Regulated online poker hasn’t yet arrived in Virginia, but aspiring grinders still have options for playing online poker legally in the Old Dominion. Sweepstakes poker sites offer the best legal alternative to real-money online poker in Virginia. Platforms like ClubWPT award substantial sweepstakes prizes, including sweepstakes credits redeemable for cash. This guide to Virginia online poker aims to clarify the legal status of sweepstakes poker rooms, as well as direct Virginia poker players to the best legal poker sites available in the state. Virginia doesn’t permit real-money online poker sites, and it appears that status might not change any time soon. The Old Dominion does host a thriving online sports betting economy. State lawmakers recently shifted their stance on casino gambling as well, with a few physical casino properties open in the state. Virginia’s recent gambling expansion could eventually lead to regulated online poker launching in the state. There doesn’t appear to be much on the way in terms of online poker legislation in the near future, however. While real-money online poker isn’t a reality yet in Virginia, sweepstakes poker sites are legal. All prizes at these sites are awarded under a sweepstakes gaming model, and sweepstakes poker sites fall into a different legal category than real-money online poker rooms. The top sweepstakes poker room available in Virginia is ClubWPT. Keep reading for more on how ClubWPT works, what games are offered, and what prizes are on the line. U.S. states can legalize certain forms of online gambling on an individual basis. Mobile sports betting and daily fantasy sports experienced a boom period in the 2020s, with more than half of U.S. states offering at least one of these forms of online sports gaming. While online sports betting is available in more than half of the U.S., real-money online poker is available in less than 10 states. Virginia mirrors many other states, with a vibrant online sports betting scene but no access to online poker. Sweepstakes poker is thriving in the U.S., however, and is legal in more than 40 states. Sites like ClubWPT offer an excellent (and more importantly, legal) alternative to regulated online poker. If you want to play poker online in Virginia, ClubWPT tops the list of the best online poker sites available in the state. Read on for an overview of ClubWPT and how the sweepstakes tournaments work on the site. ClubWPT is a sweepstakes poker room owned and operated by the World Poker Tour (WPT). Virginia players will find two kinds of games running at ClubWPT – free-to-play games and sweepstakes games. The free-to-play games at ClubWPT use a play money currency known as “Play Chips.” The Play Chips games allow you to practice poker for free, with no monetary risk involved. You’ll also find free-to-play casino games on the site. ClubWPT’s sweepstakes games operate much like traditional poker tournaments, with sweepstakes credits and prizes on the line (instead of strictly cash). These games award more than $100,000 in cash and prizes every month. Players in all 50 U.S. states can sign up for a ClubWPT account and get access to the Play Chips games. The sweepstakes online poker games are legal in 36 states, and Virginia is on that list. Virginia players can access ClubWPT’s sweepstakes tournaments by purchasing a monthly subscription. You can choose between two different subscription levels, and also purchase a special add-on subscription that grants access to special satellite tournaments running each Saturday. The monthly subscription fee allows unlimited access to the sweepstakes tournaments available in the tier for which you purchased the subscription. The subscription tiers at ClubWPT break down as follows: VIP ($27.95 per month, access to all VIP tournaments) Diamond ($149.95 per month, access to all Diamond and VIP tournaments) Super SATurdays ($100 add-on per month, access to Super SATurdays satellite tournaments) The VIP subscription level is the lowest-priced tier available at ClubWPT. The $27.95 monthly fee gives you access to all sweepstakes tournaments under the VIP filter. VIP tournaments use “Tournament Points” (aka TP) as currency. When you sign up for any ClubWPT subscription, you’ll start your journey with 500 TP. You can use those points to enter VIP tournaments. Your TP balance also reloads every day. A VIP tournament runs like a traditional online poker tournament, with cash (in the form of sweepstakes credits), prizes, and TP awarded to those who finish “in the money.” For example, the “$1,000 Mountain” VIP tournament awards the following prizes: Tournament Name: $1,000 Mountain Buy-In: 400TP Prize Pool: $1,000 USD + 202,500 TP Guaranteed First Place: $150 USD + 2,000 TP VIP subscribers also enjoy access to freeroll tournaments (aka zero TP buy-in tournaments) that award TP, cash, and prizes. The Diamond subscription level offers entry to tournaments with the biggest prizes awarded at ClubWPT. The $149.95 monthly fee grants access to all tournaments in the Diamond tier, as well as all tournaments in the VIP tier. Diamond tournaments don’t require TP to buy in, and you’ll get unlimited access to these tournaments when you purchase a subscription. Diamond tournaments award sweepstakes credits/cash, Tournament Points (which you can use to buy into Diamond tournaments), and prizes. A typical Diamond Tournament could look like this: Tournament Name: $5,000 Cash Guarantee Buy-In: Freeroll (unlimited entry for Diamond subscribers) Prize Pool: $5,000 USD + 541,000 TP Guaranteed First Place: $1,000 USD + 5,000 TP Many Diamond tournaments also offer the opportunity to win your way into live events on the World Poker Tour. For example, the following Diamond tournament awarded cash and VIP Tournament Points throughout the payout ladder, with a WPT Prime Passport as the first-place prize: Tournament Name: $2,500 WPT Prime Championship Passport + $500 Buy-In: Freeroll (unlimited entry for Diamond subscribers) Prize Pool: $3,000 USD + 467,500 TP Guaranteed First Place: $2,500 WPT Prime Passport + 5,000 TP The prizes awarded in the VIP tournaments include WPT Passports (entry plus travel stipend for WPT live events), WPT Voyage Cruise packages, and more. The Diamond subscription allows access to both the Diamond and the VIP tiers, and unlocks opportunities to win the largest prizes available at ClubWPT. All of these factors make the Diamond level subscription the best value available among the subscription tiers at ClubWPT. The flagship event on the ClubWPT schedule is the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge. The details for this annual tournament look like this: Tournament Name: $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge Buy-In: Entries must qualify through other ClubWPT events Prize Pool: $125,000 USD First Place: WPT Event Package $12,000 The top prize in the World Championship Challenge comes in the form of a $12,000 package that includes the buy-in and travel expenses for theWPT World Championship, held each December at the Wynn Resort in Las Vegas. You must qualify for the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge through other tournaments on ClubWPT. Most of the qualifiers for the World Championship Challenge are only available to Diamond subscribers. ClubWPT doesn’t operate as a traditional real-money poker room. Sweepstakes prizes are awarded to those that finish in the money in a sweepstakes tournament. The “cash” that’s up for grabs in ClubWPT’s tournaments is actually sweepstakes credit that can be redeemed for cash. Sweepstakes gaming is legal in more than 40 states, and Virginia is on that list. You can sign up for a ClubWPT account and participate in the free-to-play games from any U.S. state. To play in the sweepstakes games and compete for cash and prizes, you must be physically located in one of 36 eligible states while you’re playing. Heres how Virginia poker players can sign up for a ClubWPT account: Click the “CLAIM OFFER” link in any of the ClubWPT ads in this article. Click the green Sign-Up button at the top right of the ClubWPT home page Enter a valid email, choose a username and password, and click Continue Enter your name, DoB, and physical address, and choose a security question and answer. On the next screen, choose your subscription and your payment method. The Play Chips games and tournaments are open to all U.S. players, without a subscription required. To compete in the VIP and Diamond tournaments, you must purchase one of the monthly subscription packages and be physically located in one of the 36 eligible states when you play. You’re in luck if you’re located in Virginia, as ClubWPT’s sweepstakes games are legal (as long as you’re physically located in Virginia while you play). Sweepstakes pker sites aren’t governed by the same online poker laws that would apply to a traditional poker site. By definition, sweepstakes gaming platforms award prizes to winners, but these prizes aren’t direct cash winnings. All prizes awarded at ClubWPT, for instance, are sweepstakes prizes. These prizes include sweepstakes credits redeemable for cash. The biggest prizes up for grabs at ClubWPT include WPT Voyage Cruise packages and WPT Passports (entry plus travel stipend to prestigious live World Poker Tour events). A traditional online poker site requires you to make a direct cash deposit and then put that money on the line in direct competition against other players. At ClubWPT, you can purchase a monthly subscription and, as long as your subscription is active, get unlimited access to the site’s sweepstakes tournaments. When you look for any kind of legal online gambling site, you’ll come across a few platforms that appear to offer traditional poker cash games and tournaments in all U.S. states. In spite of federal laws, these sites offer online casino gaming and poker in many U.S. states. While these sites might look legitimate, you might notice that they’re not regulated or licensed by any Virginia gaming agency (or any U.S. agency for that matter). If an online poker site runs real-money games, but doesn’t clearly display a seal of approval from a state gaming regulation agency, the site is operating illegally. These sites are known as “offshore” gambling sites, as they operate outside of the U.S. in terms of both physical location and legal jurisdiction. Offshore sites should be avoided for the following reasons: If you attempt to make a deposit at an offshore poker site, you’ll notice that it’s often next to impossible to deposit using a debit card, credit card, or ACH bank transfer. Illegal offshore gambling sites heavily promote cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals. If you do manage to get a deposit through using a traditional banking method, that transaction will often appear on your statement as an online purchase from a retailer you’ve never heard of. Offshore sites try to disguise the true nature of player deposits in an effort to get around banking regulations. When you purchase a subscription at ClubWPT, that transaction will always clearly appear on your bank account as exactly what it is – a purchase from ClubWPT. When you sign up for an account at an offshore gambling site, you give your personal information to an illegal gambling operation that’s conducting business outside of U.S. laws. Make your first deposit, and now they have your financial information and your money. Once an offshore site has your information, you don’t know where or with whom that information might end up. Once the site has your money, you run the risk of never seeing those funds again. If your in a state without regulated online poker, your best bet is to play at legitimate sweepstakes poker sites like ClubWPT. ClubWPT, and its parent company, the World Poker Tour, operate with a keen interest in protecting the financial and personal information of its players. While illegal/offshore poker sites might appear to run legitimate poker games, those games are also often infested with the following things: Bots (computer/AI-automated “poker players”) Player collusion Multi-accounting (one player playing under multiple screen names) Ghosting (players controlling other players’ accounts) Legitimate poker sites like ClubWPT operate with the highest security protocols, with the aim of proactively eliminating these types of unethical activities. Offshore sites have little or no incentive to ensure the security of its players or the games on the site. These operations have one goal – taking deposits from players. You can’t expect much player security once they have your money. Yes. While regulated online poker isn’t yet a reality in Virginia, you’re not out of luck when it comes to playing poker online. Sweepstakes poker sites are legal in 36 U.S. states, including Virginia. These sites award prizes under a sweepstakes gaming model, which is defined differently than a real-money gambling model in a legal sense. The top sweepstakes site currently available in Virginia is ClubWPT. Online sports betting is the only form of full-scale online gambling currently legal in Virginia. If you come across an online gambling site that offers anything other than sports betting (or doesn’t bear a seal of approval from the Virginia Lottery), that site is operating illegally. ClubWPT offers the top legal alternative to real-money online poker in Virginia. ClubWPT operates under a sweepstakes gaming model, and operates legally under Virginia poker laws. ClubWPT is the best legal poker site available in Virginia. The site doesn’t run traditional real-money poker games, but it does offer sweepstakes tournaments with cash and prizes on the line. The “cash” on the line in ClubWPT’s sweepstakes tournaments are actually sweepstakes credits that you can redeem for cash. You can also win entry into WPT live events, travel packages to WPT Voyage Cruises, and more. ClubWPT awards more than $100,000 in monthly cash and prizes. Yes. You can play all of the games available at ClubWPT while located in Virginia. This includes the site’s sweepstakes tournaments, as well as the free-to-play (aka Play Chips) games. No. Offshore gambling sites operate outside of U.S. laws and should be avoided. Virginia does have at least one live poker room, and more could be on the way as the state’s casino industry expands. The top legal online poker site currently available in Virginia is ClubWPT. ClubWPT operates as a sweepstakes poker site, with cash (aka sweepstakes credits) and prizes on the line daily. There is no purchase necessary to play on ClubWPT. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. For more information regarding events, including how to qualify and location eligibility, visitClubWPT.com Ensure your jurisdiction allows play on WPT Global. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

When Alan Goehring topped the WPT World Championship back in 2003 it was a poker dream come true. Not only did he outlast a final table that featured some all-time poker legends including Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, and Ted Forrest but he made poker history by officially becoming the first-ever million-dollar winner on the World Poker Tour . Twenty-two years later making millionaires, is part of the World Poker Tour DNA. Life-changing seven-figure sums have been won on the tour by players both talented and lucky enough to get to the end on the biggest stages of the WPT. And this December, at the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas, youll be able to add even more in both the $10,400 WPT World Championship and the $1,100 WPT Prime Championship. But theres one more soon-to-be millionaire that will be awarded at the Wynn and this one will be different from all the rest. This player wont have to put a single dollar of their own on the line, courtesy of the ClubWPT Gold $5M Invitational Freeroll and its $1,000,000 first-place prize. Whoever wins this first-of-its-kind freeroll will walk in the footsteps of giants and join some of the biggest names in the game as a WPT-minted millionaire. On the Main Tour alone, 135 different players have banked a million-dollar score and nine players have been lucky enough to do it twice. Alan Goehring was one of them, as well as the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Carlos Mortensen, Michael Mizrachi, Chino Rheem, Tuan Le, Alex Foxen, Chris Moorman, and Jonathan Little. The most recent class of millionaires was just last year when Daniel Sepiol won $5,678,000 at the 2023 WPT World Championship – the single biggest WPT Main Tour payout in history. But it should be noted that everyone at that incredible final table, including Georgios Sotiropoulos, Andrew Lichetnber, Chris Moorman, Ben Heath, and Artur Martirosyan were all also awarded more than a million for their efforts. Sepiols payday was a record for the Main Tour, but high roller savant Mikita Badziakouski is in the WPT record books for the largest payday of all time, walking with just over $7.1 million in last years WPT Big One for One Drop. Speaking of high rollers, WPT Alpha8 has done its fair share of minting millionaires including two-time winner Philipp Gruissem who booked a win in 2013 at WPT Alpha8 in London for $1.3 million and one mon th later rattled off another victory at WPT Alpha8 for another million-dollar score. Whoever wins the ClubWPT Gold freeroll will join another club as well, joining Mortensen, Freddy Deeb, Dennis Blieden, Griffin Paul, and Brandon Cantu as the sixth player to win exactly $1 million. If the right kind of luck is on your side, not only could you join the WPT Millionaires Club but also earn the distinction as the winner of the largest freeroll in poker history. Another poker dream come true.

In April 1993, a then 23-year-old office supply salesman was plucked form the audience at halftime of a Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls game and given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If he could make a 75-foot basket from across the court he could win $1 million dollars. So, from the foul line at the opposite end of the court Don Calhoun took the ball, loaded up, and took his shot. Nothing but net. The Calhoun Shot, as its now known, was, essentially, a million-dollar freeroll. No harm if he missed, an overnight millionaire if he hit – and Don cashed in. This December, the World Poker Tour is bringing that same energy to the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas in the form of the largest freeroll in poker history – a $5,000,000 freeroll to kick-off and help promote WPTs latest online poker offering: ClubWPT Gold. Two thousand poker players are going to win a seat into this massive giveaway, and like Don Calhoun, one of them will walk away with a first-place prize of $1,000,000. These couples have all become instant millionaires on the richest game in television That was the intro on the 1986 game show ‘The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime, the first game show credited with offering a million-dollar top prize. The little-known, short-lived show pitted couples against each other in a series of reverse Wheel of Fortune word puzzles where if they won three episodes in a row, including tougher bonus rounds, they took home $1 million. Chance of a Lifetime didnt last long, just two seasons where nine couples walked with a million. More than a decade later, in August of 1999, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire aired in the United States every day for two weeks. The allure of regular people answering trivia questions in an effort to climb the money ladder to reach the million-dollar question drew roughly 30 million viewers a night. It was 25 years ago that John Carpenter, a 31-year-old IRS agent, was the first to win the show becoming the biggest money winner in television history famously using his phone-a-friend lifeline to call his parents and telling them live on-air that he was about to win the million. Despite it being a hell of a lot of money, Carpenter kept his job but admitted to People Magazine that the money makes it easier to focus on family. Right on the heels of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, reality TV royalty Survivor premiered in May of 2000. The first reality show to offer a one million dollar first-place prize has become not just a cultural touchstone but helped usher in a new era where both game and reality competitions would separate themselves as high-stakes by offering the $1,000,000 top prize. Survivor pushed the boundaries for what contestants would be willing to go through to win a million. More than word puzzles or trivia, these players were given the Castaway treatment seemingly left to fend for themselves on an island. What was true then, remains true – people will do a lot to get a shot at a million. Cite inflation all youd like, becoming a millionaire still means something and its a figure that, for many, remains life-changing. At the very least, its financial security and for poker players specifically – an incredible bankroll boost. Case in point is Survivor: Blood vs. Water winner, and frequent poker player, Tyson Apostol who in his third attempt on the show outwitted, outplayed, and outlasted the competition to score his found million-dollar payday. I will probably try to wisely invest it and make it last as long as possible so that I can kick back at bit, Apostol told Entertainment Weekly after his win. I don;t care about fancy cars, maybe a bicycle. Im more of a bicycle guy than a car guy. The only reason I would buy a car is to make my car guy friends jealous. Whether its spending more than a month on an island in the Philippines or having an endless well of trivia knowledge to call upon, winning a million rarely comes easy. Mark Pate took on a challenge from YouTuber Jimmy Mr. Beast Donaldson in which he stood for nearly 48 hours with his hand on a glass cube filled with cash, outlasting three other competitors in the video entitled “Last To Take Hand Off $1,000,000 Keeps It.” Shortly thereafter, Pate was charged by Mr. Beast to spend as much of it as he could in 24 hours. Im very grateful, Pate said on camera. Like highly humble and grateful about this whole entire thing. I have never experienced anything like this in my life. In the subsequent video Pate could be seen splurging on electronics for himself and his extended family, buying a new ring for his wife, getting two new cars, and even a new house. Today, even though those million-dollar prizes are more common on TV, they remain the gold standard figure for generating eye-popping excitement over a project even as reality competitions like Deal or No Deal Island and game shows like The Wall are pushing prizes to new heights. In a sense, setting a new bar is also what is taking place in poker at the WPT World Championship at the Wynn this December. Its a record-setting, poker-history-making $5 million freeroll where the winner will take home seven figures. Add to that 100 seats to the $10K buy-in WPT World Championship are scheduled to be given away, offering those who land a seat a second shot at a seven-figure payday. Chances like this don’t come around very often and itll likely be the closest chance any of those who win a Golden Passport will come to having a “Calhoun Shot” of their own and a chance at becoming an overnight millionaire.

Real-money online poker isn’t currently legal in North Carolina. While you can find a couple of live poker rooms running at tribal casinos in the state, you won’t find any full-scale, real-money online poker sites operating legally in NC. If you’re a North Carolina poker player, sweepstakes poker sites are your best bet for legal online poker. ClubWPT is the best sweepstakes poker room currently available in the Tarheel State. This North Carolina online poker guide aims to clarify the legal status of sweepstakes poker, as well as provide a thorough overview of the games and prizes available at ClubWPT. There are no full-scale, real-money online poker rooms currently operating legally in NC. Sweepstakes poker sites offer the best way to play online poker legally in North Carolina. These sites award sweepstakes credits that can be redeemed for cash, as well as sweepstakes prizes. Because all prizes at a sweepstakes gaming site are awarded as sweepstakes prizes, these sites fall under a different legal category than real money gaming sites. Sweepstakes gaming is legal in more than 40 U.S. states. ClubWPT is the best sweepstakes poker site currently operating in the U.S. North Carolina players are in luck, as ClubWPT is legal in the Tarheel State. The U.S. was once one of the biggest online poker markets in the world. The “poker boom” era of the early 21st century saw all of the world’s biggest online poker rooms operate in the U.S. in a legal grey area. That era came to an end on April 15, 2011, a day known as “Black Friday” in poker lore. The U.S. government seized the domains of virtually all of the biggest online poker rooms offering access to U.S. players. In the modern era, U.S. states can legalize poker on an individual basis. All online poker sites doing business in the U.S. must operate in a state that has legalized online poker. The gaming regulation agency in a given state must approve and license a poker site before it can launch in the state. Sweepstakes poker sites don’t operate with the same legal restrictions as real-money poker sites in the U.S. Sweepstakes gaming sites are legal in more than 40 U.S. states, including North Carolina. ClubWPT tops the list of legal poker sites available in NC. If you’re looking for a legal platform to play poker online, ClubWPT is the best sweepstakes site available in the state. As mentioned, ClubWPT offers the best legal platform for playing poker online in North Carolina. Read on for a thorough overview of how ClubWPT works, as well as the games and prizes offered. ClubWPT is a legal sweepstakes poker room owned and operated by the World Poker Tour, one of the longest-running and most trusted brands in the poker industry. North Carolina players can find two kinds of games at ClubWPT – free-to-play games and sweepstakes games. The free-to-play games (known as “Play Chips” games) run 24/7 at ClubWPT and include both poker and casino games. These games are available to anyone in the U.S. ClubWPT’s sweepstakes games award cash and prizes to the winners. The sweepstakes games at ClubWPT award more than $100,000 in cash and prizes each month. The prizes on the line in ClubWPT’s sweepstakes tournaments include sweepstakes credits that can be redeemed for cash. Other prizes available include “Passports” to prestigious WPT live events, travel packages for WPT Voyage luxury cruises, and more. You can get access to the sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT by purchasing a monthly subscription. You can purchase one of two different subscription tiers at ClubWPT, as well as an add-on subscription allowing exclusive access to special Saturday satellite tournaments. The subscription fee grants you unlimited access to the tournaments in your subscription tier, with no additional buy-ins required. The subscription tiers at ClubWPT break down as follows: VIP ($27.95 per month, access to all VIP tournaments) Diamond ($149.95 per month, access to all Diamond and VIP tournaments) Super SATurdays ($100 add-on per month, access to Super SATurdays satellite tournaments) The VIP subscription is the most affordable subscription available at ClubWPT. The $27.95 monthly rate grants access to all tournaments in the VIP tier. When you sign up at ClubWPT, you’ll automatically get 500 “Tournament Points,” which can be used to “buy in” to tournaments in the VIP tier. Your Tournament Points (TP) balance reloads each day. VIP tournaments run like a traditional online poker tournament, with cash (in the form of sweepstakes credits), prizes, and TP awarded to those that finish “in the money.” A typical VIP tournament looks like this: Tournament Name: $1,000 Mountain Buy-In: 400TP Prize Pool: $1,000 USD + 202,500 TP Guaranteed First Place: $150 USD + 2,000 TP VIP subscribers also get access to freeroll tournaments (aka zero TP buy-in tournaments) in the VIP tier that award TP, cash, and prizes. The Diamond subscription is the best overall value available at ClubWPT. The $149.95 monthly subscription fee gives you access to all tournaments in both the Diamond and VIP tiers. If you’re a Diamond subscriber, you get unlimited access to all tournaments on the Diamond level. You don’t have to use TP to buy into Diamond tournaments. Much like the VIP level, Diamond-level tournaments award TP (which can be used to buy into VIP tournaments), cash, and prizes. The cash and prizes awarded in Diamond tournaments are significantly bigger than those awarded in the VIP tier. A typical Diamond Tournament could look like this: Tournament Name: $5,000 Cash Guarantee Buy-In: Freeroll (unlimited entry for Diamond subscribers) Prize Pool: $5,000 USD + 541,000 TP Guaranteed First Place: $1,000 USD + 5,000 TP Many Diamond tournaments also offer the opportunity to win your way into live events on the World Poker Tour. For example, the following Diamond tournament awarded cash and VIP Tournament Points throughout the payout ladder, with a WPT Prime Passport as the first-place prize: Tournament Name: $2,500 WPT Prime Championship Passport + $500 Buy-In: Freeroll (unlimited entry for Diamond subscribers) Prize Pool: $3,000 USD + 467,500 TP Guaranteed First Place: $2,500 WPT Prime Passport + 5,000 TP Diamond subscribers get access to both the Diamond and VIP tiers. Keep in mind that the TP earned in Diamond tournaments can be used to “buy in” VIP tournaments. The biggest event on the ClubWPT tournament schedule is the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge. The details for this flagship tournament look like this: Tournament Name: $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge Buy-In: Entries must qualify through other ClubWPT events Prize Pool: $125,000 USD First Place: WPT Event Package $12,000 The first-place prize for the World Championship Challenge is a $12,000 package that includes the buy-in and a travel stipend for the annualWPT World Championship in Las Vegas. You can only qualify for the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge through other tournaments on ClubWPT. Most of these qualifiers are in the Diamond tier. The games offered at ClubWPT don’t qualify as “real money” poker games in a legal sense. All prizes available in ClubWPT’s sweepstakes tournaments are awarded as sweepstakes prizes. The “cash” prizes on the line in the sweepstakes tournaments are actually sweepstakes credits that are redeemable for cash. Sweepstakes gaming sites are legal in more than 40 states. ClubWPT is a sweepstakes gaming platform featuring poker as the game. You can sign up for a ClubWPT account and participate in the Play Chips games from anywhere in the U.S. To purchase a subscription for the sweepstakes games (and compete for cash and prizes), you must be physically located in one of 36 eligible states while you’re playing. North Carolina is on the list of states that allow access to the sweepstakes poker games at ClubWPT. Heres how North Carolina poker players can sign up for a ClubWPT account: Click the sign-up link in any of the ClubWPT ads in this article. Click the green Sign-Up button at the top right of the ClubWPT home page Enter a valid email, choose a username and password, and click Continue Enter your name, DoB, and physical address, and choose a security question and answer. On the next screen, choose your subscription and your payment method. The Play Chips games and tournaments are open to all U.S. players, without a subscription required. To play the VIP and Diamond tournaments, you must sign up for a monthly subscription package and must be located in one of the 36 eligible states when you play. You’re in luck if you’re located in North Carolina, as ClubWPT’s sweepstakes games are accessible to you (as long as you’re physically located in North Carolina while you play). Sweepstkes poker rooms (and sweepstakes gaming platforms in general) operate in a different legal category than real-money gambling sites (like online poker rooms, online sportsbooks, online casinos, etc.) At a real-money poker site, you deposit funds into your player account, and you put that money on the line in direct competition in cash games and tournaments. You and all other players are competing for your money and their money. For example, you might deposit $1,000 at a real-money poker site, then buy into a $200 tournament. That $200 goes directly to the prize pool and tournament fees collected by the site. At a sweepstakes poker site, you don’t directly compete for cash. At ClubWPT, you purchase a monthly subscription, which grants you access to tournaments that award sweepstakes credits that can be redeemed for cash. The top prizes up for grabs at ClubWPT include “Passports” (buy-in plus travel stipend) to World Poker Tour live events, and travel packages for WPT Voyage cruises. If you’ve searched for a legal online poker site that you can play on from the U.S., you’ve likely come across a few sites that appear to offer legal online poker games in North Carolina. These sites might look legit, but you’ll notice that they are not licensed or regulated by any North Carolina gaming agency (or U.S. gaming agency, for that matter). Any online gambling site that offers access to U.S. players but isn’t licensed by a state gaming regulation agency is operating illegally in the U.S. These sites operate outside of the U.S. in terms of both legal jurisdiction and physical location. Offshore poker sites should be avoided for the following reasons: The first step toward playing online poker at any site is to either make a deposit or purchase a subscription. If you’ve ever visited an offshore gambling site, you’ve likely noticed that deposit and withdrawal options are pretty limited. It’s often nearly impossible to deposit using a bank account or debit/credit card, and cryptocurrency is often the only way to get money onto the site. If you do manage to get a deposit through with a traditional banking method, that deposit will often appear on your bank statement as a purchase from an online store you’ve never heard of. The name of the poker site is nowhere to be found in the transaction description. If a poker site has to disguise the nature of your deposit, that’s not a good sign. When you purchase a subscription at ClubWPT, that transaction will clearly appear on your bank statement as a purchase from ClubWPT. All of the online poker sites in the WPT family operate with a keen interest in protecting the money and personal information of players. If you deposit at an offshore/illegal poker site, you’re giving your banking information, personal information, and your money to an illegal gambling operation that breaks U.S. laws by offering games in the United States. There’s no telling where or with whom your information might end up once an offshore gambling site has it. When you request a withdrawal from an offshore poker site, you’re requesting money from a gambling operation that has no legal obligation to send your funds. Offshore poker sites operate illegally, and any time you deposit at such a site, that could be the last time you see that money. While offshore poker sites appear to offer legit cash games and tournaments, they’re also consistently filled with the following things: Bots (computer/AI-automated “poker players”) Player collusion Multi-accounting (one player playing under multiple screen names) Ghosting (players controlling other players’ accounts) Legitimate poker sites like ClubWPT install the necessary security measures to eliminate these types of activities. Offshore sites have little or no incentive to ensure the security of its players and the games on the site. These operations have one goal – taking deposits from players. You can’t expect much player security once they have your money. Yes. While regulated real-money poker sites aren’t currently available in NC, you can play online poker legally at sweepstakes poker rooms like ClubWPT. There doesn’t appear to be any online poker legislation on the horizon in North Carolina, so sweepstakes poker remains the best option for online poker players in the Tarheel State. No. While U.S. gaming laws allow states to offer certain forms of online gambling, North Carolina hasn’t given the green light to any form of real-money online gambling. The state did legalize sports betting at two tribal casinos located in NC. You can only bet in person, however. ClubWPT tops the list of legal online poker sites available to North Carolina players. ClubWPT operates as a sweepstakes poker room, putting it in a different legal category than real-money online poker sites. The sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT are available via monthly subscription. Those tournaments award sweepstakes credits that are redeemable for cash, as well as prizes like entries into WPT live events, WPT Voyage Cruises, and more. Yes. You can play in the sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT in 36 states, and North Carolina is on that list. ClubWPT is one of the most popular online poker sites in the U.S. The sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT award substantial cash and prizes. No. Offshore poker sites operate in the United States illegally and should be avoided. Your money, personal information, and financial information might not be safe at an offshore poker site. Additionally, you can expect the games to be riddled with unethical activity, including cheating, bots, multi-accounting, ghosting, and collusion. There is no purchase necessary to play on ClubWPT. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. For more information regarding events, including how to qualify and location eligibility, visitClubWPT.com Ensure your jurisdiction allows play on WPT Global. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

The complete schedule for this Decembers 2024 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas includes a first-of-its-kind, record-setting $5,000,000 freeroll that promises to make somebody a millionaire with a first-place prize of $1,000,000. The freeroll helps WPT celebrate the upcoming launch of their latest offering – ClubWPT Gold, a new sweepstakes model online poker platform that will be available for players in the majority of the United States. Our return to Wynn Las Vegas this December is equipped with another monumental investment into the development and growth of not only the WPT World Championship but the poker industry as a whole, said WPT CEO and President Adam Pliska. In celebration of the launch of ClubWPT Gold, were aiming for another first for the poker world with the largest freeroll ever offered. The ClubWPT Gold $5M Invitational Freeroll is set to take place from December 13-15, in the heart of the WPT World Championship festival schedule which spans from December 3-21. In addition to making someone an overnight millionaire, part of the prize pool will give 100 players an entry into the $10.400 WPT World Championship which will be held from December 14-21. ClubWPT Gold, slated to launch in early 2025, will be operated on the established sweepstakes model similar to the longstanding ClubWPT, but it will not require a subscription. It allows players in approved markets to play poker by utilizing virtual currency, Gold Coins, which are purchased but have no cash value. Players are then also given an equal amount of Sweeps Coins, a currency that can used in a separate pool of games. Gold Coins are used for play money games while Sweeps Coins can be used to play for cash and prizes. To score a seat into the ClubWPT $5 million freeroll, players will need to obtain a Golden Passport. To be eligible to win a passport, players are required to sign up for a free account at ClubWPTGold.com. After that, from September 24, right up until the start of the tournament on December 13, 2,000 entries will be given away through a series of contests, promotions, and raffles. While the freeroll is the newest addition to the schedule, the festival is still anchored by a number of returning events including the marquee $10,400 WPT World Championship. This year the WPT World Championship event has three starting flights (December 14,15, and 16) each with a single entry available per flight. Also returning is the $1,100 buy-in WPT Prime Championship with a $5 million guarantee which kicks off December 8 and runs through December 14. In 2023, the WPT Prime Championship drew an astonishing 10,512 to build a $10,196,640 prize pool. The $1,100 Ladies Championship features a $250,000 guarantee and will take place on December 14-15 and the $1,100 Seniors Championship takes place days later on December 18-19 and comes with a $500,000 guarantee. We have crafted an incredible schedule for this years World Championship, featuring more than 60 tournaments and satellites, said Ryan Beauregard, Executive Director of Poker Operations at Wynn Las Vegas. Im confident that the loyal fanbase of Wynn Las Vegas and WPT, as well as more than 500 qualifiers and satellite winners, will make the 2024 WPT World Championship another rousing success. The complete festival schedule is available on WPT.com.

The second half of Season XXII of the World Poker Tour is officially underway with Main Tour events traversing the globe for the last four months of 2024 – starting with WPT Australia. After five days of poker, the final table of the WPT Australia Championship is officially locked in, headlined by runaway chip leader James Obst. The 34-year-old from Adelaide, Australia is one of the most accomplished Australian poker players of all time, first traversing the online poker with a multitude of major titles and then crossing over into success in live poker with two World Series of Poker bracelets to date. He currently sits at No. 10 on Australia’s all-time money list, according to Hendon Mob, and he’ll have a chance to climb depending on his result at this final table. Obst has been at or near the top of the chip counts for much of the tournament, and he’ll be looking to close out a dominant performance with his first ever WPT Main Tour title. Standing in his way is a predominantly Australian slate of competition, led in the standings by Travis Endersby, who regularly streams his online poker play on Twitch. There’s also Australians Daniel Murphy and Matthew Wakeman – Irish-born and South Korea-born, respectively – as well as a wild card in Oleg Ivanchenko and England’s Dillan Patel. All six will be playing for a top prize of AUD $585,359 ($398,512 USD), which includes a seat in the upcoming WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas in December. Action will resume on Wednesday morning at 11:30 a.m. local time at The Star Gold Coast (9:30 p.m. EST Tuesday), with the action streaming on a one-hour delay on all of WPT’s streaming channels. Ahead of the final table action, here’s what you need to know about each of the remaining six contenders for the WPT Australia title. Stats are courtesy of The Hendon Mob. James Obst 8,840,000 (177 BB) Age: 34 Birthplace: Adelaide, Australia Currently Resides: Melbourne, Australia Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $4,025,253 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $427,930, 13th, 2016 WSOP Main Event Other Notable Results:$411,824, 4th, 2023 WSOP $50,000 Poker Players Championship; $265,138, 1st, 2017 WSOP $10,000 Razz Championship; $261,354, 2nd, 2016 WSOP $10,000 HORSE Championship; $260,658, 1st, 2024 WSOP $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship In recent years, James Obst has been tearing it up in the mixed game streets every summer in big buy-in, non-Hold’em events. He’s won bracelets in Razz and Seven Card Stud (the latter just a couple of months ago at the 2024 WSOP), and made the final table of both the $50,000 Poker Players Championship and $10,000 HORSE Championship. But don’t let that distract you from the fact that Obst is a tremendously accomplished No Limit Hold’em player as well. He’s made multiple deep runs in the WSOP Main Event, most notably finishing 13th in 2016, made the final table of the 2011 $100,000 Challenge at the Aussie Millions, and that’s without even scratching the surface of Obst’s online poker exploits, which include multiple SCOOP titles. Now, after holding the chip lead at the end of both Day 3 and Day 4, Obst is on the precipice of adding a WPT title to his growing list of accolades. End of Day Chip Counts: Day 1: 291,500 (6/140) Day 2: 666,000 (12/50) Day 3: 3,450,000 (1/16) Travis Endersby 4,450,000 (89 BB) Birthplace: Perth, Australia Currently Resides: Willetton, Australia Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $1,127,708 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $300,100, 5th, 2023 Triton Super High Roller Series Monte Carlo $31,800 No Limit Hold’em Other Notable Results:$127,172, 3rd, 2024 WPT Prime Gold Coast When he’s not actively chasing a WPT title, Travis Endersby spends most of his time streaming his online poker action on Twitch, with 3,200 followers to his credit. But his poker career stretches back decades, with a long stretch dedicated to playing in cash games all over the world before re-establishing a home base in Australia. The move towards playing more tournaments has already worked out quite well for Endersby, who locked down a final table appearance at WPT Prime Gold Coast a few months ago and now returns to the spotlight at Star Gold Coast for a chance at a WPT Main Tour title. End of Day Chip Counts: Day 1: 137,500 (64/140) Day 2: 671,000 (11/50) Day 3: 1,700,000 (4/16) Daniel Murphy 2,530,000 (51 BB) Age: 46 Birthplace: Ireland Currently Resides: Madeley, Perth, Australia Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $240,353 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $51,694, 3rd, 2014 WSOP Asia-Pacific No Limit Hold’em Accumulator Daniel Murphy’s first recorded live tournament poker cash was recorded almost exactly 10 years ago when he made a serious run at a World Series of Poker bracelet. During the short-lived WSOP Asia-Pacific serie, in 2014, Murphy ultimately finished third in an AUD $1,100 No Limit Hold’em Accumulator event for $51,694, and he’s been in search of a similar run ever since. A decade later, Murphy has lined himself up for his best shot at a major poker title to date, entering Wednesday’s final table comfortably in third place. End of Day Chip Counts: Day 1: 230,000 (17/140) Day 2: 492,000 (19/50) Day 3: 915,000 (8/16) Matthew Wakeman 2,145,000 (43 BB) Age: 39 Birthplace: Busan, South Korea Currently Resides: Newcastle, Australia Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $1,424,473 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $273,321, 5th, 2019 Aussie Millions Main Event; $188,867, 1st, 2018 WSOP International Circuit AUD $5,000 Challenge Like Obst, Matthew Wakeman sharpened his poker game in the online streets as he made a name for himself posting more than a decade’s worth of major results. He won most of the major events there are to win, accumulating well over $6 million in lifetime earnings on PokerStars alone, including a WCOOP title and wins in the $1,050 Super Tuesday and $530 Sunday 500, among many other victories. Wakeman is also one of three players at this final table with over $1 million in career live earnings, most notably making the 2019 Aussie Millions Main Event final table and winning a $5,000 WSOP Circuit high roller in major events in Australia End of Day Chip Counts: Day 1: 211,500 (23/140) Day 2: 673,000 (10/50) Day 3: 2,395,000 (2/16) Oleg Ivanchenko 1,100,000 (22 BB) Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $7,342 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $2,942, 2nd, 2024 A$300 Recurring at The Star Sydney Casino Oleg Ivanchenko is a true wild card among this final six at WPT Australia. Ivanchenko’s Hendon Mob profile includes exactly four cashes in daily tournaments at The Star Casino in Sydney – two inside of a week back in March, and another two within a week of each other earlier this month. Ivanchenko stands to multiply his career live tournament earnings many times over regardless of his result on Wednesday – and perhaps, if he wins, the poker world may get to know a little bit more about this mysterious player. End of Day Chip Counts: Day 1: 209,500 (25/140) Day 2: 827,000 (5/50) Day 3: 1,060,000 (7/16) Dillan Patel 695,000 (14 BB) Age: 28 Birthplace: Manchester, England Currently Resides: London, England Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $83,118 Biggest Lifetime Cash: $25,382, 5th, 2024 London Poker Festival 700 Main Event Dillan Patel may be coming into this WPT Australia final table as the short stack, but regardless of his result on Wednesday it will be the windfall of his career thus far. Even if he goes out in sixth place, his prize will match the sum total of all of his live career results to this point. Patel ended Day 3 of WPT Australia as one of the shortest stacks, and after a seemingly perpetual grind to stay alive bagged only slightly larger stack when Day 4 came to an end – maximizing the value of his limited chips, to say the least. End of Day Chip Counts: Day 1: 196,000 (33/140) Day 2: 591,000 (14/50) Day 3: 665,000 (13/16)