On August 31, 2017 Art Papazyan won the 2017 World Poker Tour Legends of Poker main event at the Bicycle Hotel & Casino. Less than five weeks later he won his second WPT title, defeating a field of 561 entries to win the third annual 2017 WPT Maryland Live! $3,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. Papazyan is now only the eighth player to ever win multiple WPT titles in the same season.
Papazyan earned a $389,405 payday and 1,260 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion of this event. As a result of his two huge wins on the tour, he has climbed into 33rd place on the Player of the Year leaderboard, which is presented in 2017 by Commerce Hotel and Casino. Papazyan, a cash-game player from Southern California, now has earnings of $1,058,097 on the year.
Papazyan came into the final table in third chip position, with Tom Reynolds leading the final six players. Reynolds extended his lead by knocking out Timothy Chang in sixth place ($76,620), but Papazyan closed the gap when he sent Grigoriy Shvarts to the rail in fifth place ($92,015).
Papazyan then overtook the lead when he picked up the A
A
in an all-in preflop confrontation against Randal Heeb. Papazyan was able to have his hand hold up, sending Heeb to the rail in fourth place with $120,165. With that Papazyan took a sizable lead into three-handed action.
Zachary Donovan was able to close the gap a bit when he eliminated Reynolds in third place ($168,990). Papazyan began heads-up play with roughly 10.4 million to Donovan’s 6.3 million chips. Papazyan was able to extend his lead to more than a 4-to-1 advantage by the time the final hand was dealt.
With blinds of 50,000-100,000 and a 10,000 ante Donovan mvoed all-in for just under 3 million and Papazyan quickly called with the K
K from the big blind. Donovan held the A4. The board ran out 10
1085J and Papazyan’s pocket kings earned him the pot and the title. Donovan took home $262,930 as the runner-up.
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings (USD) | POY Points |
| 1 | Artur Papazyan | $389,405 | 1,260 |
| 2 | Zachary Donovan | $262,930 | 1,050 |
| 3 | Tom Reynolds | $168,990 | 840 |
| 4 | Randal Heeb | $120,165 | 630 |
| 5 | Grigoriy Shvarts | $92,015 | 525 |
| 6 | Timothy Chang | $76,620 | 420 |
Maryland Live! is conveniently located between Baltimore and Washington D.C. and is home to a 15,000 square foot, 52-table poker room. The room, which opened just three years ago, is the largest in the state of Maryland and one of the biggest in the country.
For the first time ever the Card Player Poker Tour will be making its way to Maryland Live! in January, with a poker series planned to run from Jan. 4 – 14 in 2018. Make sure to check back on the tour’s website for the final schedule.
For more information, you can also check out Card Player’s tournament listings or the official website of Maryland Live!
Winner photo courtesy of Joe Giron / World Poker Tour.
