Daniel Sepiol wins the WPT World Championship 2023 Main Event

$40M GTD WPT World Championship

The World Poker Tour made a very aggressive move by going from a guaranteed $15M to a $40M at the 2023 WPT World Championship. Although the event had an overlay of more than $2 million, the entire community considered it a resounding success, considering that it competed with parallel WSOP events (Paradise in the Bahamas) at the EPT in Prague.

• Day 1A: 609 participants
• Day 1B: 730 participants
• Day 1C: 973 players
• Day 1D: 1,523 players
• Total entries: 3,835
• Overlay: $2,417,000

The minimum payout was $18,700, and 480 players cashed. Maryline Valente was the bubble. Considering the tournament's buy-in, the halls of the Wynn Casino were full of stars such as Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, and Erik Seidel, among others.

Final Table

The final table of the tournament brought no surprises and faced six high-level professionals; in fact, half of the players reside in Las Vegas, and all had already surpassed the million-dollar barrier in winnings:

1. Andrew Lichtenberger, USA (148,200,000, 124 BB)
2. Chris Moorman, United Kingdom (88,300,000, 74 BB)
3. Georgios Sotiropoulos, Greece (46,200,000, 39 BB)
4. Benjamin Heath, United Kingdom (36,700,000, 31 BB)
5. Daniel Sepiol, USA (34,300,000, 29BB)
6. Artur Martirosian, Russia (29,400,000, 25BB)

One of the best hands of the tournament that confirmed Sepiol as one of the favorites occurred when there were still six finalists in the race. Andrew raised from the CO with ATs, and Dan 3-bet with KT. The board was 43393; Lichtenberger passed in all the streets while Daniel kept betting until going all-in on the river, forcing the fold of his rival who had the best cards.

The first eliminated, at the hands of Sepiol, was Martirosian, who had managed to increase his stack of chips, but his reraise all-in with 55 was paid with 77 by Dan. The next to fall was Benjamin Heath, who went all-in preflop with QJ against Sotiropoulos' A7 on a board that showed an A and a straight draw that was not completed.

ACRPoker Team Pro Chris Moorman was also eliminated by Georgios in a KQ vs. QJ preflop all-in. Andrew Lichtenberger, who started the day as the chip leader but showed a very passive style of play, fell in the third position at the hands of Sepiol in an incredible hand that faced Andrew's AK against Daniel's JJ. The pair of jacks was enough to decree the heads-up.

Heads-up

The final match started with a clear advantage of Sepiol, who had 332,200,000 chips against Georgios' 60,900,000. However, he did not make it easy for Daniel and even managed to reverse the situation to briefly be the chip leader.

After only 27 hands, two consecutive moments were definitive for the tournament:

1. On a board J92T7, Georgios went all-in on the river to Sepiol, who pays without much thought. The first one showed QJ for the top pair, but Dan made the right move with J2 for the two pairs. Dan doubled down and recovered the leadership.
2. On the next hand, Sepiol goes all-in preflop with K3, which is paid by Georgios with KQ, to see a 3 on the turn that sentenced the luck of the tournament.

Final table payouts:

1. Dan Sepiol - $5,282,954
2. Georgios Sotiropoulos - $4,167,246
3. Andrew Lichtenberger - $2,798,700
4. Chris Moorman - $2,095,300
5. Ben Heath - $1,583,100
6. Artur Martirosian - $1,207,000

Who is Daniel Sepiol?

At only 29 years of age, Dan had a very successful career before stepping foot at the Wynn Casino for this tournament. In his history, he already had more than $1.3 million in winnings, including several first places in tournaments such as the $1,100 NLH - MSPT Main Event and $2,700 Seminole NLH - Deepstack. Even last year, in the same tournament, he had occupied the 52nd position, collecting $71,400. 

Of course, the statistics will be very different now for the native of Valparaiso, Indiana, who is also a regular online tournament player, including several important results in the WSOP Online of GGPoker. Undoubtedly, the Las Vegas resident will remain a regular not only of this tournament (for which he already has a guaranteed entry) but of the World Series, perhaps his next big goal.

Our experience at the WPT World Championship

As we mentioned before, we had the opportunity to travel to participate in the $10,400 Main Event, courtesy of a WPT Global promotion. We enjoyed the city of lights for a week, looking to get into the groove to compete at the tables.

Being our first visit to Las Vegas, we must say that it is everything you expect and much more. Lights, thousands of slots, limos, huge resorts, fountains. We highlight the impeccable organization of the WPT and the Wynn Casino, where we highly recommend trying the breakfast buffet, perhaps the best in the city.

Regarding the tournament, here are some interesting moments:

1. We shared a table with the tournament champion, Daniel Sepiol, so we will just say loud and clear that we lost only against the best.
   
   
2. We created an image of a player lost at the table (we didn't have to work hard for this) so we could bluff many hands.
3. In SB, Landon Tice makes a pretty high raise (he usually plays very aggressively), and we pay with AQo and two other players in hand. The flop brings JKx with two clubs, giving us a gutshot draw. Landon makes a half-pot continuation bet, and we call. The turn completes nothing. We both passed. The river brings the ten that completes our straight; Landon bets hard, we reraise, and Landon thinks about it and pays to show us KT of clubs for two pairs and failed draw; we almost doubled our stack in this hand.
4. The only AA we received in the tournament put us all-in preflop against another player's AA, the board being a surprising KKKxx.
   
   
5. In our definitive hand, with 40BB in CO, the casual player goes all-in with A5, we flip KK and reraise all-in, and BB bets all his chips with AA. The board does not improve our hand, and we are left with few blinds that have already decided the fate of our tournament.

We congratulate Daniel Sepiol on his incredible triumph and hope to continue crossing his path in the following circuit events!.

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