The 24-year-old from Syosset, New York has been traveling extensively in order to play online poker since April of last year and was experiencing a large downswing before taking down the biggest score of his career at the World Series of Poker.
“As terrible as Black Friday was, and it was an abuse of personal freedom in my opinion, it was a blessing in disguise for me because I never would have seen Vancouver or Costa Rica, or met some of the great friends I’ve gotten to know,” Weissman told PokerListings.com.
“I don’t think I would have had the ambition to go out there and experience the world like that if it wasn’t for Black Friday,”
Weissman came out on top from a field of 1,607 in Event 46, $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em.
Wiping out the downswing and taking his career earnings to over $800,000, this victory will give Weismann the opportunity to continue traveling, and continue playing poker.
“A lot of people don’t know this but before I went into that final table I was broke. I had been losing for six months,” said Weismann.
“It feels very surreal,” he said. “It still feels like I’m going to wake up so I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet. Now I’m looking forward to some new experiences and new freedom and getting out of the debt I was in.”
“Right now I can basically go anywhere and do anything. It’s pretty magical,” he added.
Weissman officially lives in Boca Raton, Florida.
Weissman Denies France Second Bracelet of 2012
Joey Weissman dominated the final table. Holding close to half the chips in play for much of the day Weissman didn’t find himself in danger until the heads-up match against France’s Jeremy Quehen.
Quehen built a big lead one-on-one and at point had 9.8 million to Weissman’s 2.8 million.
After getting back up close to 4 million Weissman pulled out a double-up, winning a preflop all-in race with pocket threes against A♦ 7♦.
Weissman took the chip lead and the two found themselves all-in again a few hands later.
Weissman opened from the button and Quehen called from the big blind. The flop came Q♦ 5♥ 3♣ and Quehen donk-bet, getting a call from Weissman.
The turn was the 7♥ and the action from the flop repeated itself. When the J♥ hit the river Quehen bet, Weissman moved all-in and Quehen called.
Weissman tabled A♥ Q♥ for the nuts and was swarmed by a crowd of supporters.
Quehen, from Nice, France took down $429,535, far and away the biggest prize of a career that started in 2011.
Here are the full final table results:
1. Joey Weissman - $694,609 2. Jeremy Quehen - $429,535 3. Fernando Brito - $282,676 4. Philip Meulyzer - $203,781 5. Bradley Lipsey - $149,162 6. Joe Gualtieri - $110,775 7. Michael Gagliano - $83,428 8. Joshua Pedraza - $63,686 9. Konstantin Puchkov - $49,245
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