Congratulations to Leo Wolpert - Event #29 Champion ($625,682) | 2009 World Series of Poker

It took seven rounds of victory before Leo Wolpert could even arrive here at the final. A former professional player in his early 20's, Wolpert chose to go back to school to study law at University of Virginia. In Nevada for his summer internship, Wolpert figured to wipe away the dust and try his hand at the $10,000 WSOP Heads-Up Championship.

Wolpert cruised into Day Three (the elite eight), where he took down a tough opponent in Dustin "Neverwin" Woolf. From there, Wolpert beat Jamin Stokes, the man who prevented Johnny Chan from making a run at his 11th Bracelet.

Today in the finals, Wolpert found himself up against EPT Founder, John Duthie. They battled in a long first match that ended after 96 hands. Wolpert had a chip lead throughout the latter stages of that match, but thanks to a rivered flush, Duthie was able to double up. Short stacked, Wolpert lost the first match a few hands later.

In the second match, Wolpert made up for the 1-0 deficit quickly. Duthie committed all of his chips drawing dead on the ninth hand when he held top pair, top kicker against Wolpert's set of sixes.

Their final match would be a marathon. Wolpert gained the lead early and never relinquished it. On the 191st hand (almost twice the amount of hands as the first match) John Duthie moved all in with top pair and was snap called by Wolpert's two pair. His hand held up and his rail exploded with excitement, knowing their man had bested 255 other players in this shootout format.

Congratulations to Leo Wolpert, winner of the 2009 WSOP Heads-Up Championship

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