Aaron Van Blarcum Wins Season XVIII WPT Legends of Poker Main Event, Nipun Java Finishes 27th

WPT Legends of Poker Cover Image
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  • Arpit Jain September 6, 2019
  • 3 Minutes Read

The Season XVIII World Poker Tour (WPT) Legends of Poker $5,000 Main Event saw 43-year-old Texas native Aaron Van Blarcum (cover image) topping its 520-entry field to win the title and $474,390 in prize money which includes a $15,000 seat into the WPT Tournament of Champions. This win brought quite the windfall for Van Blarcum who had only $75,000 in recorded live cashes coming into this event with his previous biggest score from the 2019 WSOP Main Event where he had finished 212th for $50,855.

Talking about his win, Blarcum later told WPT reporters, “It feels great. Normally I just play cash games and that’s it. I go to the tournaments, but never play the tournaments, so I just decided to give it a try. Winning this is going to make it where I play a lot more tournaments.”

The 520 entries pushed the prize pool to almost $2.4 Million with 65 places making it in the money. Two-time WSOP bracelet winner Nipun Java managed to make a deep run in the event. Java was placed eighth in chips going into Day 3 and eventually finished 27th for $14,100 (₹10.10 Lakhs).

Nipun Java
Nipun Java

Java had even sold 30% of his action on Twitter and updated his tournament journey through regular tweets.

Tournament regulars Kitty Kuo (8th for $58,265), and Brian Altman (10th for $45,940) were among the few known names who fell just shy of the six-handed final table.

Final Table Chip Counts

  1. Gueorgui Gantchev – 5,560,000
  2. Jisup Hwang – 4,380,000
  3. Vahan Sudzhyan – 3,335,000
  4. Jared Griener – 2,750,000
  5. Antonios Roungeris – 2,720,000
  6. Aaron Van Blarcum – 2,050,000

Final Table Recap

Gueorgui Gantchev entered the final table as the chip leader while Van Blarcum was the shortest stack. He soon jumped up the ladder after winning a monster pot with pocket jacks. Antonios Roungeris shoved with pocket sevens, and Van Blarcum called and took down the pot eliminating Roungeris in sixth place.

Jisup Hwang fell out in fifth place following which Van Blarcum eliminated Vahan Sudzhyan in fourth place.

Van Blarcum had almost half the chips in play during three-handed play and kept putting pressure on the other two players as the table captain. His next victim was the short-stacked Jared Griener in third place.

Heads-up, Van Blarcum was commanding a 4-to-1 chip lead over Gueorgui Gantchev, and he sealed the deal in about thirty hands. On the last hand of the tournament, Van Blarcum opened with pocket tens before Gantchev 3-bet with pocket fives. Van Blarcum jammed and got the call. With no five on the board, Van Blarcum was declared the champion and walked away with a career-best $474,390!

Aaron Van Blarcum
Aaron Van Blarcum

Final Table Results

  1. Aaron Van Blarcum – $474,390*
  2. Gueorgui Gantchev – $306,625
  3. Jared Griener – $226,040
  4. Vahan Sudzhyan – $168,630
  5. Jisup Hwang – $127,165
  6. Antonios Roungeris – $96,955

*includes seat into WPT Tournament of Champions worth $15,000

Content and Images Courtesy: World Poker Tour

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