Daniel Weinman Wins Season XV WPT Tournament of Champions

The final table of the Season XV World Poker Tour Tournament of Champions kicked off Sunday afternoon the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino with six finalists. After seven hours of play Daniel Weinman took down the event for $381,500, a 2018 Audi S5 Coupe, a Hublot watch and automatic entry to the 2018 TOC as part of $100,000 in additional prizes.

“I feel incredible, this is such a tough tournament and to come out on top is super special,” Weinman said. “I like it (the TOC format), it’s pretty special with the other champions. Obviously, all the extra money and prizes the sponsors put up is incredible. You can’t really ask for anything better.”

“This is crazy – you usually play tournaments with a thousand people and there might be 850 people that don’t have a chance of winning the tournament,” Weinman added.” They can go deep but they’re not going to be comfortable with all the spots they’ll encounter. But having to play against 66 people that have already won this and had success in the poker world – coming out on top is incredible.”

“Going from grinding online and smaller circuit tournaments and occasionally playing one of these bigger buy-in tournaments and hoping to min-cash or make it deep, to having a $900,000 score in February and follow it up with this ($381,500) is incredible,” he said. “I don’t really see myself jumping into the high stakes/high roller poker world – it’s definitely not for me. But you’ll see me at a ton of WPTs in the future, I’m playing everything at the Series and I’m really looking forward to the next three months.”

Weinman led the field when returned for play with the table situated as such:

Seat 1.  Michael Mizrachi  –  699,000  
Seat 2.  Daniel Weinman  –  872,000
Seat 3.  David Ormsby  –  299,000
Seat 4.  Daniel Santoro  –  250,000
Seat 5.  Erik Seidel  –  540,000
Seat 6.  Dylan Wilkerson  –  641,000

The first elimination came 40 hands into the final table. Santoro opened, Wilkerson shoved from the small blind with Kh Th and Wilkerson called with Ad Qh. Santoro spiked a king on the flop, improved to two pair sending Wilkerson to the rail.

Seidel never got any momentum going at the final table and over 50 hands his stack dipped to ten big blinds. He moved all in from under the gun, Santoro called from the big blind with Ks Jd and Seidel tabled Ad 5h. The flop paired Santoro’s jack, Seidel didn’t improve and was eliminated in fifth place.

About 30 minutes later Ormsby was the shortest stack and at risk with As 4c, behind Santoro’s Ad Kh. They both paired their ace, Santoro’s kicker played and Ormsby’s day was done.

Action slowed way down three-handed – with Weinman and Santoro trading the chip lead back and forth over three hours and 70 hands while Mizrachi hovered in survival mode. Then Weinman open-shipped from the small bind and Santoro called off for his tournament life with Ks Qh. Weinman was ahead with Ah 4h, Santoro pulled ahead by flopping a queen but Weinman spiked an ace on the river to send Santoro home in third place.

Heads up play began with Weinman holding 2.75 million (92 bb) to Mizrachi’s 550,000 (18 bb). On the fourth hand of heads up Weinman open-shoved, Mizrachi called holding Kd Jh and Weinman rolled over As 6c. The board ran 9h 6h 2s 7d Ks, Mizrachi hit the king on the river to double up and make things interesting.

Mizrachi went on a mini-heater and came close to bringing their stacks to even. Then Weinman took control of the match by taking a million-chip pot with an all in where he showed his hand and only made a pair on the river.

Several hands later Mizrachi moved his short stack all in with pocket fives and Weinman called with Ac 8h. The board ran Qd Jc 3c 8s 7c, Mizrachi’s fives were beat and Weinman won his second WPT event since February.

Weinman joked throughout the table with his rail that he could upgrade his ride with the Audi. “I’ve got a Kia Sportage – a real Soccer Mom car. I got it to tote the golf clubs around easily. I think the Audi will nice upgrade for me.” 

Final Table Payouts

1. Daniel Weinman – $381,500
2. Michael Mizrachi – $218,000
3. Daniel Santoro – $133,525
4. David Ormsby – $95,375
5. Erik Seidel – $73,575
6. Dylan Wilkerson – $57,225