This year’s World Poker Tour World Championship main event was the first in the tournament’s three-year history to not feature a headline-grabbing guarantee. The inaugural running of the $10,400 buy-in no-limit hold’em event, hosted at Wynn Las Vegas in 2022, sported a $15 million guarantee that was nearly doubled. The following year, organizers set a lofty $40 million goal and fell just short, resulting in a $2.4 million overlay.
In 2024, the event was going up against both the World Series of Poker Paradise’s record-setting $50 million guaranteed Super Main Event and the tail end of the European Poker Tour Prague main event. Despite this major competition, the WPT World Championship managed to draw 2,392 total entries, resulting in a final prize pool of $23,441,600.
While this was the smallest turnout yet for the event, it is still a massive field at this price point, especially given the lack of a guarantee.
The top 299 finishers are set to make the money, with the top prize sitting at $3,138,900. The last 39 players standing will all earn at least six-figure paydays, with seven-figure scores for the final four.
The tournament featured three starting flights, with 751 entries on day 1A, another 681 on day 1B, and finally 960 from day 1C.
There are more than 800 players set to return for day 2 action on Tuesday, Dec. 17. More than 500 eliminations stand between them and the min-cash of $19,600. Play will resume at noon, with five 90-minute levels on the schedule before the day comes to an end.
Here is a look at the full payouts for the event:
1st: $3,138,900
2nd: $2,075,000
3rd: $1,550,000
4th: $1,150,000
5th: $875,000
6th: $665,000
7th: $515,000
8th: $400,000
9th-10th: $310,000
11th-12th: $255,000
13th-15th: $215,000
16th-19th: $176,000
20th-23rd: $146,000
24th-31st: $121,000
32nd-39th: $101,000
40th-47th: $85,000
48th-55th: $71,000
56th-63rd: $59,000
64th-79th: $50,000
80th-99th: $42,000
100th-120th: $35,500
121st-150th: $29,500
151st-192nd: $25,000
193rd-240th: $21,600
241st-299th: $19,600
Photo credit: WPT.