The World Poker Tour has a new champion and his name is Aaron Van Blarcum. Van Blarcum was victorious in the Season XVIII WPT Legends of Poker Main Event at the Bicycle Hotel & Casino, topping the field of 520 entries to score the tournament’s $474,390 first-place prize.

The win proved the largest live tournament score for the Dallas, Texas, native, crushing his previous best of nearly $51,000. Included in the prize for Van Blarcum was a $15,000 entry to the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions.

“It feels great,” Van Blarcum told the WPT afterwards. “I planned on playing in six of these [WPTs] this year and this was the first one, so it’s pretty awesome.”

Van Blarcum defeated Gueorgui Gantchev in heads-up play, with Gantchev taking home $306,265. WPT regular Jared Griener finished third for $226,040.

WPT Legends of Poker Final Table Results

1st: Aaron Van Blarcum – $474,390*
2nd: Gueorgui Gantchev – $306,265
3rd: Jared Griener – $226,040
4th: Vahan Sudzhyan – $168,630
5th: Jisup Hwang – $127,165
6th: Antonios Roungeris – $96,955

*First place includes a $15,000 seat into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions.

Van Blarcum entered Wednesday’s finale in last place on the leaderboard with six players remaining. He started climbing up from the bottom almost immediately and then eliminated Antonios Roungeris in sixth place on Hand #23 with the against Roungeris’ . One hand later, Van Blarcum made a royal flush to pick up even more chips.

Van Blarcum continued to stay active and chip up, but he was a bystander when Gantchev knocked out Jisup Hwang in fifth. For the second elimination, it was a pair-versus-pair confrontation, with Gantchev’s holding up against Hwang’s .

Hwang went out on Hand #76, then Hand #81 saw Van Blarcum bust Vahan Sudzhyan in fourth place. Van Blarcum had checked the board to his opponent. Sudzhyan moved all in and Van Blarcum called with the . Sudzhyan was drawing dead with the .

In another pair-versus-pair clash, Van Blarcum knocked out Griener in third place, this time when his held up against Griener’s . That gave Van Blarcum a stack of nearly 16.5 million in chips heading into heads-up play against Gantchev, who had a stack of just more than 4.3 million. On the 29th hand of the duel, it was all over.

On the final hand, Van Blarcum’s were up against the for Gantchev. The pocket fives didn’t come from behind on the board and Van Blarcum was crowned the winner.

The final day of play lasted 128 hands. The top 65 finishers reached the money, with deep runs had by Kitty Kuo (8th – $58,265), WPT Champions Club members Brian Altman (10th – $45,940) and Aaron Mermelstein (16th – $24,130), and Cord Garcia (30th – $14,100).

Van Blarcum Takes WPT Player of the Year Lead

Through two events in Season XVIII of the World Poker Tour, Van Blarcum sits atop the Hublot WPT Player of the Year standings for the new season. His 1,200 points for winning the WPT Legends of Poker title were enough to surpass the 1,000 points won by Roger Teska when he took the opening title of Season XVIII in the WPT Gardens Poker Festival. Gantchev, the WPT Legends of Poker runner-up, earned 1,000 points for his finish and sits third in the race.

1st: Aaron Van Blarcum – 1,200 points
2nd: Roger Teska – 1,000 points
3rd: Gueorgui Gantchev – 1,000 points
4th: Jared Griener – 900 points
5th: Laszlo Molnar – 800 points
6th: Vahan Sudzhyan – 800 points
7th: Lior Ohel – 700 points
8th: Jisup Hwang – 700 points
9th: Lars Kamphues – 600 points
10th: Antonios Roungeris – 600 points

Just outside of the top 10 is Garcia with 450 points. Garcia finished sixth at WPT Gardens and 30th at WPT Legends. His finishes are noteworthy because Garcia made it known that he was willing to bet on himself in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race. Garcia stated that he did book one $5,000 wager with two-time WPT champ and one of winningest players out of Pennsylvania, Mermelstein, who is currently 28th in this season’s race with 100 points.

Borgata Poker Open Next for WPT Main Tour

The next stop on the WPT Main Tour for Season XVIII is the WPT Borgata Poker Open. The event takes place at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, New Jersey, running September 15-20, 2019. The tournament has a $3,500 buy-in and $3 million prize pool guarantee.