Welcome to the Free Poker Network (FPN) King Slayer National Championship Main Event
The Free Poker Network (FPN), which dates back to 2005, is a free-to-play bar poker league hosted at venues in a dozen states across the county. More than 7,000 active players participate at approximately 200 locations, and today many of them will are here in Las Vegas for the FPN King Slayer National Championship Main Event at Golden Nugget.
All weekend, hundreds of players have been in town for the the league, which was created by Brook Lyter, who back in 2006 finished runner-up to Steve Paul-Ambrose in the World Poker Tour PCA in the Bahamas for $681,500.
On Friday night, the invite-only League Champ Championship took place. It was only open to league champs and Tournament of Champions winners who competed for a $10,000 first-place prize with the top 15 percent advancing to today's King Slayer Championship Main Event. Fargo, North Dakota's Cory Retzlaff, who plays regularly at Prairie Brothers Bar, finished as the last player standing in that tournament to claim $10,000 in cash plus a Main Event seat into today's field.
The tournament will kick off at 1 p.m. PST and offer an estimated prize pool of $50,000 with the top 27 spots getting paid. There will be $10,000 in mystery bounties awarded with the eventual winner taking home $25,000. The tournament is open to state tournament qualifiers, League Champ Championship qualifiers, satellite qualifiers, and others.
Not only will it be live reported here on PokerNews, but a feature table will also be live-streamed on twitch.tv/freepokernetwork.
Tonight at 6 p.m., there will also be a Tag Team Championship event that is open to the public.
How it Works
Most players earn their seats in the King Slayer Championship Main Event by first competing in their local state championship. The number of qualifiers is based on total participation. The state with the highest participation in the league is Minnesota, with 30 direct qualifiers to the King Slayer Championship Main Event.
To qualify for the state championship, players compete for points throughout the season (on a monthly basis) to qualify. Each quarter, the overall points leaders are crowned “League Champ” and automatically qualify for the League Champ Championship, which is a freeroll with a top prize of $10,000 cash, in addition, the top 15% qualify for a King Slayer seat. Each location also holds an end-of-season Tournament of Champions. Those players also earn a seat in the League Champ Championship.
Alternates are allowed, so if a League Champ does not claim their seat, second and third place players would have an opportunity to represent their bar.
As organizers and players like to say, “The Free Poker Network offers a fun and safe atmosphere for players to learn how to play tournament poker and grind out wins, earn achievements, and most importantly, make a lot of poker friends.”
Stay tuned for plenty of fun and updates straight from the tournament floor of the Golden Nugget!