Barely over one month after shipping WPT Legends of Poker this year, Art Papazyan took down WPT Maryland Live, pocketing a hefty $389,405 in the top prize money. He defeated a 561 strong field and Zachary Donovan in the heads-up battle to win the 2nd WPT title of the season.
According to the WPT, Papazyan is the 26th two-time champion in the WPT history and the eighth to accomplish the feat in a single season. With this grand win, Papazyan also takes a big lead in the WPT Player of the Year race with double the points of his close competitors. Just last year, Ben Zamani got fifth in the same event. Papazyan is well on his way to rock this year and it will be hard to catch him.
Final Table Action
The final table took brutal beat with Timothy Chang shoving with Jc- Js for about 1.5 million over an open from Papazyan and he got a call from Reynolds who held 9c-9d. The board rolled out safe until the 9s fell on the river. He got eliminated in 6th place and pocketed $76,620 for his efforts. The next elimination came in the form of Grigoriy Shvarts who lost his chips to Papazyan. Following a couple of bluffs, Papazyan found himself under 15 big blinds and shoved all his stack with Kd-8d and was called by Shvarts with As-Qh. The board bailed Papazyan out as he hit a flush to eliminate his opponent.
Up next, Zachary Donovan opened for a raise to 180,000 and Papazyan three-bet to 600,000 in the small blind. Randal Heeb made it to 1,580,000, and Papazyan called. The last 3 million went in on the Qh-3d-3c flop when Heeb shoved all his stack, but his tens (10-10) were no match for Papazyan’s aces (A-A). Randal Heeb got eliminated in 4th place and that hand gave Papazyan about 9.5 million of the 16.5 million.
The next player to fall was FT chip lead Tom Reynolds. His As-10d ran into Donovan’s 9s-7d on the board reading 9d-5c-3c-5h. After Reynolds, it was heads-up between Donovan and Papazyan. The heads-u battle lasted for about 2 hours. The last hand saw Donovan shoving for about 18 big blinds on the button with Ah-4s and Papazyan holding Ks-Kh called. The board was Jack-high and Papazyan locked up his second WPT title in less than two months after defeating Donovan.
A Look at Final Table Payouts:
| 1 | Art Papazyan | $389,405 |
| 2 | Zachary Donovan | $262,930 |
| 3 | Tom Reynolds | $168,990 |
| 4 | Randal Heeb | $120,165 |
| 5 | Grigoriy Shvarts | $92,015 |
| 6 | Timothy Chang | $76,620 |