Art Papazyan won another World Poker Tour event. It's been an epic Season XVI for Papazyan. Just last month, Papazyan took down the WPT Legends of Poker at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. And last night, Art Papazyan won the WPT Maryland Live! for a $389,405 score. Inside of five weeks, Papazyan banked a cool $1 million. Also of note, Papazyan became the eighth player in WPT history to win multiple titles in a single season.

Ship it to Papazyan two times! Inside of a five-week span, Art Papazyan won two WPT events. Last night, Art Papazyan took down the WPT Maryland Live! for a $389,405 payday. At the end of August, Papazyan won the WPT Legends of Poker at the Bike Casino, outside of Los Angeles. That big score was worth nearly $669K. In a short time, he's run his bankroll over $1 million playing in WPT events.
At the WPT Legends, Papazyan faded a field of 763 runners and outlasted a difficult final table that featured several well-known pros seeking the title including J.C. Tran, Phil Hellmuth, and Marvin Rettenmaier. Papazyan was a virtual unknown who came out on nowhere to win the WPT Legends. Papazyan defeated Phil Hellmuth heads up for the win, which made him an instant cult hero among the Hellmuth haters in the community. Papazyan earned a first-place payout worth $669K. Maybe people will remember his name now after winning a second event inside of five weeks?
Maryland Live!, nestled between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., the poker room has quickly become a hub of poker on the East Coast. The Main Event had a $3,500 buy-in and a $2 million guarantee. Although the Main Event attracted 561 players, it nearly missed the guarantee. OVERLAY!
Josh Gordon bubbled the final table that also included Tim Chang, Grigoriy Shvarts, Randal Heeb, Tom Reynolds, and Zach Donavon. Notables who cashed in this event included... Kenny Nguyen, Matt Glantz, D.J. Alexander, Jeff Chang, Christian Harder, Jack Duong, Ari Engel, Andrew Brokos, Aaron Mermelstein, Dan Heimiller, Sam Grafton, DJ MacKinnon, Dan Santoro, Esther Taylor, Roland Israelashvili and Darren Elias.
At least 25 other players have won multiple events on the World Poker Tour during its 16 seasons. However, Art Papazyan now joins an elite club of multi-season winners. He's one of eight players who binked two WPT events in the same season. That club includes... Gus Hansen, Howard Lederer, Erick Lindgren, Tuan Le, Anthony Zinno, Darren Elias, and Sam Panzica.
Gus Hansen and Howard Lederer both won two events during the inaugural season of the World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel. In the second season, Erick Lindgren shipped a pair of events. In the third season, Tuan Le took down two. Then it took a decade before someone repeated the feat. During Season 13, Darren Elias and Anthony Zinno both won two events. Last year, Sam Panzica took down two. The 16th season (or Season XVI as the Roman Numeral Happy WPT likes to refer to it) is fairly new and we already have a two-timer with Art Papazyan.
WPT Maryland Live!
Buy-in: $3,500
Entrants: 561
Prize Pool: $2,000,000
Payouts: 71
Final Table Results:
1. Art Papazyan $389,405
2. Zachary Donovan $262,930
3. Tom Reynolds $168,990
4. Randal Heeb $120,165
5. Grigoriy Shvarts $92,015
6. Timothy Chang $76,420