Daniel Weinman, a poker pro from Alpharetta, Georgia, spoilt himself with the best possible gift for his 29th birthday – a WPT Main Event title. Last night, the player emerged victorious in the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open $3,500 Main Event on the 116th hand into final day play. His share of the prize pool totaled $892,433 and included a $15,000 seat into the WPT Tournament of Champions to be held at the end of the current Main Tour season.
Weinman is a player with an extensive poker portfolio and more than $2.2 million in live tournament winnings. Prior to last night’s triumph, his best live cash amounted to $280,260 and was collected for a first-place finish in a WSOP Circuit Main Event.
The Borgata Winter Poker Open Main Event attracted a total of 1,312 entries this year to see a prize pool of $4,199,712 generated. Although a number of WPT veterans entered the prestigious tournament, the official final table was comprised of players who had little or even no experience in WPT events.
The six-handed final table was slated to be played on Friday, February 3. It began with Nathan Bjerno as the chip leader. He held almost two times more chips than the player ranking second in the chip counts chart. Weinman was fifth in chips at the time when cards were thrown in the air for one final day of play.
Real action began on Hand #10 when the first finalist was eliminated and another player took the lead. Nichilas Immekus was the one to leave and Tyler Kenney was the one to emerge as the chip leader. Immekus collected $184,787 for his sixth-place finish.
The next elimination occurred on Hand #26 when Richard Foster went out in 5th place for $228,884. Weinman held the second biggest stack at the table at that time. Kenney was still the chip leader. It took six hands of play before another player left. Jia Liu was the unlucky one to miss the chance for a WPT title and bust in 4th place. Yet, he received $275,081 in prize money to console with.
Although Tyler Kenney fought fiercely to keep his lead, he was eventually eliminated in 3rd place by none other but Weinman. Kenney’s share of the pool totaled $327,578. Thus, Bjerno, the start-of-the-day chip leader, remained Weinman’s last opponent. At that time, the eventual winner had established a commanding chip lead. He had six times more chips than Bjerno and it looked as if the heads-up match would not last very long.
However, Bjerno proved to be a tough nut to crack and it took Weinman 50 hands and several hours of play to finish off his last hurdle to the title. On the final hand, Weinman moved all in with [Ad][5s] and Bjerno called for his last 3,450,000 with [Ac][4h]. The board ran out [As][8d][6c][7h][4d], giving Bjerno two pair and Weinman the winning eight-high straight. Bjerno cashed $524,964 for his runner-up finish.
