Dan Sepiol won the 2023 WPT World Championship and the $5.3 million first prize on Thursday. [Image: Flickr.com / World Poker Tour]
Happy holidays, indeed
As 2023 draws to a close, six people had plenty to do before the holiday break, each battling for the title at the 2023 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas. On Thursday, Dan Sepiol emerged victorious after a rollercoaster heads-up match against Georgios Sotiropoulos to claim the $5,282,954 first prize.
Willingness to make theater in big moments”
The 29-year-old Sepiol has already had live tournament winnings in 2017, earning well over $1 million before this week, but this win obviously eclipses anything he’s achieved before. He even considered quitting professional poker a few years ago, but Jeremy Brown, Justin Brown and Taylor Black took him under their wing and trained him, building on his innate “willingness to play in big moments,” like Black of the WPT said. com.
“…I would say he deserves it. He worked hard. He earned it not only through hard work but also through swinging. So yeah, I honestly couldn’t be more happy for him,” Black added.
Jumped the gun
Sepiol went into heads-up play with a huge chip lead over Sotiropoulos, 310.5 million to 72.6 million, a gap that only widened in the first hour. At one point his lead increased to 10 to 1 and it looked like victory was inevitable.
But after a little double-up to get off the table, Sotiropoulos doubled again in an almost miraculous hand. With K-2, Sepiol looked good on the flop of AK-8. Sotiropoulos only had 5-7 but hit a runner-runner straight to increase his stack to 115.9 million, which, while still less than half of what Sepiol had, was now enough to be dangerous .
The crazy thing about the hand was that when Sepiol revealed the cards, he misjudged his opponent’s hand and actually thought he had won. He went to his railing to celebrate when someone pointed out that he had lost his hand. Sepiol obviously had a sense of humor and laughed at the situation, but internally it might have upset him a bit.
“Definitely a possibility,” he said in his post-game interview. “I don’t know exactly, but definitely, what’s it called? After that, the dynamic definitely changed.”
Back and forth in a few hands
The dynamic has definitely changed. After the hand, the two players agreed to a deal that guaranteed Sepiol $4,682,954 and Sotiropoulos $4,167,246, leaving the remaining $600,000 to the winner. Within two hands, Sotiropoulos had taken the lead.
But just a few hands later, Sepiol regained the momentum and flopped two pair with a dominated J-2 against JQ, doubling and taking a massive lead. The tournament was over in the next hand.
All chips were in before the flop, Sotiropoulos with KQ and Sepiol with K-3 (suits have no meaning). The flop didn’t change anything, but the turn brought a 3 for Sepiol, Sotiropolous couldn’t find a queen on the river and that was that.
In addition to millions of dollars, Dan Sepiol also won a $10,400 prize for next year’s WPT World Championship, the Wynn Championship Trophy and the WPT World Championship Trophy designed by Daniel Arsham.
