Local favorite Harry Arutyunyan, who calls the Bicycle Casino his home turf, fought off a difficult final table on his way to defeating Mike Eskandari to take home the World Poker Tour’s Legends of Poker championship early Saturday morning.
Coming to the final table, Arutyunyan was in good position with his 3.67 million stack good enough for second place behind chip leader Eskandari’s 5.975 million stack. There were plenty of challengers underneath the two men, with Tyler Kenney (2.555 million), Tyler Cornell (2.525 million), Taylor McFarland (2.25 million) and Jeremy Kottler (1.975 million) rounding out the final six. Everyone at the final table had held the lead at some point during the run of the Legends, so it was truly anyone’s game as the cards hit the air.
The players held deep stacks in relation to the blinds (even short-stack Kottler was sitting on 40bb), so it would take a bit before the first elimination hit the rail. Over 40 hands were contested before Kottler, who had built his stack up to near 2.5 million chips, min-raised out of the cutoff position and Eskandari and Cornell (small and big blinds, respectively) decided to look him up. On a monochrome A♣ 8♣ 3♣ flop, Eskandari fired out and only Kottler came along for the turn. A J♦ seemed innocent enough, but Eskandari decided to put the pressure on Kottler and moved all-in. Kottler made the call, tabling his K♣ K♥ for a pair with a draw at the nut flush, but Eskandari had outpipped him with his A♥ 6♣ for the lead. Looking for another King or a club to put him back in the lead, Kottler instead saw the J♠ to end his tournament in sixth place.
Eskandari was way out in front after knocking off Kottler (the other four men’s chip stacks added together barely approached Eskandari’s 9.68 million), but a stunning double elimination brought a new contender into the game. After Cornell moved all-in for around a million chips, McFarland attempted to isolate by going all-in over the top. The move failed as Arutyunyan called McFarland’s bet and the three men turned up their hands:
Cornell: K-J
McFarland: Q-Q
Arutyunyan: A-10
An Ace came in the window on the A-9-3 flop, pushing Arutyunyan into the lead, but there were plenty of cards he had to dodge. A deuce on the turn eliminated Cornell from contention, but McFarland was still alive in looking for one of the two remaining ladies in the deck. When another deuce hit the river, both Cornell (fifth place) and McFarland (fourth) headed to the payout desk as Arutyunyan challenged Eskandari.
About ten hands after his double knockout, Arutyunyan took over the lead and he and Eskandari would trade it back and forth. Kenney, for his part, treaded water as the other two men battled it out, but his end would come at the hands of Eskandari. After Kenney made a min-raise from the button, Eskandari three-bet the action and Kenney moved all-in. Eskandari nearly beat him into the pot with the call, tabling pocket sevens to go against Kenney’s baby Ace (A-2). Although the J-9-5-3 flop and turn would bring Kenney several outs (any Ace or four), a second nine on the river sent Kenney away from the felt in third place.
Down to heads up, the odds favored Eskandari. Holding over 15 million chips, Eskandari had Arutyunyan (3.745 million) at a distinct disadvantage, but only three hands into heads up Arutyunyan doubled up to bring the twosome closer together. Another 25 hands later, Arutyunyan doubled again after flopping two pair against Eskandari’s pair of Aces to take over the lead by nearly the same margin that Eskandari started with.
The action wasn’t nearly done, however. Eskandari started his own charge back, eking back into the lead by only 500K in chips when he performed his own double. The men stayed fairly close in chips over the next 45 hands before the final hand was dealt.
After Arutyunyan popped the action to 1.2 million, Eskandari moved all in for his remaining stack and Arutyunyan made the call. Both had caught an Ace in their hole cards, but Arutyunyan held the edge with his eight against Eskandari’s seven. When the board rolled out J-3-2-10-6, Arutyunyan’s kicker played over Eskandari’s to earn him the championship of the WPT Legends of Poker.
1. Harry Arutyunyan, $576,369
2. Mike Eskandari, $330,110
3. Tyler Kenney, $213,600
4. Taylor McFarland, $145,640
5. Tyler Cornell, $103,560
6. Jeremy Kottler, $83,075
With the conclusion of the Legends of Poker, the WPT will set out on their next two tournaments on the Season XIII schedule. The partypoker WPT Merit Classic North Cyprus will open up play on September 5 in the Mediterranean, while the next U. S. stop will be at the Borgata in Atlantic City for the Borgata Poker Open on September 14.
