Daniel Weinman Wins the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open

February 06, 2017

Katie Callahan

A 29-year-old won his first World Poker Tour title Feb. 3 at WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open. Daniel Weinman, the player in question, was also celebrating his birthday, making the win a double whammy.

“This is a pretty awesome birthday present,” said Weinman to the WPT. “My girlfriend flew in last minute, you couldn’t have scripted it any better.”

Weinman hasn’t played many tournaments outside of the World Series of Poker. He holds just over $2 million in career tournament earnings. He’s credited with inventing the Fantasyland variation of open-face Chinese poker.

Weinman takes home $892,433 after coming out ahead of the 1,312 player field, a record for the event.

At the start of play, these were the chip counts:

Seat	Name	Chips	Big Blinds
1	Jia Liu	6,815,000	85
2	Tyler Kenney	6,030,000	75
3	Nathan Bjerno	12,415,000	155
4	Nicholas Immekus	3,550,000	44
5	Richard Foster	5,130,000	64
6	Daniel Weinman	5,410,000	68

According to the live updates, Weinman made the call of the tournament, calling an all-in shove from Tyler Kenney on the river of a board that read 8♦5♠4♣10♥3♠ with 9♣5♦, topping Kenney’s king high.

This was anything but easy for Weinman, who was in a tough spot between calling and folding, but then he remembered reading something where Kenney had been timid to make moves at his other WPT Final Table.

“I kind of had this feeling that the first time he really kind of turned up the heat, he might be light,” Weinman said to the WPT. “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’d look like a hero forever.”

After 10 hands, eliminations began. Nicholas Immekus was first, taking sixth place for $184,787. Jia Liu (fourth, $275,081) and Kenney (third, $327,578) would follow.

Weinman had a massive chip lead heading into the heads-up battle with Nathan Bjerno. He held 33.8 million in comparison to the measly 5.55 million Bjerno was holding. Bjerno would never find his way out.

The final hand had Weinman moving all in preflop. Bjerno would call all in for 3,450,000 with A♣4♥. Weinman held A♦5♠. The board came A♠8♦6♣7♥4♦, so Bjerno could pair his four on the river, but that gave Weinman the eight-high straight to win the pot and the title.

Weinman received the title, the WPT Champions trophy and an inscription on the WPT Champions Cup. His prize money also includes a $15,000 seat into the WPT Tournament of Champions.