Lucas Jumalon has already hit poker’s biggest score. Less than three months after banking $10 million and a WSOP Main Event bracelet, the 22-year-old is back in the game with a new job: finding another player who can take a shot at the title.
Jumalon has signed as a global ambassador for WSOP Academy and will tour WSOP Circuit stops, hosting meet-up games for Academy customers. The first stop is Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham on Friday, 13 November 2026, where one player will win a Circuit Main Event seat.
Jumalon Heads to Nottingham With a £1 Million Main Event on the Schedule
The WSOP Circuit returns to Dusk Till Dawn from 6 to 15 November, with a £1 million-guaranteed Main Event carrying a £1,500 buy-in (£1,350 plus a £150 fee). Jumalon’s Academy meet-up falls on the same day as Day 1D, so there could be a tight turnaround for whoever bags the free seat.
There is a catch for players planning to make the trip: WSOP has not yet announced the meet-up’s starting time or entry procedure. Dusk Till Dawn’s published tournament schedule does, however, show the following Main Event flights and restart times.
| Date | Event | Start (UK) |
|---|---|---|
| 13 November | WSOP Academy meet-up with Jumalon | To be confirmed |
| 13 November | WSOP Circuit Main Event Day 1D | 12:00 |
| 14 November | Main Event Last Chance flight | 10:00 |
| 14 November | Main Event Day 2 | 15:00 |
| 15 November | Main Event final day | 13:00 |
Anyone who wins the seat will need to know which flight they can play; don’t assume the ticket is usable for Friday’s noon start. The venue also requires festival participants to have a verified WSOP+ app, while the Academy meet-up’s own eligibility rules are still to come.
One Circuit Seat Per Stop, but Only One $10,000 Vegas Ticket
Here’s how the promotion plays out. Jumalon will host a meet-up game at each stop on his Circuit tour, with one Academy customer winning a seat in that stop’s Main Event.
Those winners will then form the pool from which Jumalon picks a protégé. That player gets a $10,000 seat in the 2027 WSOP Main Event and guidance from the reigning world champion, but a Circuit ticket on its own does not lock up the Vegas seat.
| Prize | Who gets it? |
|---|---|
| WSOP Circuit Main Event seat | One winner at each Academy meet-up |
| 2027 WSOP Main Event $10,000 seat | One player selected from the meet-up winners across the tour |
The number of tour stops, the meet-up format and the way the final player will be chosen have not been set out in detail. WSOP has also not confirmed whether travel and accommodation come with the 2027 prize, so players should not budget for a paid trip to Vegas just yet.
Do You Need to Pay for WSOP Academy?
WSOP Academy has a free tier, including poker lessons, a Poker IQ assessment and ten daily practice hands. The WSOP+ Basic and Premium subscriptions cost $9.99 and $49.99 a month respectively on the WSOP website, with extra opponents, more practice hands and other features.
Paid members can take on training challenges featuring players such as Daniel Negreanu, Maria Ho and Michael Mizrachi. But the ambassador announcement only says that the meet-up games are for WSOP Academy customers; it does not say a paid subscription is required or that buying one guarantees a seat at the table.
From 9,208 Runners to the World Champion’s Seat
Jumalon’s rise has been quick, but he has already shown he can handle a big-field grind. In August, the player from Spokane, Washington, beat 9,208 entries in the 2026 WSOP Main Event and took home $10 million after defeating Finland’s Lauri Saaskilahti heads-up.
He brought 194 million chips into the final table and never gave up the lead, becoming the second-youngest Main Event winner behind Joe Cada. PokerType covered the bracelet win and $10 million payday, along with the earlier line-up that made the final nine.
Nor did Jumalon disappear from the felt once the money landed. He started the final day of September’s 2,090-entry WSOP Circuit Austin Main Event as chip leader, only to bust in 14th for $19,030; Eric Chang eventually won it for $433,670.
That run matters here because Jumalon has been playing the same Circuit events his future students will enter. He knows what it feels like to bag the chip lead, miss a final table and have to reload for the next tournament.
What Happens After the Nottingham Meet-Up?
Jumalon told WSOP that poker had “completely changed my life”, and the champion wants to give someone else a crack at the Main Event. WSOP chief executive Ty Stewart pointed to his “desire to pay it forward” when explaining the appointment.
WSOP will also send a camera crew along for the trip, with the first episode expected on its YouTube channel in late November. More Circuit dates and meet-up details are due to follow, so the immediate play for UK players is to wait for the entry rules rather than fire off cash on an assumption.
Winning a £1,500 seat is already worth turning up for, especially in a £1 million-guaranteed field. And if you end up as Jumalon’s pick for Vegas, you’ll have the Main Event buy-in sorted and a world champion in your corner; the cards will still have to fall your way.
