There have been a lot of opportunities to win a Golden Passport to the $5,000,000 WPT Invitational since the unique freeroll was announced, but none have been as hard as making Phil Ivey laugh.
Poker fans have been shooting their shot on Twitter/X over the last week under the hashtag #MakeIveyLaugh, and the 11-time champ sat down with WPT to review the submissions this week.
The end result is a 26-minute video that covers the entire gamut of what 'poker players' think of as funny. "This is painful," Ivey admits at one point.
Appearances are made by Jesse Fullen, Kaitlyn Jeffers, and even our very own Chris "Lefty" Land. But do any of them pull off the tough feat of making Phil Ivey laugh?
Can anyone make Phil Ivey laugh?
We can reveal that one video had to be pixellated for legal reasons. And another was so "disgusting," according to Ivey, that he tried to retract a "laugh," claiming he wasn't laughing at the video; he was laughing at how rotten it was. Does that still count?
Joey Ingram is in attendance as well, and that leads to one unintentional laugh when Ivey claims one of the people trying to make him laugh looks like "an older" Joey.
You can watch the full video here to find out how many people actually pull it off.
$1 million for the winner
The lucky winners will make up part of the 2,000-strong field for the WPT's $5 million Invitational freeroll that plays out at the Wynn Las Vegas on December 13, right before the 2024 WPT World Championship.
The freeroll is capped at 2,000 runners, and 503 players will make the money, with an incredible $1 million up top for the winner. $720K of the $5 million has been reserved for mystery bounties when 297 players are left, and there are two $100K jackpot pulls. There are more mystery pulls on the final table, with one containing $200K and one containing an unlucky $0.
We'll be at the Wynn to bring you all of the action, and you can also watch the finale live on WPT's YouTube channel.
