One million dollars, locked in for a single player. That is what is on the line today in Day 2 of the Millionaire Maker, Event #12 of the WSOP Online: a $1,500 buy-in tournament with $5 million guaranteed and a clause you almost never see online - the champion banks at least $1,000,000.
The facts: a giant guarantee and a 6 p.m. UTC restart
The starting flights are done. Every survivor converges today at 6:00 p.m. UTC in a single Day 2 that only ends when the circuit's newest millionaire is crowned.
Last year set the bar. The 2025 Millionaire Maker drew 5,920 entries and pushed the prize pool to $8,436,000 - well past the $5 million promise - with 610 places paid. The title went to Sweden's Simon Mattsson, the online legend known as "C.Darwin2" and the 2022 online Main Event champion, who beat Kun Liu heads-up for $1,271,600 and pushed his earnings on that site alone past $23 million.
There is a kicker, too: like every bracelet in this series, the winner collects a $30,000 Super Pass to December's Super Main Event in the Bahamas. And recent history says watch the flags - so far, Brazil has reached every final table of the series, including the Event #9 finale that ended in a brutal heads-up swing.
Why it matters: a top-heavy payout warps the final table
A payout this loaded at the top changes how the endgame should be played. In a standard tournament, laddering one spot is solid business; here, the gap between second place and the guaranteed million is so wide that the real value sits in fighting for first, not in surviving one more spot. Big stacks know it and apply maximum pressure; medium stacks, already squeezed by ICM, get squeezed twice.
The honest half of the story: in a six-thousand-entry field, nobody "deserves" to win. Even Mattsson did not plan on the title - he planned on correct decisions across thousands of hands and let variance do the rest. If you are building your MTT game, that is the mindset to train from your first online tournament, backed by a bankroll that can take the hits.
Tonight we learn the new millionaire's name. How would you play a final table with a million locked up top? Bring your take to the community - that is where these hands turn into real study.