25 Apr 10

David Williams wins WPT World Championship

After seven days of play, David Williams emerged as the champion of the Season VIII WPT World Championship. David Benyamine, Phil Hellmuth and Scotty Nguyen all finished in the top 10.

The $25,000 buy-in World Poker Tour World Championship attracted 195 players this year, a drop from the previous years. The field was however filled with some of the biggest names in poker who generated a prize pool of close to $5 million.

In the end 2004 WSOP Main Event runner-up David Williams outlasted the packed field to earn his first WPT title and $1,530,537 to go with it. He defeated Eric Baldwin in the heads-up match, after going into it with a 3:1 chip lead.

Faraz Jaka crowned Player of the Year

David Benyamine, Phil Hellmuth and Scotty Nguyen all made deep runs in this event. Benyamine made the final table and finished fourth for $329,228. Hellmuth and Nguyen both busted out on the final table bubble, finishing seventh and eight, and earning $152,856 and $105,823 respectively.

Coming into the last day of the WPT season, Faraz Jaka was in the lead for the Player of the Year chase but could still be overtaken by Shawn Buchanan if he won this event. Buchanan was eventually eliminated in 3rd place, and Jaka's wait for the title was over. En-route to this coveted title, he finished 2nd at the Bellagio Cup V and 3rd at the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic.

Here are the top 10 finishers from the Season VIII WPT Championship:

WPT Championship Final Results
Place	Name	Prize
1st	David Williams	$1,530,537
2nd	Eric Baldwin	$1,034,715
3rd	Shawn Buchanan	$587,906
4th	David Benyamine	$329,228
5th	Billy Baxter	$246,921
6th	John O'Shea	$199,888
7th	Phil Hellmuth	$152,856
8th	Scotty Nguyen	$105,823
9th	Nikolay Evdakov	$75,252
10th	Cliff Josephy	$56,439