After 4 days, 8 rounds of play, and 255 bust outs, it was Leo Wolpert who was the last one standing in the WSOP $10K Heads-Up Championship.

 

The 26-year old "former" professional poker player outlasted EPT founder John Duthie in a grueling best-of-three championship match to earn $625,682 and the coveted World Series of Poker bracelet.

 

Wolpert's aggressive style allowed him to dominate the pace of play in all three matches. With Wolpert holding the chip lead for nearly the entirety of the two-hour long first match, both players got their money in on a K893 two-diamond board. Wolpert held the nuts, KK, but Duthie was far from drawing dead with his 7Tdd. The 4d crippled Wolpert, and the match ended just a few hands later when the 26-year-old's KQss could not chase down AQdd.

 

The second match was beyond brief. After getting his AA cracked on the second hand of the match, Wolpert would bounce back and win just seven hands later. His set of 6s had Duthie's top pair with AK drawing dead when they got it in on the turn.

 

The third match, a four-hour epic, saw Wolpert dominate and frustrate Duthie with an aggressive style that continuously chipped away at Duthie's stack. Duthie was all-in fairly early in the match, down 3-1 in chips, but his open-ended straight draw connected on the river to best Wolpert's top pair and bring the match back to even.

 

The deciding hand saw Wolpert limp the button, and Duthie check. The fireworks started when the flop came T35, and when the dust settled, Wolpert had the lead with 35 vs. Duthie's T2. The turn and river brought no help to Duthie, and the championship belonged to Wolpert.

 

Wolpert had an impressive path to the win, defeating David Pham, Dustin Woolf, Jamin Stokes (who took down Johnny Chan and Layne Flack), and eventually John Duthie.

 

Chan fell short of his 11th bracelet, making it to the final eight before losing to Stokes in an epic back-and-forth match that lasted more than three hours.

 

What makes Wolpert's win even more impressive is that he hadn't been playing on the tournament circuit at all leading up to his win. He had taken his previous winnings and financed his way through Virginia Law School, but an internship in Vegas and a few good breaks left him the unlikely champion of Event 29 of the 2009 World Series of Poker.

 

 

 

Recap by Tim Fiorvanti