The $5 million ClubWPT Gold Invitational Freeroll final table kicked off Sunday afternoon at Wynn Las Vegas, and the winner will take home $1 million. One of the final nine players still in contention is StakeKings CEO Tyler Hancock, who spoke with PokerNews prior to the start of play.

Hancock lives in the Phoenix, Arizona area and has plenty of experience playing poker. He’s produced nearly $470,000 in live tournament cashes, according to The Hendon Mob, which includes a 63rd place finish for $116,963 in the 2016 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. But, as he explained, he has more on his plate than just playing poker.

“I don’t get to play much at Talking Stick (casino in Phoenix), I’m mostly working, but I’ll play some of the bigger tournaments, I’ll play cash games. Occasionally they’ll do some private games that are higher stakes that I’ll play those,” Hancock said.

Hancock isn’t just occupied with growing the StakeKings poker staking platform. He has two kids at home that keep him busy.

Why StakeKings?

The CEO showed up at Wynn for the final table decked out in StakeKings gear. He’s passionate about the company he represents, and he told us what drew him to the poker staking platform in the first place.

“I was buying action and selling action and was having issues collecting from players,” Hancock explained. “That whole side of the industry, the private staking gets a little messy. So, we wanted to make that more accessible to fans, and then also make it safer for fans to buy pieces of people, whether it’s friends or family, so StakeKings makes that possible.”

StakeKings does make it possible — and safe — for poker fans to buy action, whether it be a friend, sibling, or one of their favorite poker players. Winning the record-setting freeroll would certainly, as Hancock agrees, make for some valuable free marketing for his business.

The final table livestream on the World Poker Tour’s YouTube channel began at around 5 p.m. on Sunday. Hancock began the session with a middling stack, and this isn’t your ordinary final table. The pay jumps are extreme. Ninth place pays $20,000, an epic payout for a free-to-play tournament. But there’s a $980,000 gap between last and first at the final table.

First place pays $1 million, which is four times the payout of second place ($250,000). The tournament didn’t cost anything to enter, so ninth place money is welcomed, but Hancock admits that coming up short of the massive paydays would “feel like a missed opportunity.” But, he said he’s “lucky to even make it this far.”

The $5 million freeroll will play down to a winner on Sunday. PokerNews will have a recap of the action following its conclusion.

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