Daniel Santoro Wins WPT World Poker Finals

Daniel Santoro beat some of the biggest names in poker to take down the World Poker Tour World Poker Finals at Foxwoods. Santoro defeated a final table that took over 200 hands to settle, with more than half that total coming during a lengthy heads up battle.

For his victory, Santoro took home $449,910 – but he had a few big names standing in his way once the televised final table of six was reached. Perhaps the biggest name remaining was Andy Frankenberger, the defending WPT Player of the Year, who had spent most of the tournament hovering around the top of the leaderboard.

But Frankenberger ultimately would go out in 5^th place, earning just under $100,000 for his efforts. In the head, heads up play came down to a battle between Santoro and Christian Harder, a regular at final tables who had already won over $2 million in his live tournament career.

The battle raged for over 100 hands, with both players taking the chip lead multiple times. Towards the end of the match, Santoro appeared to have an overwhelming chip lead – but Harder battled back, winning several pots and doubling up to climb back into the match.

Finally, as many big events do, this tournament came down to a coin flip. Harder moved all in with TT, only to be called by Santoro’s AK offsuit, setting up a hand where Harder was at risk of elimination. Things went well for Harder until the river, when a king hit, pairing Santoro and ending the tournament.

While not exactly a household name, Santoro has been a consistent performer in the poker world in recent years. While this is his first major win and his biggest cash, the New York poker pro had over $260,000 in lifetime cashes earlier in his career.