Schuyler Thornton Wins WPT World Championships but Did Paradise Win Poker War?

A poker tournament battle raged across the Americas this month as the WPT World Championships took on WSOP Paradise. But were players drawn to The Bahamas or Las Vegas as the race to win millions of dollars ended in defeat for one brand against the other? We watched on as Schuyler Thornton took the crown at The Wynn Las Vegas as ‘JBex’ a.k.a. Jeremy Becker also reached the final table under the lights.

Dropping Attendances But is WPTWC Still a Success?

In many ways, the World Poker Tour has toiled across a year with drama in its backdrop.  At the start of the year, several legendary writers and editorial staff were released from the company. During a heated court case thereafter, the poker professional Jordan Cristos was jailed for stalking the WPT CEO Adam Pliska. Now, as the dust settles from a busy December, thoughts turn to how much of a success the WPT World Championships have been.

In 2022, the debut year of the $10,000-entry event saw 2,960 total entries. A year later, that number increased to 3,835. In 2024, the impact of the WSOP Paradise festival meant numbers fell to 2,392, while this year, the field was just 1,895 in the wake of the record-breaking WSOP Paradise Super Main Event.

Was the WPT World Championships Main Event affected by the action in The Bahamas? Undoubtedly. Was it still a big success? It’s hard to argue against it, with thousands of entries and a packed house in terms of other tournaments and cash games too. Certainly, some of the world’s best made it to the WPTWC, with Champions Club members such as Jared Jaffe, Konstantin Held, Eugene Katchalov, John ‘Johnny World’ Hennigan and Filipp Khavin all reaching the top 50 players.

Becker Beaten at the Death

By the time the final six players reached their seats in the televised final table, Soheb Porbandarwala had the chip lead with 81.3 million chips, good for 162 big blinds at the deep-stacked denouement of the Main Event. The final would see all three podium players cash for seven figures and the eventual winner Thornton was Porbandarwala’s closest rival with 73 big blinds, less than half his stack.

The first player to leave the action was Maxx Coleman, who shoved with ace-ten and was called by Schuyler Thornton with the dominating ace-queen. A board of K-9-2-A-A played out, giving Thornton the pot and sending Coleman to the rail for a score of $540,000. It brought the champion elect into range of the chip leader in the process, giving him 55.5 million from a stack of 36.5 million and changed the narrative at the table.

Soon the field was down to four as Jeremy Becker, who was heavily involved in a crossbook bet with Landon Tice at the WSOP two summers ago, cashed for $710,000 in fifth place. All-in with ace-deuce, a dominated hand again put a player at risk as Thornton clicked the call button with ace-ten. An ace-high board with no deuce mean that four players remained, and Thornton had boosted his chances of victory again.

Thornton Calls His Shot

Down to four players, the short stack at the start of the final table, Chad Lipton, lost his tournament life. On a board showing Q-J-4-2, the turn card prompted a check-raise all-in from Lipton with jack-ten for a flopped pair of jacks. Thornton took no time at all to call with ace-queen and held through the nine on the river to take out the luckless Lipton for a score of $940,000.

The top three when six sat down were still in their seats when the podium places were secured, and it was another 30 hands before a man departed from the trio. That player was Jeremy Brown, who won $1.25 million when a board of 8-4-3-5-3 had fallen by the time the money went in, Brown shoving with jack-eight for top pair. To say he was outmatched would be to master the understatement, as Thornton snap-called with pocket fours for a flopped set and rivered full house.

Heads-up began with Thornton finally grabbing the lead the at the right time, starting with 185 big blinds to Porbandarwala’s stack of 125 big blinds. Before the final duel got under way, the two players agreed to smooth out the payments, leaving $160,400 to play for after the ICM figures had been agreed by both men. A series of hands that didn’t go to showdown followed, with Thornton winning them all. After 10 straight hands went his way, Thornton found two-pair to go into a massive 10:1 chip lead. Soon, the end was nigh as once again, Thornton found a dominating ace. Ace-king beat ace-six when a K-5-4-T-T managed to sweat and fade a nut flush draw to leave Porbandarwala as the valiant runner-up, collecting $1,969,344 as Thornton collapsed onto a pile of dollar bills, his win worth $2,258,856.

However many players take on the WPT World Championship, the oldest known poker brand in the world to truly go global will always welcome big fields. Will next year be even bigger? We certainly hope so.