Matthew Waxman is officially the winner of WPT Tournament of Champions. He managed to see through the bluff of his finals opponent, Matas Cimbolas, and to pick up the prize for the first place which is $463,375.
Both Cimbolas and Waxman were the two remaining players out of five who came back on the third day for this popular tournament. However, the tournament didn’t take place in Aria Resort & Casino as it was initially planned. Instead, the two contestants were moved to a new arena called Esports Arena Las Vegas, located at Luxor.
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The two players were actually not the leading players at the beginning of the games. The leader for the most of the game was Darren Elias, who is a four-time WPT winner. Although he entered the game with great self-confidence and tactics, he eventually managed to lose his chips to Waxman and fell behind him and Cimbolas.
The Final Duel
After Elias was out of the game, Waxman took matters into his hands and settled the tournament. At that point, he had 2x more chips than Cimbolas, and the duel raged on as the chips were going back and forth.
After a while, Waxman started re-gaining advantage and was in control of the game completely. The final hand was really suspenseful as Cimbolas tried to bluff his way with the all-in move. However, Waxman was smart enough to see the bluff and follow. This was the moment which decided the game and Cimbolas had to settle for the second-place prize which is $265,590.
The top prize was not only the money. In fact, he managed to have a $15,000 seat reserved for the next season of the WPT Tournament of Champions. Also, he won a Hublot watch and a $50,000 JetSmarter membership. Of course, the most valuable prize was the unique trophy awarded to the winner of this prestigious tournament.
Waxman said after winning that he was not sure whether to participate in the tournament at all. Namely, he said that he had doubt in his self-confidence and that the buy-in was very high. He said that he hadn’t been playing poker for a while and had a long “break” which he used for traveling the world. It turned out that he was completely right to play in the tournament and that his confidence levels are, in fact, great.
This tournament was a conclusion of the 16th season of this poker series. The prize pool was $1,365,000, and it was split among the top 10 players. The minimum payout for the 10th player was $39,840. The tournament was prestigious due to the fact that 80 players who competed in it are actually all WPT Main Tour Main Event champions. The tournament was a 3-day event that lasted May 24-26 and was broadcast all around the globe with millions of people watching.
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