Daniel Sepiol Wins 2023 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas

After a gruelling seven days at the felt, but still sharp as a needle, Daniel Sepiol won the $40m guaranteed 2023 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas. He was the least decorated of the six players on the TV final table and only needed to finish 5th or better for his winnings from this event to surpass his accumulated lifetime earnings. He did that with style, outplaying opponents at key moments en route to a famous victory, earning the right to have his name added to the Mike Sexton Cup.

One of the most significant pots he won was when eliminating Andrew Lichtenberger in 3rd place, giving himself a huge chip lead over eventual runner up Georgios Sotiropoulos. This was a fairly standard AK v JJ situation in which Daniel’s hooks held up. 

However it was an earlier hand, within the first hour of play, also against “LuckyChewy” that lifted Sepiol out of short stack territory. In this hand Daniel risked elimination by bluffing all-in on the river with KT on a 4♠ 3♥ 3♦ 9♦ 3♣ board, forcing Lichtenberger to fold a better hand. 

The final table started cautiously and it was not until hand 52, over three hours into play that the first exit occurred. Russian Arthur Martirosian had the dubious honour of being the first player to hit the rail, when his pocket fives failed to improve against Sepiol’s sevens.  This propelled Sepiol into second place and just two hands later he had assumed the chip lead, absorbing a large chunk of Ben Heath’s stack in the process.

Twenty hands later, by the time Sotiropoulos had taken out Ben Heath in 5th place, Andrew Lichtenberger had narrowly regained the chip lead, which he had held going into the final. Sepiol and Lichtenberger then traded the chip lead for some time, but when Sotiropoulos also eliminated Chris Moorman in 4th place, the Greek player had significantly closed the gap on the two chip leaders. Moorman, the only previous WPT Champion of the Super Six had an uncharacteristically quiet final table, winning only a few pots along the way. 

With Lichtenberger out in third, the final two were left to battle it out for the lion’s share of the prize money. The heads up encounter was not straightforward, despite Sepiol starting in a commanding position. He held a chip lead of over 4:1 when it began and by the time they had played 15 hands, the lead had extended to 10:1. It looked like it might end quite quickly, however Sotiropoulos managed to double up three times in the space of four hands to flip the chip lead in his favour. In the second of these double-up hands Sepiol misread the board, thinking it was all over and went to celebrate on the rail, not realising his opponent had rivered a straight versus his pair of kings.

However, the Greek’s lead was short-lived and the American retook pole position just five hands later when holding J♣2♦ v Q♣J♠ on a J♦ 9♣2♠ 10♦ board. Sotiropoulos moved all in when the 7♠ spades fell on the river and was called. This re-established Sepiol as the big chip leader and it was all over on the very next hand. 

Having done a small deal heads up to reduce the difference between first and second place payouts, Sepiol’s final prize still amounted to a very healthy and lifechanging $5,282,954, with runner-up Sotiropoulos securing over $4m for second place. He also becomes the very first player registered for next year’s event, as his prize included a free seat to defend his title in 2024 courtesy of WPT.

Although the main event fell short of its $40m guarantee by $2.4m, it was lauded as a success by players on all sides. Who doesn’t like free money? Please send answers to this rhetorical question on an imaginary postcard.