It was simultaneously a thrilling and stunning close to the 2023 WPT World Championship. In one of the most combative final tables of the year, Dan Sepiol came from the short stack to capture the title in the $40 million guaranteed event. Along with the hefty payday that was the largest of his career, Sepiol also earned the WPT World Championship moniker, his name on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions’ Cup, and will be a part of the tournament in 2024 where he will defend his title.
Sepiol Starts at the Bottom
Things did not look good for Sepiol at the start of the final day of action. He was the next to shortest stack at the six-handed WPT final table, facing off against players like Artur Martirosian (the only stack smaller than Sepiol’s 34.3 million at 29.4 million) and chip leaders Chris Moorman (88.3 million) and Andrew Lichtenberger (148.2 million). Filling out the final table were Ben Heath (36.7 million) and Georgios Sotiropoulos (46.2 million) as the play got underway on Thursday.
After playing with each other extensively over the previous couple of days, you might have thought that the players were familiar with each other. That wasn’t the case in this tournament (it could have been the millions of dollars on the line), as it took more than fifty hands for the first elimination to occur. When it did happen, however, it had an immediate impact on the leaderboard and the course of the tournament.
Sepiol had been steadily climbing over that early action, and on Hand #52 Sepiol would make the most of his work. After Sepiol raised the betting to five million chips from the small blind, Martirosian moved all in for his sizeable stack of 43 million chips. After getting a count, Sepiol decided to make the call and the cards went to their backs:
Sepiol (small blind): pocket sevens
Martirosian (big blind): pocket fives
It was a desperate situation for Martirosian, looking for one of the two remaining fives in the deck, and he would be left wanting. The K-Q-8-2-A board did nothing to help Martirosian as he became the first elimination from the 2023 WPT World Championship final table, still earning a seven-figure payday but departing in sixth place. Meanwhile, Sepiol moved into the second-place slot on the leaderboard and would take over the chip lead on the very next hand.
The duo of Sepiol and Lichtenberger became the story of the final table, battling it out for the chip lead, while the remainder of the table tried to keep up. Sotiropoulos would take down Heath in fifth place, his A-7 catching an unnecessary Ace on the flop against Heath’s Q-J off suit, then knocked off Moorman in fourth place, his K-Q outpipping Moorman’s Q-J on an A-A-10-9-7 board. Even with those two eliminations, Sotiropoulos was still looking up at the stacks of Lichtenberger and Sepiol.
Who is the Next WPT World Champion?
For twenty hands, the trio pushed chips around at each other before a major clash, for all practical purposes, decided the champion. On Hand #102, Lichtenberger limped out of the small blind only to see Sepiol raise the action. Undaunted, Lichtenberger brought out the three-bet, popping it to 32.5 million, which brought a Time Bank chip out of Sepiol. After that thirty-second respite, Sepiol moved all in, Lichtenberger called, and the battle was on:
Lichtenberger: A-K
Sepiol: pocket Jacks
It was a classic race situation, for a massive 300 million-plus pot, which would decide the course of the championship. The Q-9-7 flop brought nothing to help ‘LuckyChewy,’ and the deuce on the turn also wasn’t helpful. The river brought a ten, which left Lichtenberger with Ace high and out of the tournament in third place while Sepiol’s pair of Jacks stacked up 310.5 million chips to go to war against Sotiropoulos (72.6 million).
With more than a 4:1 lead, it seemed destined that Sepiol would claim the championship. The duo battled over another twenty hands before a rarity occurred on the WPT – the pair came to a deal on the money remaining in the prize pool. After extensive discussion, Sepiol would receive $4,682,954 of the $9.45 million left in the prize pool, while Sotiropoulos negotiated a $4,167,246 payday for himself. The twosome left $600,000 in the center, along with the hardware, to leave them something to play for.
After the deal, Sotiropoulos took the lead for five hands before Sepiol struck back. Sepiol caught a miraculous two pair with a J-2 on a J-9-2-10-7 board against Sotiropoulos’ Q-J, setting the stage for the final hand. On Hand #130, Sotiropoulos raised the betting and, after Sepiol moved all in, made the call with a dominant K-Q over Sepiol’s K-3. The J-8-4 flop ran true for Sotiropoulos, but the trey on the turn switched the fates. Needing a Queen on the river, Sotiropoulos instead saw a deuce as Sepiol’s stunning final couple of hands took him to the 2023 WPT World Championship.
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
(* – indicates final table deal)
With that, the 2024 World Poker Tour Season 2023 is in the books (the WPT has ceased using Roman numerals to number its seasons after 2021). Although the WPT World Championship was a nice reward for Sepiol, it was almost enough for him to take the overall WPT Player of the Year award, but he would finish as the runner-up there. Taking the WPT POY was Bin Weng, who used a thunderous start to the 2023 season in which he won a tournament and finished at the final table of another to build a sizeable lead. It ends one of the finest seasons overall for the World Poker Tour in recent memory.
(Photo courtesy of WPT)
