Thanks to the World Series of Poker, someone is guaranteed to wake up on Thursday morning to over $1 million dollars.
This weekend starts off that pursuit with the popular Millionaire Maker at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas venue.
A five-day, multi-flight extravaganza culminates in a guaranteed first-place prize to one fortunate player who outlasts the sure-to-be massive field. Regis Philbin has got nothing on this.
Last year's finger-lickin' champion
A total of 7,961 showed up last year to take their shot for the million. Outlasting all of them, while sporting a KFC "Bucket" hat along with his rail, was the Bulgarian Yuliyan Kolev. He won $1,125,141 and his first live WSOP bracelet and second bracelet overall.
Kolev was down to less than one big blind with two tables remaining, showing truly anything can happen in these tournaments. He had 25,000 chips left at the big blind level of 500,000 and managed to run that up to a victory.
Interestingly, 25,000 is the starting stack in this event, so which of you will spin that to victory?
2022 Millionaire Maker results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Yuliyan Kolev | Bulgaria | $1,125,141 |
| 2 | Oren Rosen | Israel | $695,390 |
| 3 | Tyler Gaston | United States | $522,705 |
| 4 | Yita Choong | Australia | $395,545 |
| 5 | Dominic Brazier | United States | $301,346 |
| 6 | Stanley Weng | United States | $231,145 |
| 7 | Alen Tenorio | Brazil | $178,515 |
| 8 | Bastien Joly | France | $138,821 |
| 9 | Nick Marchington | United Kingdom | $108,704 |
| 10 | Raul Martinez | Spain | $85,718 |
How to turn $1,500 into over $1 million
The Millionaire Maker has two starting flights, Friday the 23rd and Saturday the 24th. All days will start at 10 am with the potential exception of Day 5. The $1,500 buy-in gets you the 25,000 starting stack to put to use during the player-friendly 60-minute-blind structure.
Each player may re-enter once per flight for a total of four bullets available to be fired. This one will be one of the most popular weekend events, so I highly recommend registering in advance or using the Bravo Poker Live website to avoid potentially long wait times at the registration desk.
Navigating these massive fields can seem overwhelming. Still, someone has to come out victorious next week. Check out our article with tips from some professionals on how to navigate these large-field tournaments. And as always, follow along with updates all summer via Poker Instant by clicking the button below.
