Seat 6: Ezequiel Waigel, 31, Argentina (6,150,000)
A friend introduced Ezequiel Waigel to poker in 2009, when he was only 18 years old. In the 14 years since, he has made his way steadily into the top 10 on the Argentina money list, closing in on $2 million in live earnings.
Waigel credits the increased availability of online poker material as the catalyst for his surge through the ranks. He studied patiently to improve his game. He is also a firm advocate for online satellites, and qualified for the Estrellas Main Event at PokerStars, which brought him and a group of friends to Barcelona.
He didn’t cash in the record-breaking Estrellas event but won a seat to the EPT Main Event in a live qualifier. Now in the last six, Waigel is guaranteed to claim his third six-figure score – and maybe more, should he win.
Uniquely among the players still left, Waigel already knows what it feels like to bank a million-dollar score. As “eze88888” online, he won the WCOOP Main Event on PokerStars in 2018, outlasting more than 5,000 runners.