Just a month ago US poker pro Art Papazyan bested Phil Hellmuth heads-up to win the sixteenth WPT Legends event for $669,000, and this week he was back in the news with another WPT victory, this one worth $389,405 in the WPT Maryland Live! main event.
The field of 561 generated a prize pool around $150,000 short of the $2 million guarantee set by World Poker Tour, but was big enough to necessitate multiple starting flights.
The dispatch of Kenny Nguyen and Joshua Gordon set up a final table where Tom Reynolds held the chip lead, with Papazyan at that point around the middle of the pack.
Reynolds was able to survive for most of the final table but ultimately succumbed at third place for $168,990 after a joust with Zachary Donovan that set up the heads up.
In the heads up Donovan faced Papazyan, with the latter holding a 2 to 1 chip advantage, beginning a two-hour confrontation between two equally skilled and determined players.
Donovan scored an early double up, which made the exchange more competitive, but Papazyan steadily ground his opponent down to eventually send him home with the runner up prize of $262,930.
Other final table cashes included:
Randal Heeb $120,165
Grigoriy Shvarts $92,015
Timothy Chang $76,620