World Poker Tour Hands Out Paid Ambassador Deal to Lucky Drawing Winner
The newest ambassador for the World Poker Tour (WPT) is --- drumroll please — Spencer Gore.
If that name doesn't ring a bell, there's nothing wrong with your memory. And, no, the WPT isn't just passing out ambassadorship deals like candy. The iconic poker tour, via its partner poker site, ClubWPT Gold, hosted a unique promotion that gave poker players an opportunity to win their way to a paid ambassador contract.
Lynn Gilmartin, a longtime WPT ambassador and presenter, and the company's CEO, Adam Pliska, drew a random evelope from a group of participants during the WPT World Championship festival at Wynn Las Vegas, and Gore was the lucky winner.
Gore, who spoke with PokerNews and the WPT's Alec Rome, won a $50,000 salary for one year and $50,000 in poker tournament buy-ins throughout the year. He is now a colleague of Gilmartin, Phil Ivey, Tony Dunst, Vince Van Patten, and other World Poker Tour royalty.
Who is Spencer Gore?
Gore, a Notre Dame University graduate who grew up in Massachusetts, resides in San Francisco where he works in data analytics. He won a drawing while playing in the Mystery Quest Live tournament at Wynn on Friday.
ClubWPT Gold hosted a 100-chip ($100 equivalent) online tournament, and the top 100 finishers earned a seat in the live event in Las Vegas where they could win cash and all sorts of valuable prizes, including a custom luxury SUV (Mercedes G-Wagon).
Gore, who said he only began playing tournaments about a year ago, finished in 28th place for $3,825 and some mystery bounty prizes. He now must decide how he'll juggle his career and the WPT commitments he'll face. But he's excited for the opportunity.
"That's a question I'll have to figure out as we go forward, but I know that I'm excited to travel, so at this point, I'm hoping to make the best of both, but I'm really excited for all the commitments with WPT. I love to travel, so that's a huge plus for me," Gore said when asked how he'll juggle two careers.
Gore's role as an ambassador will be to travel to the various tour stops around the world, a perk he's thrilled to experience. The other perk is he'll be given $50,000 in tournament tickets at WPT events, and he'll get to choose the events he wants to play. He said he hadn't decided if he's going to play the $10,400 WPT World Championship, which kicks off Saturday at Wynn.
The newest member of the WPT family said his heart "skipped a beat" when he found out he earned his seat in the Mystery Quest Live event earlier this year. He had to book a flight to Las Vegas for just a couple of days later.
Gore has $30,000 in live tournament cashes, and he describes himself as "not a pro" who has "a full-time job and play (poker) on the weekends."
"I'm excited to be with WPT and be able to go to some more of these events and really put myself out there, challenge myself a bit more, and looking forward to hopefully progressing my poker career a little bit further," Gore said.
The Mystery Quest Live tournament will play down to a winner, who will take home $136,475, on Saturday.
*Images courtesy of the World Poker Tour.
