Paul Petraglia beat a 323-entry field in the Season XVI WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble Main Event to win his first WPT title and $315,723 in the top prize money. He defeated Sam Panzica in heads-up and denied the defending WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble Main Event champion his third WPT title.
On the final hand of the tournament, Petraglia open-raised to 350,000 with the blinds running at 75,000-150,000. Panzica thought for a while and eventually made the call, and the flop came down 8h–6h–5d. Panzica checked, Petraglia went on to bet 400,000, and Panzica check-raised all in for 2.35 million. Petraglia made the call with the 9s–7s for a flopped straight, and Panzica was on the ropes with the Jh–3h. The turn was the 8c and the river was the 2c to give Petraglia the title.
“It’s surreal right now,” Petraglia said after the win. ‘It hasn’t sunk in, but it’s a great feeling. I’m just so happy that I was able to do it for my hometown crowd here at bestbet [Jacksonville]. Great group of people and I’m just happy to bring it home.”
A pilot by trade, Petraglia was one of the short stacks to reach the final table but he chipped up soon. It was Elias who entered the final table as the chip lead followed by John Esposito. However, Petraglia got lucky and went on to win some massive pots to make his way to the victory.
“The final table was stacked with pros, multiple awards to their claim. Got lucky on a couple runouts, obviously. Just great players, but I like to know that I can hang out with the best of them.” Petraglia said.
Final Table Results (USD)
- Paul Petraglia – $315,732*
- Sam Panzica – $210,783
- Darren Elias – $135,548
- John Esposito – $86,440
- Gaurav Raina – $66,674
- Shankar Pillai – $55,191