Season XIV Champion Profile: Vlad Darie

The European leg of Season XIV of the WPT wrapped up in Vienna, Austria with a field of 233 entries in the €3,300 buy-in Main Event. Notable’s like Champions Club members John Gale, Marcin Wydrowski, Julian Thomas, and the WPT’s own Tony Dunst turned up for the event, which came hot on the heels of the California Swing.

The big story at the final table was Dietrich Fast, who was among the final six for the second time in the span of a month, having already won the LA Poker Classic. Fast earned some crucial Hublot Player of the Year points, but he exited in fourth place, while the title and the Champions Cup went to Vlad Darie, who won over €180,000 and the honor of being the first-ever Romanian WPT champion.

When the final table began, Darie was fourth in chips, while Zoltan Gal of Hungary held the chip lead and a remarkable record in Vienna, which included a WPT National Main Event victory last year. Darie doubled up early, then busted Giorgios Zisimopoulos in sixth place to chip up, but he was still the short stack with four players remaining. Running perilously low on chips, Darie doubled up twice, then busted Matt Davenport in third place to get heads-up with Gal for the title.

Darie said in his winner interview that the heads-up battle was particularly tiring and he wasn’t kidding. Gal began play with a 2-1 chip lead, but over the course of 74 hands of heads-up action, Darie never gave up and eventually clawed his way to victory.

“It’s been a long day, especially the heads-up. The field here was very tough, so to take it down is nice,” Darie said shortly after play wrapped up. He won’t have too much time to revel in victory though, as he will be back at the tables for the Tournament of Champions in just a couple of weeks.

Winner Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y50Ah8Grtx0

WPT Cashes: 1
WPT Final Tables: 1
WPT Wins: 1