2012 WPT Champion Marvin Rettenmaier
The 2012 WPT Championship was every exciting for everyone involved. The biggest event of the year and the ultimate battle between poker professionals and amateurs alike. The final table had its ups and downs and while Marvin Rettenmaier was the chip leader when the table started, things didn’t go very smooth for him.
The game was a joy to watch and all the players brought their best game to the table but only one could win the first prize worth more than one million dollars and Rettenmaier managed to claim it after a long battle and a real roller-coaster ride at the final table. He started with a huge lead over his opponents but that didn’t last very long as he lost most of it. He then started to come back again, increasing his stack hand by hand.
The heads-up match between him and Philippe Ktorza was a 4:1 advantage for the latter at one point and things weren’t looking very good for Rettenmaier. With a steady game and good strategies, he did manage to come back and win the title as well as the $1,196,858. The amount is quite small for such a big tournament and it is actually the second smallest WPT Championship first place prize. The prize pool is calculated depending on the number of people that sign up for the tournament and pay the entry fee.
This year, although it was a spectacular event, not that many players took part in it. The title of course is priceless and Rettenmaier goes into poker history for winning it in 2012. The WPT Championship is also the main event that helps declare the Poker Player Of The Year, an award given for performances around the year to the best of the best. It is a high honor to be in the running for this award and winning it is a very big thing. This year, the WPT POY went to Joe Serock after one of the most dramatic races ever. Will Failla actually had a lead over Serock in points for the award but the WPT Championship was still going and many of the players remaining had a shot at winning Season X Player of the Year.
However, Failla was dropped out from the tournament quite early on which left 11 other players in the running. The final battle for the POY was between Serock and Moon Kim. The latter needed to finish 4th in the WPT Championship to have the same amount of points as Serock and 3rd to win the POY award. “Mad” Marvin Rettenmaier sent Kim home in seventh place and Serock won Player of the Year. The biggest poker tournament of the year is now over and only Marvin Rettenmaier remains standing.
Also held in the Las Vegas was the Super High Roller Tournament which was won by Marchese. Three of the most prestigious titles, all wrapped up in one week of intense poker games. We are now looking forward to next year and hope that will get to see the same exciting games.
