William Vogel wins the Western New York Poker Championship ($71,827)

Stockport, New York's William Vogel took down the DeepStacks Poker Tour Western New York Poker Championship title at the Seneca Niagara Casino Sunday night.

Vogel bested 216 others to grab the $71,827 first-place prize and went wire-to-wire at the final table. But his journey to victory actually began when he won his seat through a $55 satellite right here in Niagara Falls.

Day 1 was his birthday, but the real gift came on Day 2 when Nachman Berlin shoved jack-ten into his ace-king to put him in a dead heat for the chip lead with Lou Procopio and send the two of them into the final six with better than 50 per cent of the chips in play.

As expected, the four short stacks got out of the way early at the final table and Vogel and Procopio went into heads-up the same way the final six began - just about even.

But there was nothing even about the way heads-up went, as the aggressive Vogel rivered a straight to get Procopio short, then put the pedal to the metal, beating him up until he shoved with queen high.

Vogel called with king-high, it held and moments later he was hoisting the trophy.

A hearty congratulations goes out to Champion William Vogel, DeepStacks CEO Chris Torina and the entire DeepStacks Poker Tour crew for putting on a first class tournament in this, their inaugural event.

For us, it's goodbye for now from Niagara Falls and the PokerNews crew will see you next time on the DeepStacks Poker Tour.