Helluva Poker Face
Daniel Weinman, ME 09, celebrates record-breaking poker win.
By Matt Sowell
Georgia Tech alumni are famously good at perseverance. Daniel Weinman, who won the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event and took home a record-breaking $12.1 million in winnings, credits it as part of his strategy for success.
“Even the best players in the world have to come to terms with the fact they are going to lose a tournament about 75% of the time. There’s not much instant gratification, and the hard work put in at and away from the tables doesn’t always yield immediate results,” says Weinman. “I’m sure most Tech grads can relate to having to persevere through a difficult class or concept that eventually tied everything together.”
Weinman, who plays professional poker, became interested in poker in high school, where he and his friends would spend nights huddled in basements playing the game. He quickly realized that it would be more than a hobby for him. “It was during my years at Tech that I began to take it more seriously,” he says.
His passion for poker has certainly paid off. To win the WSOP Main Event, Weinman had to beat 10,042 other participants.
Weinman says he felt relieved at the end of the tournament. “The last couple of days especially were nerve-wracking. Not so much the playing, but the waiting between days was really starting to get to me,” he says.
Besides a significant amount of media attention, Weinman expects life to remain the same post-win. He plans to continue to play poker competitively. He also advises a few Tech students and alumni who are part of a startup called RF Poker, which hopes to create a Top Golf–like poker experience.
Though the tournament was almost a month before the time of this interview, he says the win still hasn’t sunk in. “It’s a tournament that you never expect to win, or even really have a chance to win, simply due to the massive field size,” says Weinman.