Armin Rezaei Banks $139,970 After Winning WPT500 Knockout

It took eight days from start to finish for this epic event to play down to a winner. Eight starting flights were on the schedule, and by the end of them 2,601 entries had been logged, creating a mammoth $1,300,500 prize pool. The three-day event culminated in an exhilarating finale last night, with all the action rounded up in just two and a half hours.

Armin Rezaei

Gediminas Uselis first to go, failing to spin up after starting at the back of the pack. The Lithuanian managed to lock up slightly more in bounty value than he did from the main prize pool, walking away $15,250 richer as a result. The live stream kicked off at this point and it was action central from the start, with three eliminations in the first three hands alone.

Hand one on the stream saw Robert Svedin get it in with pocket-rockets from the big blind after David Lopez Llacer tried to apply pressure by jamming all-in with nine-six offsuit from the small blind. By the river, Lopez Llacer had made a straight to bring Svedin’s hopes to a brutal end. He took away a total prize of $16,806 for his efforts. Meanwhile, Lopez Llacer moved into the lead.

The next hand went a similar way for Jeroen Van Dijck. Armin Rezaei was dealt nine-eight suited on the button, and he set the two opponents in the blinds all-in. The Dutchman elected to call with ace-queen, but by the turn, marginal underdog Rezaei had completed a queen-high straight flush. Van Dijck collected $17,224 in total prizes. Rezaei simultaneously reclaimed the top spot.

Moving on to hand three of the live stream and it was Aliaksei Boika’s ($25,260) turn to go all-in. The Belarussian ripped 17 big blinds in with big slick, after an open from Lopez Llacer who had pocket-nines. It was a lowball runout sending the chips over to Lopez Llacer who took back the chip lead but, as it turned out, not for long.

Benjamin Chalot was one of the biggest names in the final, having won more than $2.2 million under his screen name “frenchsniperrr” when he took down the Millions Online in 2019. Despite starting third in chips, he couldn’t progress past fifth place. After the excitement of the first few hands, it took more than an hour for the next elimination to occur. Chalot ($28,453 ) opened with a pair of ladies, and Rezaei was playing ace-jack on the button. Easily covering Chalot and both players in the blinds he opted to go all-in and binked an ace to lock up the hand.

That turned out to be a tournament defining moment for Rezaei who had now created a huge amount of distance between himself in first place and the rest of the field – a position from which he would not look back.

WPTDS Champion Duff Charette couldn’t quite manage to add a WPT500 title to his resume, after coming unstuck in fourth place. The Canadian banked $37,306 after getting his last eight big blinds in with ten-nine suited and finding no help from the board against Rezaei’s ace-four suited.

Gustavo Mastelotto had put in a strong performance throughout, utilising a couple of spots to keep him in the game earlier in the evening. With no place to hide now they were three-handed, he three-bet 16 big blinds all in with king-jack over Rezaei’s min-raise. The eventual champion called with ace-nine and with neither player connecting on the board, his high-card ace played.

The heads-up line up had been decided and the two biggest stacks at the start were still in. Rezaei had almost a 3:1 lead at this point, and Lopez Llacer managed to claw back some of the deficit at one point, but his hopes of going the distance were short-lived, after he lost a big pot with king-queen and a flopped two pair against Rezaei’s pocket-kings that had flopped a set. The Austrian now had a 10:1 lead, and it was all over the next hand when Lopez Llacer jammed 11 bigs with ten-four suited and ran into Rezaei’s ace-jack suited.

Lopez Llacer was the first player to collect a six-figure sum for his efforts, and the Spaniard has increased his bankroll by $101,523 as a result of that runner-up finish. Congratulations to him, and of course to the WPT500 Knockout Champion Armin Rezaei who takes home a huge $139,970, plus the trophy and a lifetime of bragging rights to accompany it.