Yesterday, GGPoker ambassador Daniel Negreanu foreshadowed a diatribe on what he called “the sleaziest promo I’ve seen in my 30+ years in poker.”
Today, in a vlog-rant for the ages, he took aim at the ClubWPT Gold ‘Gold Rush’ promotion which has so far gifted an additional $1,000,000 to two lucky players who ended up with all the chips in two tournaments at the WSOP.
For the most part, he absolved Jesse Yaginuma and James Carroll, the two players involved in last week’s Millionaire Maker alleged chip-dumping drama, laying the blame firmly at the feet of ClubWPT Gold.
It’s a curious stance for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the WSOP increased registration fees this year, squeezing the players like a boa constrictor tightens its grip on its prey.
Another operator adding value to their tournaments makes their tournaments more appealing than they would be otherwise, offsetting the egregious money heist of the house effectively removing second place money from the prize pool in every big field tournament.
Secondly, Negreanu himself has literally been the poster-boy for a virtually identical promotion by his paymaster, GGPoker. In 2023, 2024, and now again in 2025, the ‘Road to Vegas’ promotion promised GGpoker satellite qualifiers an additional $1,000,000 if they took down the Main Event.
A tantalising and beguiling bit of marketing, the ‘Road To Vegas’ campaign was surely a factor in bringing huge numbers of players to the desert and Negreanu was not just fine with that – he actively advertised it and his face was plastered all over the marketing assets.
Negreanu The Poster-Boy For A $1M Bonus
“Let’s get that $1M bonus!”, says Bertrand ‘Elky’ Grospellier to a smiling Negreanu on one poster.
In the March 4th 2025 press release put out by GGPoker, Negreanu said:
If you’ve ever dreamed of playing in the WSOP Main Event, GGPoker’s Road to Vegas is your best shot at making that dream a reality. We’re making it easier than ever for players of all levels to win their way to poker’s biggest stage—and if you take it all the way, there’s an extra million waiting for you!
That’s quite the departure from his attitude today when he said that an identical promo is “bad for poker,” that the players were put in “a brutal spot,” that it created “a farce,” and that “everyone loses here.”
He also said to the people at ClubWPT Gold should have predicted the outcome of dangling “a carrot [that is] too difficult to resist,” ending with a holier-than-thou “shame on you if you knew, and if you didn’t, do better!”
In my opinion, the temerity to launch this sanctimonious attack on ClubWPT Gold when you yourself have pushed a virtually identical promotion is really something to behold. His argument amounts to “it’s only wrong when they do it” and it absolutely reeks of disingenuousness.
GGPoker, WSOP, and Negreanu clearly like this type of promotion when it’s their own, even though, according to his complaint today, it incentivises chip-dumping. Bear in mind, Negreanu is heavily involved in the 25k Fantasy League (and has loads of big side bets) which can introduce the same incentives.
Spare Us the Hand-Wringing
So, please, won’t you spare us all the handwringing and moral panic? Spare us the accusations of ‘industrial sabotage’ and this being a threat to game integrity. If you are looking for a culprit, look no further than the WSOP’s antiquated attitude to deal-making.
So long as it is the poker players who put up the buy-ins, it is they who should get to decide what to do with their money.
Negreanu may argue that the WSOP has a right to protect its brand and uphold the meaningfulness of ‘the bracelet’. Well I’m sorry but that ship sailed a long time ago. The WSOP has given out almost a bracelet a day for years. There are regional bracelets. There are players with ‘Flip-Out’ bracelets. There was a $50 online bracelet.
Now, are the WPT adopting a ‘disruptor brand’ posture and is the Gold Rush promotion guerrilla marketing? Sure. Are the WPT and WSOP at war? It certainly feels that way.
However, any analysis of this current high profile spat requires a broader understanding of how we got here, how two giants in the industry went from fierce competitors to all out conflict and reciprocal feelings of enmity and animus.
Spoiler Event
Two years ago, WSOP scheduled their Bahamas festival right on top of the World Championship in the Wynn, a flagrant attempt to undermine the WPT’s flagship event which had been a huge success one year previously.
It was actually a cynical attempt to undermine PokerStars too, intentionally choosing the Bahamas location one month before the presumptive PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), unaware that PokerStars had sunset that festival.
Then what happened? The WSOP Bahamas lost a huge amount of money, flinging countless players in on 20% and 30% freerolls at the last minute to try to meet its guarantee.
Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, the WPT ate the biggest overlay in poker history, giving the value back to the attending field, rather than saving face with last minute freebies for a select few.
The WSOP, with its online partner GGPoker, ran that spoiler event again in 2024, again pulling players away with the added inducements of free hotels and free buy-ins.
The WPT then decided not to put a guarantee on its Main Event but instead funnel the added-value it wanted to deliver into its huge ClubWPT Gold $5M Freeroll tournament.
Pearl-Clutching
The genuinely nice aspect to all of this is how the players are the ones who have benefitted from the December turf-wars, just as it is the players who benefit from $1 million being added via the ‘Gold Rush’ promotion.
I am unashamedly pro-player so long may this bitter rivalry produce opportunities for bonuses, gifts, overlays and freerolls. If you are not, then reigning WSOP POY Scott Seiver has something to say to you:
Seiver is not alone. There has been plenty of backlash to Negreanu’s comments.
Negreanu purports to be a big ‘personal responsibility’ guy. Well maybe rather than clutching his pearls and crying victim here like one of those woke snowflakes that he hates, he would be better off looking within, concede that it is he who tried some sleazy sleight of hand and own the flagrant hypocrisy of his own statements.
If he wants to be honest, he could acknowledge that the WSOP’s arcane attitude towards deal-making is what actually caused this.
I am happy to entertain and analyse counterpoints which highlight how a promotion like this can skew things by creating different incentives. I did so on the latest episode of The Lock-in only a few days ago.
What I’m not willing to do is suddenly indulge the ‘poor me’ perspective of a billion dollar company just because that billion dollar company’s paid mouthpiece told me to.
David Lappin is an ambassador for WPT Global.
