This year’s edition of the WPT Legends of Poker Main Event has just been brought to an end, with Art (Artur) Papazyan emerging at the first position of the ranking.
The five-day Main Event of the WPT Legends of Poker started on August 25th at the Bicycle Hotel and Casino, featuring a buy-in of $4,000. This year, the 16th season of the tournament gathered player field of 763 entrants, who accounted for an overall prize pool estimated to $2,738,407.
This year, the Main Event of the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker series saw a plethora of popular names as part of the game, including the poker icon Phil Hellmuth, the WSOP gold bracelet winner Mel Wiener, last year’s WPT finalist Simon Lam, a well as Tuan Le and Marvin Rettenmaier, both of whom already hold two WPT champions titles.
Who Is Art Papazyan?
Undoubtedly, Papazyan’s most significant accomplishment to date is his victory in the WPT Legends of Poker Main Event. The title helped him boost his overall live winnings to a six-digit sum, amounting to more than $700,000. Before winning the Main Event, Papazyan’s winnings from live poker tournaments totalled $40,497. The lion’s share from the WPT Legends of Poker Main Event prize pool also brought him the largest live cash in his career.
The player, who is known for his preference to high-stakes tournaments, managed to defeat heads-up Phil Hellmuth, the newest analyst of the WPT Raw Deal team, stripping him off the chance to win his first WPT title.
Congratulations to Art Papazyan, winner of #WPTLegends for $668,692! https://t.co/0nJsPhl4v5 pic.twitter.com/ImI9JfHxFM
— World Poker Tour (@WPT) 1 September 2017
The player took down the event, taking home a massive, $668,692 portion of the prize pool, including an entry into the Tournament of Champions of WPT. Of course, Papazyan was also granted with the WPT Champions Trophy, a special Hublot Big Bang Steel watch, as well as with the Bicycle Hotel & Casino’s Wild Bill Hickok trophy.
To mark the young player’s victory, his name is to be inscribed on the WPT Champions Cup, along with the names of the rest of the WPT champions from the Series’ 16 seasons so far.
Final Table Ranking
With Art Papazyan emerging victorious from the WPT Legends of Poker Main Event and scooping a prize pool monetary portion of $668,692, Phil Hellmuth ended up at the runner-up position, taking home a cash prize estimated to $364,370. Beating Hellmuth heads-up in such a large tournament makes the accomplishment of Papazyan even more significant, as Hellmuth is one of the largest stars in the contemporary poker arena, having won fourteen WSOP bracelets. Hellmuth is a 1989 WPST Main Event and 2012 WSOPE Main Event winner, as well as an inductee of the WSOP’s Poker Hall of Fame in 2007.
JC Tran, who entered Main Event’s Day 4 as a chip leader, remained third. He is to receive a $217,040 prize for his efforts. Several hours ago, Tran himself posted a Tweet, announcing he was eliminated in 3rd place from the competition.
3rd. Thanks for the support everyone!
— JC TRAN? (@jctran23) 1 September 2017
The fourth place was occupied by D.J. Alexander, who won $161,490. He is followed by Marvin Rettenmaier who receives the last five-figure prize in the competition, taking home a total of $120,775. Adam Swan remained on the sixth place, winning $91,825.
- Author
Harry Evans
