Meet the WPT ARIA Summer Championship Final Tablists

The WPT Final Table for the WPT ARIA Summer Championship begins today at 12:00 noon PDT, and the final six players are battling for a first prize of $443,475 and adding their name to the WPT Champions Cup. In addition, whoever wins this event will be automatically entered into the Baccarat Crystal WPT Tournament of Champions, which begins tomorrow.

Here are the official chip counts for the final six players, followed by the remaining prizepool and player bios:

Seat 1.  Kevin Eyster  –  545,000  (36 bb)
Seat 2.  Igor Kurganov  –  1,325,000  (88 bb)
Seat 3.  Jim Collopy  –  710,000  (47 bb)
Seat 4.  Matthew Wantman  –  3,035,000  (202 bb)
Seat 5.  Art Papazyan  –  1,790,000  (119 bb)
Seat 6.  Ryan Laplante  –  275,000  (18 bb)

1st:  $443,475*
2nd:  $285,650
3rd:  $209,980
4th:  $156,220
5th:  $117,640
6th:  $89,685

Seat 1.  Kevin Eyster  –  545,000  (36 bb)

Twitter:  @1sickdisease
Occupation:  Professional Poker Player
Career Live Tournament Earnings:  $4,601,235
Best Cash:  $1,587,382 (1st in 2015 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic)
WPT Career:  14th cash, 3rd WPT Final Table

Kevin Eyster may have the most WPT experience at this final table, as this is his 14th WPT cash in the past six years. This is Eyster’s third WPT Final Table, and the last two times, he won the tournament.

That’s right, Eyster is one of two players at this final table who has already won two WPT titles, and he could join the elite club of three-title winners today. (Only five players in history have won three WPT titles.)

Seat 2.  Igor Kurganov  –  1,325,000  (88 bb)

Twitter:  @kurganovigor
Occupation:  Professional Poker Player
Career Live Tournament Earnings:  $17,294,921
Best Cash:  $1,559,373 (3rd in 2014 EPT Grand Final Super High Roller)
WPT Career:  1st cash, 1st WPT Final Table

While all six final tablists have at least $1 million in career live tournament earnings, Igor Kurganov has the most by far with more than $17 million. He has four cashes of at least $1 million, and 13 victories in his career, including a WSOP bracelet in the $10,000 NLHE Tag Team Championship, which he won with his long-time girlfriend, professional poker player Liv Boeree.

With such an impressive poker resume, it may come as a surprise that this is Kurganov’s first cash in a WPT Main Tour event. Can he make it his first WPT title as well?

Seat 3.  Jim Collopy  –  710,000  (47 bb)

Twitter:  @jim_collopy
Occupation:  Professional Poker Player
Career Live Tournament Earnings:  $2,170,340
Best Cash:  $274,924 (2nd in 2010 WSOP Europe High Roller Heads-Up NLHE)
WPT Career:  9th cash, 3rd WPT Final Table

This is the third WPT Final Table for Jim Collopy, who finished third in last season’s WPT Bellagio Elite Poker Championship, and second in WPT Rolling Thunder two months ago. Collopy has five victories in his live tournament career, including a Pot-Limit Omaha WSOP bracelet from the 2013 World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific.

Seat 4.  Matthew Wantman  –  3,035,000  (202 bb)

Twitter:  @matthewwantman
Occupation:  Professional Poker Player
Career Live Tournament Earnings:  $1,485,578
Best Cash:  $172,449 (2nd in 2018 Borgata Fall Poker Open Championship)
WPT Career:  8th cash, 2nd WPT Final Table

Matthew Wantman is a regular on the World Poker Tour, and a familiar face on the East Coast poker circuit. Wantman has well over 100 cashes in his career, but he’s still looking for his first marquee victory in a major championship. He begins this final table with a huge chip lead, and this could be the one for Wantman.

Seat 5.  Art Papazyan  –  1,790,000  (119 bb)

Twitter:  @artpapazyan
Occupation:  Professional Poker Player
Career Live Tournament Earnings:  $1,133,315
Best Cash:  $668,692 (1st in 2017 WPT Legends of Poker)
WPT Career:  5th cash, 3rd WPT Final Table

Art Papazyan cashed in his first WPT event last season, and he won that event. Then, a month later, he cashed in his second WPT event — and he won that one too, on his way to winning the Season XVI Hublot WPT Player of the Year title. Papazyan is now in a position to join the elite club of three-time WPT champions, which only five players in history have achieved before today.

Seat 6.  Ryan Laplante  –  275,000  (18 bb)

Twitter:  @Protentialmn
Occupation:  Professional Poker Player
Career Live Tournament Earnings:  $1,867,309
Best Cash:  $190,328 (1st in 2016 WSOP Pot-Limit Omaha)
WPT Career:  4th cash, 1st WPT Final Table

This is the first WPT Final Table for Ryan Laplante, but he made national headlines when he won a 2016 WSOP bracelet in Pot-Limit Omaha. The victory itself wasn’t national news, but Laplante is an openly gay man, and he won his bracelet the day after one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

Laplante used his victory speech the next day to use the media exposure of the moment to send out a positive message of love and acceptance that went viral within the poker world.

* First prize amount includes the winner’s $15,000 entry into the season-ending Baccarat Crystal WPT Tournament of Champions.

Photography by Jamie Thomson / PokerPhotoArchive.com

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