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Long Island, New York poker pro Daniel Santoro won his first World Poker Tour title and claimed $449,910 first-place prize at the WorldPoker Finals at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut which concluded on Tuesday 1st Nov 2011 after an eight hour 200-hand final table. This WPT winning of $449,910 gave a boost to WPT final winner Santoro’s earnings and doubled his life tournament earnings of $260,862.

However, for WPT final winner Santoro winning was not that easy. He had to put a tough fight with his opponents in order to win the WPT title. The final table comprised top professional poker players such as Andy Frankenberger; the WPT Player of the Year, Steven Brackesy; the former chip stack leader and Christian Harder; the renowned professional poker player.

Ultimately, it was Christian Harder who emerged as the runner up after a ferocious heads-up battle against WPT final winner Santoro, which went on for several hours.

Final Table Battle as played by WPT final winner Santoro

The final table saw an epic poker game where WPT final winner Santoro played very well and had the poker gods on his side when he really needed them. Santoro arrived at the final table third in chips 1,163,000, to sit behind chip leader Steven Brackesy (1,807,000) and Christian Harder (1,293,000).

Norwegian Eli Berg, who had started the final table in sixth place on 496,000 chips, was eliminated on the third hand of the day. Incredibly, just 10 hands later, another New Yorker, Andy Frankenberger, was out in fifth place after moving all-in following Harder’s re-raise. That pot gave Christian Harder the chip lead. The day’s initial chip leader Brackesy and Santoro got embroiled in a pre-flop raising battled that eliminated Brackesy in fourth place.

Brackesy was followed by Bob Carbone whose luck ran out soon after he moved all in while facing Santoro and he finished at third place. After knocking out Carbone in 3rd place with pocket aces vs. pocket 10s, Santoro entered heads-up with a 4-1 chip leader Christian Harder. Santoro had to survive a tough battle with Harder that saw the lead go back and forth a few times before WPT final winner Santoro finally prevailed to claim the $449,910 first prize.

Here’s how the final table shook down:

1. Daniel Santoro – $449,910
2. Christian Harder – $248,962
3. Bob Carbone – $166,271
4. Steven Brackesy – $129,816
5. Andy Frankenberger – $99,585
6. Eli Berg – $83,580

A 23 year old poker pro, WPT final winner Santoro has made inroads into both online poker and in live poker tournaments and had earned big winnings. Apart from poker, Santoro also invests his money in stock market and enjoys sports and playing music.

This November, the World Poker Tour (WPT) is once again head the momentous and striking city of Marrakech, Morocco, the second poker tournament ever in North Africa.

For this year’s version, co-sponsors Chili Poker and WPT have teamed up to make a stop at the Casino de Marrakech, a festival full of poker players. The event will begin on November 20 with a € 500 Deep Stack event.

According to Chili Poker, the professionals who have hands Deep Stack tournament is sponsored by Chili Poker Pro Liz Lieu, the Irish poker pro Andy Black, and the European Poker Tour (EPT) samples Sandra Naujoks and Liv Boeree.

The Main Event of the 2010 WPT Marrakech will be the €5,000 buy in No Limit Hold’em tournament that will begin on November 27th, with the champion crowned three days later. As an official WPT event, the victor will not only walk away with the Marrakech championship and first place bounty, but they will also earn the bracelet awarded to all WPT champions and a $25,000 seat to the 2011 Championship event at the Bellagio in April.

The 2009 version of the tournament was highly successful for the WPT, drawing a global field of 416 players from 32 different countries. The 2009 WPT Marrakech tournament, which Chili Poker and the WPT also collaborated on, was the first major poker tournament held in North Africa. The tournament featured such standout players as the aforementioned Lieu, former Main Event champion Huck Seed, and inaugural World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event champ Annette Obrestad. Christophe Savary defeated a final table that included such top players as Ludovic Lacay and Eoghan O’Dea to win the €379,014 first prize.

WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage will be on hand for the second year running to oversee the activities on the felt. “WPT Marrakech takes place in an amazing setting and, if last year is anything to go by, you can expect a loose, aggressive field,” said Savage during the announcement of this year’s event. “Casino de Marrakech is world renowned for its hospitality and WPT players can look forward to an experience unlike any other.”

Alexandre Dreyfus, Chief Executive Officer of Chili Poker, glowed about the locale of Marrakech along with the poker at hand. “Marrakech is a magic and relaxing place, so we are delighted to be bringing the WPT back to this mystical town in November,” Dreyfus commented. “We were so encouraged by turnout last year as well as the flawless organization and competitive hotel rates that, in 2010, we have built the Chili Poker Marrakech Festival around the prestigious WPT event.” Satellite tournaments for WPT Marrakech are currently running on Chili Poker and its French subsidiary, ChiliPoker.fr.

The WPT has been putting the “world” back in its name over the past couple of years after becoming almost exclusively U.S.-based. Earlier this year, the WPT held officially sanctioned events in Paris at the Aviation Club, the WPT Spanish Championship in Barcelona, and its most recent event in London, which was won by Jake Cody.

Prior to the start of festivities in Marrakech, the WPT will make a stop in Amneville, France and finish its non-U.S. Schedule come 2011 with a tournament in Vienna, Austria from March 24th through 28th.