On Tuesday, Aaron Mermelstein joined an elite group of poker players, winning the inaugural WPT Maryland and his second World Poker Tour title. Mermelstein joins 24 other repeat winners, including Season XIII Hublot WPT Player of the Year Anthony Zinno and fellow three-time winners Gus Hansen and Carlos Mortensen.
Mermelstein topped a field of 337 players and a final table that included two-time WSOP bracelet winner Greg Merson to capture the title at Maryland Live! Casino and bank $250,222, including a seat into the $15,400 buy-in WPT World Championship.
At the start of the day, the final six players made their way back to Maryland Live! for the final table with Merson leading the pack. Mermelstein was in second chip position, and Xin Wang sat in third. The bottom half of the counts were rounded out by Andjelko Andrejevic, Cate Hall, and Ken Holmes.
The action kicked off around 1 pm ET, and Mermelstein was able to make short order of the table, ending up with all of the chips in play in fewer than three hours.
The action was quick and chips were flying, with Ken Holmes exiting in sixth place just 10 hands into the day. Holmes entered into a blind vs. blind confrontation with Andrejevic with 
against Andrejevic’s pocket eights. Holmes couldn’t find a jack and was eliminated in sixth place.
Thirty-one hands later, Cate Hall was sent to the rail when she engaged in a blind vs. blind battle with Wang. Hall moved all in with 
and, like Holmes, ran into pocket eights. Wang’s eights held up and Hall was eliminated.
Four-handed play was where Mermelstein began to pull away from the pack. Mermelstein took a big pot off of Merson when he flopped a set of queens on a flop of 
. Mermelstein took another sizeable pot off Merson, assuming the chip lead with more than half of the chips in play.
Mermelstein extended his lead by sending the former Main Event Champion home in fourth. Merson defended his big blind, called a bet on the flop, and moved all in on the turn against Mermelstein on a board of 
. Mermelstein called with pocket jacks, leading Merson’s 
, and the river was a brick. With the elimination, Mermelstein sat with 80 percent of the chips in play.
Andrejevic was eliminated just a few hands later by Wang after Andrejevic’s 
fell to Wang’s pocket queens. Andrejevic earned $105,981 for his efforts.
Mermelstein entered heads-up play with a four-to-one chip advantage, and leveraged his big stack against Wang. He won the majority of the early heads-up pots without a showdown, and then got the last of the chips in the middle with pocket sixes against Wang’s 
. Wang couldn’t improve, and Mermelstein took home his second WPT title in the last 10 months.
WPT Maryland Final Table Results
1. Aaron Mermelstein – $250,222 (including a package into WPT World Championship)
2. Xin “Tony” Wang – $164,765
3. Andjelko Andrejevic – $105,981
4. Greg Merson – $78,449
5. Cate Hall – $58,589
6. Ken Holmes – $47,091
Join us in wondrous South Africa for our next event: the WPT Emperors Palace Poker Classic. The WPT Live Updates team will be on hand to provide coverage straight from the tournament floor. For booking information and wiring instructions, head here.
Photos by Joe Giron