On Friday, February 3, 2017, on his 29th birthday, Daniel Weinman (pictured) won his first World Poker Tour title, topping a record-setting field of 1,312 entries in the Season XV WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open $3,500 Championship to win $892,433.
“I turned 29 today, so this is a pretty awesome birthday present,” a smiling Weinman said after the win. “My girlfriend flew in last minute. You couldn’t have scripted it any better.”
Weinman, a regular on the tournament circuit, has been playing poker for eight years. His win at Borgata proved the biggest of his career and helped push him over the $2 million mark in career live tournament earnings.
“It’s huge,” Weinman told the WPT when asked what the title meant to him. “I don’t play a ton of tournaments outside of the World Series, so to come here and win a field this big and a prestigious tournament as this is great.”
Weinman entered the final table fourth in chips and defeated Nathan Bjerno in heads-up play at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City to take the crown.
WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship Final Table Results
1st: Daniel Weinman – $892,433*
2nd: Nathan Bjerno – $524,964
3rd: Tyler Kenney – $327,578
4th: Jia Liu – $275,081
5th: Richard Foster – $228,884
6th: Nicholas Immekus – $184,787
*First-prize amount includes a $15,000 seat into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions.
Action at the final table got off to a roaring start for Tyler Kenney, who started the final table third on the leaderboard and quickly won a pot worth nearly 5 million in chips on the second hand of play. Kenney continued to climb after that and took the chip lead on the 10th hand of the final table when he busted Nicholas Immekus in sixth place.
Like Kenney, Weinman was very active in the early portion of the final table, and it was on the 26th hand of the final table that Weinman sent Richard Foster packing in fifth place.
A short while later, on the 32nd hand of play, Jia Liu was sent to the payout desk in fourth place at the hands of Kenney.
Three-handed play saw Kenney and Weinman pull away from Bjerno, but they certainly weren’t backing down from each other. Entering the 65th hand of the final table,Weinman had worked his way up to 17.465 million, and Kenney moved to 16.24 million. Bjerno had 5.645 million.
The 65th hand was nothing short of explosive, and it began with Kenney opening with a raise to 350,000 on the button with the blinds at 75,000/150,000 with a 25,000 ante. Weinman reraised to 1.2 million from the big blind, and Kenney made the call after some thought.
The 
flop prompted a check from Weinman. Kenney fired 1.4 million, and Weinman called to see the 
land on the turn. Again, Weinman checked. Kenney fired another bullet, this time for 3.005 million. Weinman thought, then called.
The 
completed the board on the river, and Weinman checked. Kenney took his time before he moved all in for 10.61 million. Weinman went deep into the tank, having Kenney covered by just about 1 million and understanding the seriousness of the situation. Nearly $200,000 in prize money was the difference between third place and second place, and Weinman knew the implications with Bjerno being the short stack. If Weinman was to fold, he’d still have more chips than Bjerno.
Eventually, Weinman made the call, doing so with just a pair of fives holding the 
. Kenney was bluffing with the 
for king high and was eliminated in third place.
“It was actually a really tough spot,” Weinman said about the hand against Kenney. “I had kind of had it for every single three-bet [pot] previously, and I know the guys had been seeing it on the live stream, so I finally went for it with a pretty bad hand with the 9-5. [Kenney] called, the flop and the turn were kind of standard, then we get to the river and he goes all in for about the pot. It’s a super tough spot between calling and folding, and I remembered reading something yesterday where he said at his other WPT final table he had been a little timid to make any moves, so I kind of had this feeling that the first time he really kind of turned up the heat, he might be light. It was close, he didn’t have a ton of hands he could do that with for value. I would either look really stupid, or I look like a hero forever.”
As it turned out, Weinman would be the hero in this spot, and he pulled in the pot to move to 33.8 million entering heads-up play with Bjerno. Bjerno had 5.55 million.
Bjerno hung around for a bit, but never truly threatened the birthday boy, Weinman, and on the 116th hand of the final table it was all over.
On the final hand, Weinman moved all in from the button with the 
, and Bjerno called for 3.45 million with the 
. The blinds were 200,000/400,000 with a 50,000 ante. The board ran out 
, and Weinman’s straiught beat Bjerno’s two pair to give Weinman the win.
Along with the title and nearly $900,000 in first-place prize money, Weinman earns entry into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions in April at Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida.
As a result of the victory, Weinman earned 1,400 points in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race. He’s now tied with James Romero for points, but Romero holds the tiebreaker for money won that will place Weinman in third. Ben Zamani maintained his lead with 2,500 points.
The Season XV WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open $3,500 Championship attracted a record 1,312 entries, the largest turnout in the event’s history and fourth-largest field ever produced in a WPT Main Tour event. A prize pool of $4.2 million was generated, and the top 130 spots reached the money. In-the-money finishes were had by WPT Champions Club members Tony Ruberto (9th – $75,595), Anthony Gregg (14th – $33,598), Asher Conniff (21st – $18,605), Olivier Busquet (33rd – $15,749), Kevin Eyster (55th – $10,289), and Eric Afriat (98th – $7,098).
Next up on Season XV of the World Poker Tour is the partypoker.net WPT Playground C$5,000 Main Event at Playground Poker Club. The event runs February 10-15, 2017, and boasts a C$1 million guarantee.