At the end of the $10,000 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, a 43-year-old cash game grinder from Dallas, Texas, named Aaron Van Blarcum, collected his $50,855 prize for finishing 212/8569, and said to himself, “I’m going to give this tournament thing a shot.”
Van Blarcum planned to play in six World Poker Tour (WPT) events. He had never competed in one before, and when he entered the first one – the 520-entrant $5,000, $2m GTD NLHE WPT Legends of Poker – he walked away with the first prize of $474,390.
What a rush.
November rolled into town.
Van Blarcum followed the parade to the Bahamas for partypoker’s MILLIONS World, and finished runner-up to Adrian Mateos in the $10,000, $10m GTD MILLIONS World Main Event, earning $970,000, after cutting a three-way deal with Chris Hunichen, and the eventual winner, Adrian Mateos.
By the time Van Blarcum had entered the 37-entrant, $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) High Roller, at the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic in the Bellagio, Van Blarcum wasn’t merely a cash game; he was a tournament player on fire.
Van Blarcum would make his way to the final table.
Joining him would be five of the best NLHE tournament specialists in the business.
Igor Yaroshevskyy came into the final on the back of a final table appearance in a $10,000 NLHE High Roller at the Merit Poker Retro in Kyrenia. The Ukranian finished 8/107 in that event, and he would be the first to eke into the money in this one, finishing in the sixth position.
It’s not been the best year for Nick Petrangelo.
The Massachusetts man has only finished in the money (ITM) in seven events throughout 2019, meaning he has been spending more time in the market, or his purple patch went on vacation, leaving only his skill to face the full uproar of the high stakes scene. Of those seven ITM finishes, six of them were final table appearances, including finishing 5th in a $25,000 at the Five Diamond Series. The same catch landed in this one.
Amongst the mighty Englishmen, only Stephen Chidwick ($33,358,121), Sam Trickett ($21,337,841), and Charlie Carrel ($9,571,776) have won more live tournament dollars than Jack Salter. Today, his earnings register in at $8,303,273 after picking up a 4th place finish in this one. Salter has been ruling the roost of late, winning a WPTDeepStacks title in Montreal, and a $1,200 NLHE Turbo event at the WPT Seminole Rock & Roll Poker Open in Hollywood.
Like Van Blarcum, the man who finished in third is a relatively new proponent of the NLHE tournament scene. Wolff had finished ITM 22 times in 2019, after barely a whimper since 2012. Amongst those finishes sit 13 final table appearances, including 7 top 3 finishes.
Heads-up fell between Van Blarcum and Jake Schindler.
It’s been Schindler’s lowest annual haul ($1,427,309) since 2015, but he still has the game to make anyone blush and blabber. Given his 47 heads-up matches, opposite the 3 of Van Blarcum, all of the experience, and arguably the skill, sat on the Top Trumps card with the name ‘Schindler’ emblazoned on the front.
It didn’t matter.
Van Blarcum erased the pain of finishing runner-up to Gediminas Uselis and Adrian Mateos in the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) High Roller in Choctaw and the MILLIONS World Main Event in the Bahamas, by taking this one down. It was Schindler’s 6th heads-up defeat of the year.
ITM Results
- Aaron Van Blarcum – $333,000
- Jake Schindler – $222,000
- George Wolff – $148,000
- Jack Salter – $92,500
- Nick Petrangelo – $74,000
- Igor Yaroshevskyy – $55,500
That’s a wrap for $25,000 NLHE events at the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic.
Here is the summary of winners.
Seth Davies – 53 entrants – $424,000
Sean Winter – 38 entrants – $342,000
Aaron Van Blarcum – 37 entrants – $333,000
Word on the street is the final two-day, $100,000 Super-Duper High Roller will become a one day $50,000 Not-So-Super-Duper High Roller, rounding off the series.