Scott Stewart Triumphs in 2024 WPT World Championship

On December 21, 2024, the third edition of the $10,400 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas played down to a winner. Scott Stewart earned the top prize of $2,563,900 after defeating Rob Sherwood in a long heads-up play.

Scott Stewart Wins WPT World Championship

WPT World Championship winner Scott Stewart is no stranger to success at the poker tables and widely known for his very fun approach to the competition, no matter what the stakes are. He has now cashed for more than $5.5 million in live poker tournaments, which includes six WSOP Circuit rings. In the 2017 WSOP Main Event, he reached the final two tables and was a firm favorite among the spectators en route to his 13th place finish for $535,000.

The World Poker Tour opted not to put any guarantee on their annual flagship tournament. Nonetheless, it reached 2,392 entries for a prize pool of $23,441,600.

The Final Table

Thanks to an exceptionally deep structure, the WPT World Championship final table was only reached on Day 5 which saw 16 players return to their seats in the Grand Ballroom at the Wynn. It only took two and a half levels of 90 minutes each to reach the final nine. The penultimate tournament day played down to the final six contenders, which has become the preferred live-stream format of the WPT.

9th Place: Jonathan Willis (United Kingdom) – $310,000

Hailing from the United Kingdom, Jonathan Willis‘ first results on home turf date all the way back to 2011. He won the WPT 500 Montreal opening event in May 2024 for C$105,860, which was his far biggest cash until then.

Willis entered the final nine middle of the pack with 32 big blinds, but never gained any momentum. He eventually bowed out in hand #35 when his middle pair on the flop couldn’t fade the flush draw of Eddie Pak.

8th Place: Anže Šmajd (Slovenia) – $400,000

Another rather unknown player on the final table was Anže Šmajd, his deep run in the event saw him skyrocket into the top ten of Slovenia according to The Hendon Mob. The score is more than six times bigger than his previous best live poker result.

Šmajd was the chip leader after Day 1c and rode the momentum all the way to the final table, which he entered fourth in chips with 65 big blinds. It was a roller coaster ride from there and he ultimately bowed out in hand #104 when he four-bet jammed queen-ten suited into the ace-king og Chris Moorman.

7th Place: Mykhailo Lendel (United States) – $515,000)

Prior to this event, Mykhailo Lendel had more than half a million in live poker cashes and three of his top five results came in the current year including a maiden six-figure score at the Borgata Winter Poker Open in January. He doubled his overall tally and was the last player to depart on Day 5.

Lendel was the second-shortest stack when the field combined with nine contenders remaining and stayed afloat with a shorter stack, securing two pay jumps. As the far shortest stack in hand #107, he got it in with king-nine and could not beat the pocket queens of Stewart.

6th Place: Christian Roberts (Venezuela) – $665,000

Sitting in fourth place of Venezuela’s all-time money list with this result, Christian Roberts jumped ahead two spots with his largest live poker score. No stranger to the mixed game formats during the World Series of Poker, he had another three six-figure scores in the past two years.

Roberts survived the first stage of the final table with comfortable 36 big blinds, fourth on the leaderboard but not far ahead of the other two short stacks. However, it all came to a crashing end in only the fourth hand of the live-streamed final day when he three-bet ace-queen suited and called all-in against Stewart, who tabled pocket aces. Two spades came on the flop, but only a queen followed.

5th Place: Ryan Yu (Canada / South Korea) – $875,000

Ryan Yu entered the big stage on the final day with 22 big blinds, the shortest stack among the six contenders for the title. Born in South Korea and residing in Toronto, Canada, he has back-to-back runner-up finishes in the WPT Fallsview Poker Classic to his name in 2017 and 2018 respectively. The latter result raised eyebrows in the poker community when he made a deal with Mike Leah and lost most of his chips in quick succession after heads-up play commenced.

Just one hand after the elimination of Roberts, Yu took a flip with pocket nines against the ace-king of Eddie Pak, who flopped two pair and turned a full house to leave his opponent drawing dead.

4th Place: Chris Moorman (United Kingdom) – $1,150,000

Arguably the most experienced and high-profile finalist of them all needs little introduction. Chris Moorman is one of the most successful online poker players and has found plenty of success in the live arena as well. He has two WSOP bracelets and two WSOP Circuit rings to his name, along with a runner-up finish in the 2011 WSOP Europe Main Event for €800,000 – yes, thirteen years ago!

To make the story even more remarkable, he finished in fourth place of the WPT World Championships for the second year in a row! Flirting with the chip lead as of Day 4, the Brit had a bit of a roller coaster ride on the final two days. His Exit in fourth place was a bad beat when pocket queens were cracked by the pocket tens of Eddie Pak in hand #10 of the final day.

3rd Place: Eddie Pak (United States) – $2,000,000

The vast majority of Eddie Pak’s $2.4 million in live poker cashes from two events, as he also finished 47th in the 2024 WSOP Main Event for $200,000. Pak was the chip leader heading into the nine-handed final table and also for the final six with 83 big blinds.

However, he suffered multiple setbacks throughout the conclusion. After the final three players agreed to deal numbers, Pak fell to the shortest stack and bowed out in cruel fashion when he rivered a queen-high flush only for the same card to give Stewart a full house.

2nd Place: Robert Sherwood (United Kingdom) – $2,200,000

Originally hailing from Birmingham, Robert Sherwood had collected more than $1.1 million in live poker cashes. His prior best result was a fourth place in the 2010 Irish Open Main Event for €163,300 and he surpassed that score ten-fold! Sherwood ame into the final day with a lot of persistence and resistance, as he was among the shorter stacks for Day 5 and had only 21 big blinds for the nine-handed final table.

Sherwood secured a few double-ups en route to bagging up 32 big blinds, then continued the same short stack double-up routine through the final three. Heads-up play against Stewart lasted for more than 100 hands and he even held a strong lead, only for one decisive hand to all but end his hopes of victory. Sixes crashed into kings for the vast majority of chips in play, and it was over two hands later.

Interesting Facts About the Event

Plot twist on the bubble: Three players risked it all with one of the most hated pocket pairs in live tournament poker – pocket jacks. Two of them survived, while Kitson Kho flopped a set with them but lost to runner-runner straight two spots away from the money.

Eventual champion Stewart was responsible for bursting the money bubble at the end of Day 2 when his pocket queens held up against the queen-ten of Ernest Bush. It is rather unusual that such a large and long event has one player near the top all the way to victory.

Throughout the year, the WPT awarded packages for winners of their two flagship tournament brands for the grand finale in Las Vegas – the WPT Prime Championships and Main Tour stops all over the world.

The 2024 WPT Prime Taiwan champion Jereld Sam from Singapore converted his package for Las Vegas into another live cash – he reached 202nd place for $21,600. Qiang Xu from China, WSOP bracelet winner from 2023, made it to 44th place for $85,000 while Thailand born Tanupat Punjarojanakul collected $176,000 for 18th place.

Several Prime Main Event champions of this season cashed, going furthest was Fabian Gumz (2nd in chips after Day 1a). He bowed out on Day 5 in 12th place for $255,000, only two months after finishing 9th in the 2024 WSOP Europe Main Event (€93,900).

Rising Aussie young gun Malcolm Trayner held the lead after Day 2 and survived until late on Day 3, when he bowed out in 84th place for $42,000 – one spot above 2014 WSOP Main Event champion Martin Jacobson. He won his first WSOP gold bracelet during the summer at 24 years of age in the $1,000 Mystery Millions.