Congratulations to Harry Arutyunyan, WPT Legends of Poker Champion! ($576,369)

Season XIII of the World Poker Tour’s televised season kicked off last week with the prestigious WPT Legends of Poker. A field of 593 entries generated a prize pool of $2,172,994. After nearly 37 levels of play, Harry Arutyunyan emerged as the newest member of the WPT Champions Club.

Here were the chip counts at the start of the final table:

Seat 1. Harry Arutyunyan – 3,670,000 (73 bb)
Seat 2. Taylor McFarland – 2,250,000 (45 bb)
Seat 3. Jeremy Kottler – 1,975,000 (40 bb)
Seat 4. Tyler Kenney – 2,555,000 (51 bb)
Seat 5. Mike Eskandari – 5,975,000 (120 bb)
Seat 6. Tyler Cornell – 2,525,000 (51 bb)

At 4:00pm local time, the players took their seats underneath the bright lights of the brand-new Season XIII WPT Final Table set.

The first elimination came 43 hands into the final table, when three-time WPT final tablist Jeremy Kottler departed. With the blinds and antes at 40,000/80,000/10,000, Kottler opened to 160,000 in the cutoff. Mike Eskandari called in the small blind, Tyler Cornell called in the big blind and the flop fell [Ac8c3c]. Eskandari led out 225,000, Cornell folded and Kottler raised to 460,000. Eskandari’s call brought the [Jd] turn, and he immediately shoved for effectively 1.055 million. Kottler gave it some thought before he called all in with [KcKh] — a pair of kings with the nut flush draw. Eskandari led with [Ah6c] for a pair of aces. The [Js] river was no help to Kottler, ending his run in 6th place for $83,075.

Next up was a double elimination on Hand #66. With the blinds increased to 50,000/100,000 with a 10,000 ante, Cornell shoved in the cutoff for 1 million. Harry Arutyunyan called on the button, Taylor McFarland reraised all in for 1.31 million and Arutyunyan called to put both players at risk.

Cornell: [KhJs]
Arutyunyan: [Ad10c]
McFarland: [QsQc]

The board ran out [Ah9h3c2d2c], giving Arutyunyan a pair of aces to eliminate Cornell in 5th place for $103,075 and McFarland in 4th place $145,640.

The remaining three players would battle for 38 hands before Tyler Kenney bowed out. With the blinds at 60,000/120,000 with a 20,000 ante, Kenney raised on the button to 240,000. Eskandari three-bet to 760,000, Kenney four-bet shoved for 3.535 million and Eskandari called quickly with [7d7s]. Kenney trailed with [As2d] and found no help from the [Jh9c5h3d9d] board, ending his run with a 3rd-place finish for $213,600.

Heads-up play began with Eskandari holding a sizable lead against Arutyunyan, but what ensued was a legthy and hard-fought duel with the chip lead changing hands numerous times. Each player doubled up twice through the other, but on the 90th hand of heads-up play, a champion finally emerged.

With the blinds and antes at the 250,000/500,000/50,000 level, Arutyunyan raised to 1.2 million on the button. Eskandari three-bet all in for 7.85 million and Arutyunyan called with [Ah8h], leading Eskandari’s [Ad7c]. The board ran out [Jh3c2c10d6d], spelling the end for Eskandari. His runner-up showing earned him $330,110.

With an impressive vertical celebration, Harry Arutyunyan punctuated the victory.

In addition to winning $576,369, which includes a $15,400 seat into the season-ending WPT World Championship at Borgata Casino in Atlantic City, Arutyunyan also wins:

– Monster 24K headphones
– Hublot King Power Unico Watch
– Bicycle Casino’s Wild Bill Hickok trophy
– WPT Champions Trophy

And, of course, Arutunyan will have his name engraved on the one and only WPT Champions Cup along with all the previous WPT winners from the past 12 seasons.

Here are the final table results:

1st: Harry Arutyunyan – $576,369
2nd: Mike Eskandari – $330,110
3rd: Tyler Kenney – $213,600
4th: Taylor McFarland – $145,640
5th: Tyler Cornell – $103,560
6th: Jeremy Kottler – $83,075

Special thanks to our friends at The Bicycle Casino for their hospitalty this week, to our sponsors for providing such wonderful prizes, to Joe Giron for the photos you saw in today’s coverage, and to you for following along with the coverage.

The World Poker Tour is headed across the pond in just a few short days for the partypoker WPT Merit Classic North Cyprus, beginning on September 5.

Until then, farewell from Bell Gardens!