Harry Arutyunyan Wins WSOP Circuit Cherokee Main Event

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Aug 14, 2017 3 min read

Sean Yu got into his second winner's photo in less than a week at World Series of Poker Circuit Cherokee in North Carolina.

However, this time the WSOP Global Casino Championship winner wasn't holding the winning hand. He was in the background cheering on his friend, as Harry Arutyunyan won the $1,675 Main Event, topping a field of 1,022 entries for $283,597. It's the biggest cash for the L.A. business owner, who has a WPT title and over $1 million in cashes now.

“It feels great, man," he told WSOP reporters. "I was just getting cards and kind of studied all of my players on Day 2. There were just a couple of spots that, you know, I picked correctly and it worked out perfect.”

Official Final Table Results

There would be 108 places paid in the event. Vince Moscati, John Holley, Alex Rocha, Will Berry, Ryan Welch, Brandon Fish and Krzysztof Stybaniewicz were some of the players who made their way into the money but fell short of the final table.

Arutyunyan came into the final day with the chip lead, according to the live updates, and he used his cushioned spot to pick off short stacks left and right, scoring a number of eliminations en route to the final table. He had roughly doubled his start-of-day stack by the time the official final table got going, holding on to the top spot in the counts.

Brian Feck ran pocket queens into the kings of Norman McKeldin and then Danny Lawson picked up nines against the aces of Kindah Sakkal for the first two eliminations.

A crucial hand then developed when Arutyunyan opened for 115,000 at 25,000/50,000/5,000 in the hijack and Josh Vizcarra made it 300,000 to go on the button. Arutyunyan called and then check-called 275,000 on the A♣4♦3♠ flop. Both players checked the 2♠, and an A♦ arrived. Arutyunyan bet 455,000 and called when Vizcarra shoved for about 1 million.

Vizcarra showed A♠K♦ for trips with top kicker, but Arutyunyan had made a set and then filled up with 2♣2♥ after peeling with his straight draw. That gave him over one-third of the total chips with six left.

Three-time Circuit ring winner Marshall White, who hails from nearby Boone, busted a couple of hands later in sixth. The experienced grinder shoved about 12 big blinds under the gun with sixes and couldn't hold against the ace-king of McKeldin as two kings hit the board.

Nothing much changed for the next few levels until Scott Ryder shoved for 11 big blinds on the button and Arutyunyan called with A♥J♥. Ryder had 4♥4♣ and went down in fifth when Arutyunyan turned a Broadway straight.

Arutyunyan then busted Sakkal when she shoved eight big blinds with K♠3♥ over his button open, and Arutyunyan made the trivial call with Q♠Q♦. Sakkal flopped a king, but that didn't help much since Arutyunyan flopped a set.

Arutyunyan was in total command three-handed with 60 percent of the chips. He handed out one double to McKeldin in a coin flip but then got it all back in a huge battle of the blinds. McKeldin completed the blind and called a raise, and the two got in a raising war that resulted in McKeldin all in for his stack of about 45 big blind on a 10♦6♥4♥ flop.

McKeldin: Q♥10♥
Arutyunyan: 10♠6♣

Arutyunyan's top two held through the 9♠ turn and J♠ river, giving him a huge lead heads up against Randy Lowery. Just six hands later, it was all over as Arutyunyan defended big blind and flopped a nine-high straight while Lowery flopped a pair of eights and turned tens up with 10♥8♥. He was unable to get away when Arutyunyan shoved river, resulting in Arutyunyan winning his first Circuit ring.

_{Photo courtesy of WSOP}

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