Josh Adkins’ World Poker Tour story is one many poker player dream about. Playing in his first-ever WPT event, after telling friends and family he was going to to win, Adkins took first place in the Season XVIII WPT bestbet Jacksonville Main Event. Adkins topped the field of 349 entries and along with it came $331,480 in prize money and the right to be called a WPT Champions Club member for life.

“Playing my first WPT and to win it, I don’t have words,” Adkins told WPT officials after the win. “This means a lot to me, obviously, not because of the money, but just for me. I’ve worked really hard at this game for the last seven years, and to just have this win and how tough this field was – it’s just incredible.

“It’s a funny story, I kind of called my shot in this. I have text messages of me saying, ‘I’m going to go win the $5K in Jax.’ And now it just happened. It’s indescribable.”

WPT bestbet Final Table Results

1st: Josh Adkins – $331,480*
2nd: Tan Nguyen – $210,988
3rd: Josh Kay – $155,340
4th: Jason Lee – $115,340
5th: Jonathan Cronin – $87,170
6th: Jeff Cunningham – $66,457

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

Adkins came into the final table second in chips, behind only Josh Kay, and it was Kay who earned the first knockout when he busted Jeff Cunningham in sixth place. Next to go was Jonathan Cronin in fifth place and he was also eliminated at the hands of Kay.

As if things couldn’t turn out any better for Kay, he then knocked out Jason Lee in fourth place to push action into three-handed play.

As you can imagine, Kay had the chip lead three handed. He used his chips to gain even more and eventually worked his way up to more than 8 million when both of his opponents had less than 6 million combined between them. From there, Kay went to more than 9 million in chips, which, at the time, saw Adkins drop all the way down to about 1.5 million.

Tan Nguyen, the other player alongside Kay and Adkins, fought his way into the chip lead against Kay, but Adkins was still sitting as the shortest stack without being able to get much going. Adkins would eventually double through Kay that left the two about even in chips, and then Adkins landed a crippling blow to Kay that left him with less than one big blind. Although he did triple up and then double up, Kay’s run didn’t last much longer.

The last of Kay’s chips went in on the flop when he had the . Nguyen had the , though, and held from there thanks to the turn and river.

Entering heads-up play, Adkins had the chip lead, but not by much. His 7.205 million was up against Nguyen’s 6.715 million. The duel didn’t take long to come to an end.

Adkins won the first big pot between the two to take a chip lead of more than 2-1, and then he knocked Nguyen out shortly thereafter. He didn’t do it without coming from behind, though.

The chips went in preflop with Adkins having the to Nguyen’s . A queen his the flop, though, and Adkins moved into the lead. The final board finished and that was all she wrote. Adkins had secured the victory and was crowned the newest WPT champion.

Van Blarcum Takes WPT Player of the Year Lead

In addition to Adkins winning the title and $331,480 in prize money, he earned 1,000 points in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race. As this was his first-ever WPT event, these were his first points, but they were enough to jump him up to sixth on the leaderboard. It was another first-time WPT champion from this season that moved into the Hublot WPT Player of the Year lead with his performance at WPT bestbet Jacksonville, though.

Aaron Van Blarcum, winner of WPT Legends of Poker, cashed in 15th place at WPT bestbet. He earned $16,843 in prize money, but he also earned 75 points in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race. Those points pushed him to 1,275 total and into first place in the race.

Van Blarcum is one of three players with two cashes on the WPT Main Tour this season, with Brian Altman and James Rann being the other two. They are the only three players to have earned multiple WPT Main Tour cashes to date this season.

1st: Aaron Van Blarcum – 1,275 points
2nd: Donald Maloney – 1,200 points
3rd: Simon Brandstrom – 1,200 points
4th: Uke Dauti – 1,000 points
5th: Roger Teska – 1,000 points
6th: Josh Adkins – 1,000 points
7th: Nitis Udornpim – 1,000 points
8th: Gueorgui Gantchev – 1,000 points
9th: Ryan Mandara – 1,000 points
10th: Kevin Albers – 900 points

The winner of the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race for Season XVIII will earn a special Hublot timepiece valued at $15,000 and a $15,000 WPT Passport that can be used towards buy-ins in any Season XVIII global WPT event. The winner also receives complimentary accommodation, ground transportation, and food and beverage credit at select WPT Main Tour stops. The player who finishes second in the race will earn a $7,500 WPT Passport, and the player who finishes third will earn a $2,500 WPT Passport.

WPT Montreal Next for WPT Main Tour

Coming up at the end of October is the next WPT Main Tour stop, WPT Montreal, held in conjunction with partypoker LIVE at Playground Poker Club. The event takes place October 29 through November 3, featuring a C$3,300 buy-in and a C$3,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.