Aaron Messmer, a recent convert to tournament poker, just earned his first major victory by winning the High Roller tournament at the WSOP Circuit at Thunder Valley Resort and Casino. Messmer bested a field of 57 entries to earn a payday of $42,750 and his first WSOP Circuit ring.

“I’m ecstatic,” Messmer said of winning his first ring. “That was my goal coming into this.”

Messmer is an amateur poker player. He works for a project management first in Orange County, and has played poker as a hobby for a while, but almost exclusively cash games until this year. “The transition to tournaments has been recent,” he said. “Poker’s been a hobby, cash games mostly. I just recently started moving my focus away from cash games in my free time, and to tournaments. And so far, so good. I know it’s an uncertain world, but for now I’m enjoying it. I might play a little more frequently, but I don’t want to dive headfirst into it. It’s a high-variance world, so I want to have a good feel for the environment before going full steam.”

He is off to a strong start in the tournament world. All his recorded cashes are from 2018, but he already had a Circuit High Roller victory, and earlier this year he got his first six-figure score.

This tournament was essentially a two-horse race. Messmer defeated Mike Giardina heads-up. Giardina had taken the chip lead early on Day 1, and from then on, no player other than Giardina or Messmer ever had the lead. Messmer first overtook Giardina in the last level of Day 1, and he started Day 2 as the leader on Monday. Giardina briefly retook the lead, but Messmer pulled ahead just before the first break, and they played a big pot right after the break which ended up deciding the winner.

“Michael was a great competitor the whole way,” Messmer said. “He got the better of me on Day 1. Fortunately I had the chip count to tiptoe around some delicate situations. At the end of the day, I got lucky a few times, and that always tends to happen when you make a big run like this.”

Eight players of the 57 entries advanced to Day 2. Only the top six made the money, so two players – Anthony McLaughlin and Joe Nguyen – advanced to Day 2 but left empty-handed. Then four more players were eliminated within the first two hours of play: Jordan Meltzer (sixth place), Maxwell Young (fifth), Devon Hulse (fourth), and Pedro Rodriguez (third).

After Rodriguez was eliminated, Messmer and Giardina battled for about 20 minutes. Then shortly after the break, Messmer won the climactic final hand to secure his victory.

Here are the in-the-money results:

1 – Aaron Messmer – $42,750
2 – Michael Giardina – $26,448
3 – Pedro Rodriguez – $17,328
4 – Devon Hulse – $11,980
5 – Maxwell Young – $8,778
6 – Jordan Meltzer – $6,726

I’ve been hitting milestones gradually. I’ve been making some deep runs, and I really wanted to make it a point to try to take something home this time. It feels good, and it’s great validation of the work I’ve been putting in.

As the WSOP smashed records this past summer, hopes are high that its sister brand – the WSOP Europe – will be equally exciting and break a tournament poker record or two. The WSOP Europe series has found a permanent residence at King’s Casino in the tiny village of Rozvadov, Czech Republic, and is now a little over two weeks away from kicking off its 2018 edition.

The major poker festival is set to begin on October 9 and to run all the way until November 2. It will feature ten gold bracelet events. This means that the WSOP will award a record number of 88 gold bracelets this year as the schedule of the summer series in Las Vegas included 78 gold bracelet tournaments.

And for those that are not feel that much attracted to the gold pieces of WSOP jewelry, organizers have prepared another draw – massive guaranteed prize poolsthat will certainly lure poker pros and enthusiasts from all over the world. In addition, the fact that the major poker event will take place at King’s Casino, one of Europe’s most popular poker venues, will too add to the overall thrill.

The ten events that are to take place at the host venue will feature a total of €13 million in guaranteed prize money, of which the €10,350 Main Event will offer a €5-million guaranteed prize pool and the €100,00 Super High Roller will, too, offer €5 million up for grabs.

Highlight Tournaments on the Schedule

The Main Events at WSOP festivals have always been the ones to attract the greatest attention. And the upcoming WSOP Europe €10,350 Main Event will certainly be one to remember. The €5-million guaranteed prize pool will contribute to the tournament’s popularity and will boost its lure.

The event will kick off on October 27 and will run until November 2 when the name of the champion will become clear. Last year’s edition of the Main Event attracted 529 entries who crushed the €4-million guaranteed prize pool and pushed it to €5,025,500. Spain’s Marti Roca De Torres emerged victorious to collect the first-place prize of €1,115,207 and his first gold bracelet from the WSOP.

The €100,000 Super High Roller with a guaranteed prize pool of €5 million is yet another tournament worth being paid a bit more attention. The event is set to begin on October 26 and will certainly bring together some of Europe’s and the world’s most seasoned high rollers. The €25,500 High Roller will be another option for those who enjoy quality high roller action. The event will start on October 24and will feature €1 million in prize money.

Last but not least, it should be noted that the WSOP Europe will be opened with the €550 Colossus. The event will start on October 9 with the first of eight starting flights. It will feature a guaranteed prize pool of €1 million. The tournament drew 4,115 entrants last year and is anticipated to exceed that number this year.

Day 3 of the Season XVII WPT Maryland $3,500 Main Event has concluded here at Live! Casino & Hotel in Hanover, Maryland, with the final table of six players set. Will Givens (pictured above) leads the way with 6,215,000 in chips, while Tony Ruberto is eyeing his second WPT title and the lead in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race.

Givens and Ruberto are joined at the final table by Jeremy Ausmus, Shankar Pillai, Mark Sandness, and Aaron Pinson. Each player is currently guaranteed $69,609, while all eyes are set on the $344,755 first prize which includes the $15,000 entry into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions, as well as an inscription of their name on the WPT Champions Cup.

WPT Maryland Final Table
Seat 1: Will Givens – 6,215,000 (124 big blinds)
Seat 2: Mark Sandness – 1,805,000 (36 big blinds)
Seat 3: Aaron Pinson – 805,000 (16 big blinds)
Seat 4: Shankar Pillai – 4,465,000 (89 big blinds)
Seat 5: Jeremy Ausmus – 3,730,000 (75 big blinds)
Seat 6: Tony Ruberto – 5,230,000 (105 big blinds)

Givens hails from Colorado and has been a regular on the tournament trail for many years amassing over $1.7 million in tournament earnings. Givens has collected big wins on several poker tours, and here on the World Poker Tour, Givens has won two side events and cashed five times on the Main Tour for over $150,000 in earnings. If Givens is able to carry his final table chip lead to victory, it will be the biggest tournament score of his career.

Willing to play pots in the final stages of the day, and unafraid to get aggressive to assert his dominance, Givens was responsible for the final two eliminations of the day which catapulted him into the chip lead as he bagged 6,215,000 in chips.

The only player that joins Givens with over 100 big blinds is Season X WPT Jacksonville Champion Tony Ruberto (pictured below). Ruberto was the runaway chip leader for a vast majority of the later stages in the tournament and surpassed seven-million in chips before he eventually ended the day with 5,230,000. The major storyline surrounding Ruberto is his positioning in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race.

After finishing in 41st-place on Day 2, recent WPT Borgata Poker Open winner Erkut Yilmaz separated himself from Simon Lam and Brady Holiman to sit alone on top with 1,250 points. Following a fourth-place finish at WPT Choctaw for 800 points, Ruberto is in prime position to not just make a steep climb up the Hublot WPT Player of the Year leaderboard, but to also take the lead. If Ruberto can finish in fifth-place or better, he will launch into first-place overall, and any result after that will just further his lead over Yilmaz.

Shankar Pillai is the only other player at the WPT Maryland final table that has reached a WPT final table previously when he took sixth-place in the Season XVI WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble. Pillai is also sitting third in chips with 4,465,000 and will be looking to improve on not just his previous best of sixth-place, but also his total WPT earnings of over $180,000 as he has already registered his best biggest WPT cash with this result.

Known for grinding cash games in Las Vegas and being a family man, Jeremy Ausmus has six WPT cashes to his name for close to $190,000 in WPT earnings along with a WPT side event win in his home casino of the Bellagio back in Season XI. Sitting with 3,730,000 in chips at the final table, Ausmus is in a great position to make a run at capturing his first WPT Main Tour victory here at Maryland.

Mark Sandness and Aaron Pinson round out the final table, and although regarded as the short stacks, with a player-friendly structure, they both still have plenty of room to try and ladder up and make a run at capturing the WPT Maryland title.

Day 3 saw many notable players fall short of the final table as the likes of Brian Altman (27th), Ping Liu (26th), Christian Harder (25th), Richard Kirsch (24th), Paul Volpe (22nd), and Brock Parker (8th) all eliminated throughout the day. Andrew Crookston added a ninth-place finish at WPT Maryland to his ninth-place finish at WPT Choctaw to see him shoot up the Hublot WPT Player of the Year rankings into 22nd-place.

The final hand on Day 3 saw Miki Murzi shove 17 big blinds from the button with Ah5s and be picked off by Givens in the big blind with QhJs. The board ran out Qd8d3d9d6c, and Murzi was eliminated in seventh-place leaving the WPT Maryland final table of six players.

For a complete list of the payouts, click the “Payouts” tab here.

The final six players will return on Tuesday, September 25, to play for the $344,755 first-place prize as the WPT Maryland final table action gets underway at 12:00 pm ET. As always, keep your browsers locked right here to WPT.com for continued coverage of the World Poker Tour.

The WPT champions club has a brand-new member and his name is Erkut Yilmaz, a player from Sacramento, California. Yilmaz topped the field of this year’s WPT Borgata Poker Open $3,500 Main Event for a first-place cash prize of $575,112 after putting up a great show in the final stages of the tournament.

The final day of the Main Event was played on Friday at the host venue, Atlantic City’s Borgata Casino. Six survivors returned to play down to a champion. It was namely Yilmaz who led the pack of six with a massive chip advantage over everyone else left. The player had a total of 21.575 million in chips at the start of final day action, good for 144 big blinds and well ahead of his nearest competitor. Oleg Schnaider was that nearest competitor with 7.75 million/52 big blinds.

A long playdown period on the previous day, when players had to whittle down the field to the final six, provided for quick action on the final day. Players began falling out in the very early stages of that last day of the race. The first elimination occurred on the 11th hand of play and it did not take long before the heads-up phase was reached. It is important to note that Yilmaz was the player to dominate action throughout the whole final table.

Heads-Up Recap

While action during the initial stages of final-day play unfolded quickly, the same cannot really be said about the heads-up duel. Yilmaz played against poker pro TK Miles for the title. The match kicked off with the eventual champ holding the chip lead. However, at one point, Miles managed to outmaneuver his opponent and assume the chip leader status for a short while.

Yilmas quickly regained control over the majority of chips in play and from that stage on, the player never looked back. He weakened his opponent’s stack and defense, until Miles did not have much to fight with.

On what turned out to be the final hand in play, Miles limped from the button and Yilmaz checked. The [5h][4s][3s] flop arrived to see Yilmaz check and Miles bet 800,000. Yilmaz raised with an all in. Miles called for his last 15.8 million.

Miles turned over [Kd][5s] to Yilmaz’s [6d][3d]. The [6h] on the turn and the [4h]on the river sealed it for this year’s Borgata Poker Open Main Event. Miles went out as the runner-up. The player received $383,399 for his efforts and for running so deep into one of the most popular tournaments to be taking place annually.

As mentioned above, Yilmaz collected the lion’s share of the prize pool, good for $575,112. His prize also included a $15,000 seat into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions.

This year’s edition of the Borgata Poker Open drew a field of 1,075 entries, who generated a prize pool of $3,441,075. The top 136 finishers received a share of the money, with min-cashes starting from $3,049.