WPT Season VIII Festa al Lago Champion Tommy Vedes stole the show by overcoming a short stack to etch his name for a second time onto the WPT Champions Cup. Vedes claimed the $779,520 top prize and entered WPT history as only the third player ever to rise from short stack to WPT Champion.
Coming into the final day, all eyes were on Joe Serock, who had stormed the late stages of the tournament. While he stumbled midway through the final table, Serock still shot into pole position for WPT Player of the Year with back-to-back third place finishes in televised Season X events. The WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown carried a $10,000 buy-in, attracting 290 entrants for a large prize pool of $2,784,000.
“I came in thinking that if I took sixth, I’d be okay with it because I knew the table was super hard and I had no chips,” said Tommy Vedes. “Once I doubled the first time, I realized this was going to be different. I set myself up for success.”
Here are the results from the final table:
- Tommy Vedes – $779,520
- John Dolan – $459,360
- Joe Serock – $306,240
- Craig Bergeron – $212,976
- Sharon Levin – $158,688
- Kyle Bowker – $122,496
