WSOP 2023 Main Event Champion: Who is Daniel Weinman?

To many poker fans, Daniel Weinman – the WSOP 2023 Main Event champion – will be a name they’ve not heard before. He’s not a regular on the high roller circuit or a fixture in the myriad of big live-streamed cash games.

But to those familiar with Weinman and his prior success, his $12.1 million victory on July 17, 2023, came as no surprise.

Weinman was the last player standing from a record-breaking World Series of Poker Main Event field of 10,043 entries and claimed the largest prize ever awarded in the big one, topping the $12 million won by Jamie Gold back in 2006.

But who is Weinman and how did he get to where he is today?

WEINMAN’S CAREER

Born on February 3rd, 1988, Weinman, 35, has been a poker pro since graduating from the Georgia Institute of Technology back in 2009, following a brief stint working as an engineer.

“The Boom happened and I kind of had this inkling that I would play poker and give it a shot for a few years,” Weinman told PokerNews. “And here we are 16 years later … You just kind of feel like, maybe it’s my time.”

This was his 16th WSOP, showing just how long he’s been in the game. But prior to 2023, he’d only cashed the Main Event one time.

That’s not to say he hadn’t enjoyed a successful career, though.

😲 WOW! 😲

Nearly 200 big blinds get in the middle before the flop between Daniel Weinman (@notontilt09) and Adam Walton.

And we are now heads up for the title in the 2023 @WSOP Main Event.

📺 – Watch Live Here: https://t.co/6Gci7QpvfH pic.twitter.com/izmKVuJTgL

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) July 17, 2023

Weinman already had more than $3.7 million in live cashes prior to his enormous score, most notably winning a World Poker Tour (WPT) title in 2017 worth $892,433, his previous biggest cash.

That was only his first WPT title of that year. He then won a second WPT a few months later, this time for $381,500.

He also won a WSOP Circuit event in 2015 for $280,260.

Weinman took a break from the game to take a job as a software engineer at a poker industry tech start-up in Atlanta, before coming back to play a full schedule at the WSOP 2022. That proved to be a breakout summer for Weinman.

He won his first WSOP bracelet in a $1,000 buy-in PLO event, beating 1,891 entries to win $255,359.

He then took another extended break to continue his software work, before returning to the WSOP in 2023. Needless to say, that was a fine decision.

Daniel Weinman (@notontilt09) is your 2023 @WSOP Main Event Champion.

In the final hand, Weinman and Steven Jones both flop top pair, and when Jones moves in on the turn, Weinman calls.

Weinman walks away with $12,100,000 after conquering the largest Main Event field ever. pic.twitter.com/bxOOJaOcMH

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) July 17, 2023

Surrounded by a rowdy rail of friends and family, including his fellow pros and good friends Jason Mercier, Shaun Deeb, and Josh Arieh, Weinman earned the biggest Main Event paycheck in history.

MIXED GAME SPECIALIST

He’ll now forever be known as a Main Event champion in no limit hold’em, but Weinman is actually a mixed game specialist who excels in all variants of poker.

“I like to say I’m very good at all of the games and elite at none, and I still [stand] by that,” Weinman told PokerNews. “I love poker and I’ll never be the guy who wants to study and become the best, it’s not for me. But I’ll always be playing.”

Although he technically has a full-time job outside of poker playing these days, Weinman still considers himself among the pros.

“I would still lump myself into the [poker professional] category,” Weinman told CNBC. “I like to joke that poker is still my job and my software job is my hobby.”

He was still making headlines after his victory when he was snapped back in the office, grinding at the day job.

Monday: win main event

Friday: back in the office pic.twitter.com/NTRSD2JrLh

— Daniel Weinman (@notontilt09) July 21, 2023

Once a grinder, always a grinder. For Weinman, it seems like no amount of money can change that.