WPT World Championship Final Table Turns into The Schuyler Thornton Show
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The $10,400 buy-in WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas on Sunday was a surprisingly quick and one-side affair, as Schuyler Thornton controlled the action throughout to win $2,098,456, beating Soheb Porbandarwala heads-up.
Thornton joins Eliot Hudon (2022), Dan Sepiol (2023), and Scott Stewart (2024) among champions of the World Poker Tour's season-ending event. Like previous editions, this year's champ beat a massive field — 1,865 entrants — and had to earn the victory with a hard-fought battle at the final table.
Thornton Makes it Quick and Painless
Porbandarwala held a massive chip lead when the final table began — better than a 2:1 chip advantage over Thornton, his nearest competitor. He was also the only past WPT Champions Club member left among the final six. But Thornton would close the gap early when he busted Maxx Coleman in sixth place ($540,000) when A♠Q♦ held up against A♣10♥.
The final table then appeared to become a two-player race for the title, as the three smallest stacks had fewer combined chips than Thornton, who still trailed Porbandarwala by a significant amount.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Schuyler Thornton | $2,098,456 |
| 2 | Soheb Porbandarwala | $1,969,344 |
| 3 | Jeremy Brown | $1,250,000 |
| 4 | Chad Lipton | $940,000 |
| 5 | Jeremy Becker | $710,000 |
| 6 | Maxx Coleman | $540,000 |
Thornton then sacked Jeremy Becker when his bigger ace bested a weaker ace, sending the Wynn daily tournament crusher home in fifth place for $710,000. Moments later, Thornton, with A♥Q♦ on a flop of Q♥J♥4♦, had Chad Lipton in bad shape after Brown check-raised all in with J♣10♠. No help would come for Lipton on the turn or river and he was eliminated in fourth place for $940,000.
Lipton's abrupt elimination shocked WPT commentator David Lappin.
"It kind of came out of nowhere," co-commentator Jesse Sylvia said.
All of a sudden Thornton was within striking distance of Porbandarwala. But no one benefited more from Lipton going all in with middle pair against one of the big stacks than Jeremy Brown, who was then guaranteed a seven-figure payout while sitting on one of the short stacks.
Moments later, Brown four-bet jammed Q♣9♣ against Porbandarwala, who called with A♦J♦, another play from the small stack that surprised the commentators. The board ran out Q♥K♠8♦J♠3♠, keeping Brown in the game and with a 60-big blind stack.
Brown's stay, however, would be short-lived when his top pair ran into Thornton's set, sending the shorter-stacked player home in third place for $1,250,000. Before heads-up play began, the players agreed to a chop, leaving about $129,000 and a $10,400 WPT seat on top for the winner.
Porbandarwala, for the first time since early on Day 5, had relinquished his chip lead. But both players had well over 100 big blinds. The match figured to run for hours given the stack sizes. But Thornton, early in the match, won a massive pot with a set of aces to move into a 5:1 chip advantage.
He'd go on to win 12 consecutive hands before Porbandarwala got his small stack in with A♥6♥ against A♦K♠. The flop came K♣5♥4♥ to make things interesting. But the turn and river were blanks, ending Porbandarwala's run in second place for $1,969,344.
Thornton, who now has just over $4 million in The Hendon Mob cashes, said in his postgame interview he wasn't too surprised the short stacks had shown aggression against the two much larger stacks.
"I know Jeremy Brown is not a pro. I think he was going for the win more than caring about ICM, which is awesome, good for him," Thornton said. "When (Coleman) jammed that ace-10, it was kind of standard. I just happened to have it there, I had ace-queen. Yeah, like I said, a lot of fortunate spots went my way today."
The aggressive play from the short stacks greatly benefited Thornton, and the final table cruised by quicker than most anticipated, including the champion.
"I thought we would get three or four-handed pretty fast, and then maybe heads-up pretty fast. I mean, I envisioned getting heads-up with Soheb. But, yeah, just knocking everyone out at the final table, it wasn't on the Bingo card, but good for me," Thornton said.
Thornton's victory, the Texan's first major poker tournament win, wrapped up the 2025 WPT World Championship festival in Las Vegas.
*Images courtesy of the World Poker Tour.
