Former pro Leo Wolpert wins Event 29

Scratching your head because of that headline? Well, that’s the truth. The best part of the story is that the winner of Event 29, the USD 10,000 no-limit hold 'em heads-up tournament, is just 26!

Leo Wolpert, a former professional poker player, won USD 652,682 in the heads-up tournament by winning eight matches against some of the best in the world. This was his eighth WSOP cash and second final table with a third-place finish in a shootout event in 2008. Third place wouldn't be good enough this year, and Wolpert defeated the co-founder of the European Poker Tour, John Duthie, in the finals to win his first bracelet.

"I can't really even describe it," Wolpert said. "I actually didn't really expect to win. I mean, I always enter a tournament hoping to win. But with a tough field like this I wasn't even really thinking about it until today. The goal was to just play against whoever I was going to play and run good against them, see if they had some leaks, and try to exploit those, and I happened to run really, really good during the tournament. Now here I am."

Wolpert lost the first match in the best-of-three finals but was able to come back and win the next two.

"I was steaming a little bit," he said after the loss in the first match. "I'm not going to lie. I just decided, 'I have to grind back and get the best two out of three.' So I stayed calm and remembered there was another match coming up. And hopefully I could run a little better the next time. I would not say it strengthened my resolve. I would say I was already pretty resolute."

The former professional poker player is now in law school at the University of Virginia. After graduating from the University of Michigan, he spent two years playing professionally online and used his winnings to pay for law school.

"The University of Virginia is a top-ten school," Wolpert said. "I had a big score last year, so that has been helping to finance my education." 

While many of the world's best players entered the event, the biggest name was eliminated in the Elite 8. During the event's broadcast on ESPN360.com, Johnny Chan was eliminated by Jamin Stokes after a long battle. Stokes has a WSOP Circuit event title on his résumé, and now he can add that he beat one of the best heads-up.

Other notable finishers include Alec Torelli (12th), Justin Smith (13th) and Yevgeniy Timoshenko (14th).

Below are the complete results of Event 29:

Event 29: Heads-Up World Championship
Buy-in: USD 10,000
Entries: 256
Prize pool: USD 2,406,400
Players in the money: 32

1. Leo Wolpert (USD 625,682)
2. John Duthie (USD 386,636)
3. Jamin Stokes (USD 214,289)
4. Nathan Doudney (USD 214,289)
5. Johnny Chan (USD 92,580)
6. Dustin Woolf (USD 92,580)
7. Stephen O'Dwyer (USD 92,580)
8. Bryan Pellegrino (USD 92,580)
9. Roberto Romanello (USD 38,424)
10. Clavet Mathieu (USD 38,424)
11. Ben Sprengers (USD 38,424)
12. Alec Torelli (USD 38,424)
13. Justin Smith (USD 38,424)
14. Yevgeniy Timoshenko (USD 38,424)
15. Mike Caro (USD 38,424)
16. Jason Mercier (USD 38,424)
17. Andrew Lichtenberger (USD 17,987)
18. Ben Lamb (USD 17,987)
19. Matt Woodward (USD 17,987)
20. Dmitry Lesnoy (USD 17,987)
21. Jason Senti (USD 17,987)
22. Benjamin Tollerene (USD 17,987)
23. Brian Lemke (USD 17,987)
24. Albert Iversen (USD 17,987)
25. Benjamin Spindler (USD 17,987)
26. Steve Zolotow (USD 17,987)
27. Jonathan Jaffe (USD 17,987)
28. John Brock Parker (USD 17,987)
29. Evan Roberts (USD 17,987)
30. James Dambrosio (USD 17,987)
31. Nathanael Poysti (USD 17,987)
32. Dragan Galic (USD 17,987)