you’ll ever see. In short, this was a Wonka World tournament made of raw sugar.
Only once in the first seven hours would the room hear a word spoken in anger. A noted grump targeted – of all people- – nice-guy Brad Owen. In a sodium-free tournament, the noise was salty enough to draw the attention and ire of people hopped up on Wonka sugar. Enter once again: Ron Adams, sugar acolyte.
“Just be happy we’re in the tournament!” Adams beseeched.
Ron Adams wasn’t wrong, especially in the eyes of the shutout poker players who begged and pleaded for a free ticket to the event only to wonder why they weren’t one of the lucky ones. Those messages littered social media in the last two weeks, and they harmonized poorly with news of holiday WPT Global corporate layoffs. Any of that publicity could have cast a dark cloud over Ron Adams’ “Just be happy!” world and the tournament as a whole.
And then all of that was promptly forgotten when Jungleman entered the room with Oompa Loompas. Because of course he did.
Sugar prevails as big money awaits
No matter how much talk of poker's 'winter war' might have hung over the festivities, noise from faraway places like Prague and Nassau doesn't carry all the way to Wonka World. In addition to the $5 million in giveaway money in the ClubWPT Gold freeroll, the WPT broke its own WPT Prime Championship record this week with a $9.3 million prize pool. It's starting the World Championship on Saturday. And in the middle of all that, this festival is throwing money in the air and making it rain sugarplums and priceless encounters.
Phil Ivey was there for only a hot second, but he gave one guy a story to tell for the rest of his life. It was the kind of thing that justified the effort another guy made to just get here: 35 hours on a bus. Even the stone bubble exited with a smile (if also a Charleton Heston-esque Planet of the Apes scream).
And if you have never watched a pure celebration the likes of that of industry legend Kevin 'Kevmath' Mathers, let it stand here as an example of what a little late-game sugar can do to a man.
At the end of the first day of play, only 50 of the original entries remained. They will all return Saturday to play down to a final table and a shot at the $1 million first prize. Though it's a tournament designed to attract the recreational players, the top of the leaderboard features many familiar names: Darryl Fish, Nick Pupillo, Mike Dentale, Mike Wasserman, Jared Jaffee, Lara Eisenberg, and more.
Ron Adams won't be there, of course. He has a whole different sort of sugar problem.
"Bridget's gonna kill me"
After collecting his prize money, Ron Adams made his way to the consolation draw, where he had only a 20% chance of making his wife irate. Eighty percent of the time, he'd be back on the plane to Philadelphia for some Christmas home cooking. This time: he pulled out a $10,000 seat to the WPT World Championship. The seat is nontransferable. He can play or go home with a worthless $10,000 receipt.
"I told her I was leaving tonight!" he said. "If I tell her I have to stay until tomorrow, she's going to kill me. She has a kid at home...I'm staying, but I'm definitely paying for this sh--!"
There's no telling how big the World Championship prize pool will be or how Ron "Just Be Happy" Adams will fare, but here's a word of warning to anyone who faces this guy in the Championship: he's still playing for sugar, but it's the kind waiting back in Philly.
You've been warned.
Images from the $5 million ClubWPT Gold Freeroll
All images courtesy WPT
