Was Daniel Weinman Really the Biggest Ever Winner of the WSOP Main Event?

The confetti has been swept up, the cardrooms are now empty of thousands of poker players. The gold bracelets all have owners, and the 2023 World Series of Poker Main Event winner has been confirmed. But was Daniel Weinman really the biggest World Championship winner of all-time when he took down the $12.1 million top prize?

Weinman Is a Worthy World Champion

We’ll break down exactly what Daniel Weinman when he became 2023 world champion shortly but before doing so it is worth reiterating for poker fans around the world just what a worthy winner he is. Weinman’s victory for the $12.1 million top prize was a victory for the game too. Here is a professional at the game who also works in another area of business and his class and experience shone through as the Main Event got closer to a conclusion.

After winning the Main Event, Weinman even went back to work.

The state of Georgia’s pride and joy in the game of poker will be much celebrated over the next year and rightly so, but Weinman’s infectious personality and mile-wide grin are more than just positives for poker. In the midst of what feels to those inside the industry as a ‘second’ poker boom, Weinman’s win is pivotal to that statement being backed up by the game’s biggest cheerleader.

Weinman is both a professional and a family man, a gambler yet a solid career guy. His ability to operate in different worlds makes the game appealing not only to players who aspire to win – the erstwhile ‘Moneymakers’ of the game – but also professionals who want to develop the game alongside another career. Truly anybody can become world champion.

How Much Did Daniel Weinman Actually Win?

Breaking down the exact amount that Weinman won is a tougher call than the Georgian’s pivotal all-in with pocket jacks with two tables left. Just like on that occasion, where Weinman overcame queens and kings with a jack arriving to treble him up, we hope to get there in the end. The $12.1 million top prize is taxed pretty heavily in the U.S. but with all three of the podium places from the home country, no-one won more than Weinman.

After a taxation of around 37% which disappears to the IRS as federal income tax, Weinman would then be charged a further 5.75% as state income tax, with Georgia taking another chunk of his winnings. All this means that the original amount is pared back to just under $7 million, with backers and swaps then taking their pieces.

With an experienced rail of Shaun Deeb, Josh Arieh and Matt Glantz, the foursome are known to have swapped plenty over the course of the series and we wouldn’t be surprised if at least 20% of Weinman’s winnings go to other players via these commonplace trades that take place before the Main. If that’s the case, then Weinman will have walked away with around $5.6 million.

How Did the Other Final Table Players Do After Tax?

As you might expect, players from around the world pay differing amounts of tax, and in some cases, that’s not all they paid out of their winnings this year. Both of the other Americans at the final table, second-placed Steven Jones ($6.5m) and third-placed Adam Walton ($4m) will have paid similar amounts to the IRS as Weinman. As such, their winnings dropped to around $3.8m and $2.5m respectively.

Behind the trio of Americans, German player Jan-Peter Jachtmann suffered a bad beat courtesy of the taxman. Winning $3 million in fourth place, the mixed game player who struck gold playing No Limit Hold’em in the Main Event lost over $1.4 million of his winnings because of a tax loophole that favors worse players in his homeland. Non-professional players in German don’t pay any tax, but professionals – among whom Jachtmann counts himself – have to pay a massive income tax as a ‘self-employed’.

Finishing behind Jachtmann but taking home more than him, British player Dean Hutchison took all of his $1,850,000 sixth-placed prize back home to Scotland. Ukraine’s Ruslan Prydryk came fifth, but also ended up with more than Jachtmann, losing around $565,000 of his prize money to tax and a military levy upon returning to his homeland. That still means he effectively ‘beat’ Jachtmann, winning approximately $1.93 million.

Toby Lewis kept all of his $1,425,000 prize for coming seventh, but Spain’s Juan Maceiras (8^th for $1,125,000) lost around 43% of his money, only cashing for around $640,000. That’s a degree less than the Italian apple farmer Daniel Holzner , who came ninth but kept all of his $900,000 winnings.

In total, nine final table players earned over $33.3 million, but paid out around a third of that money, with $11.5 million going to the taxman without him playing a hand. It’s not just the house that always wins…it’s Uncle Sam, too.

This article originally appeared on PokerStake.com