Aaron Mermelstein Wins Inaugural World Poker Tour Maryland Live! Main Event

Aaron Mermelstein has emerged victorious in the first-ever World Poker Tour Maryland Live! $3,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. The 28-year-old poker pro topped a field of 337 entries to secure the $250,222 first-place prize and his second WPT title of the year, having won the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open main event in January.

In addition to the money and the glory Mermelstein also won 720 Card Player Player of the Year points. He has made a total of four final tables this year, including a third win in a smaller $1,100 no-limit hold’em prelim at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open. With this most recent victory Mermelstein has risen to 25th in the overall Player of the Year rankings, with 2,458 points and year-to-date earnings of $1,010,562.

Mermelstein’s road to victory was far from easy. He had to contend with plenty of tough competition down the stretch, including Jamie Kerstetter (13th – $14,032), two-time WPT champion Darren Elias (10th – $17,114) and 2012 World Series of Poker main event champion Greg Merson (4th – $78,449).

Mermelstein came into the six-handed final day second in chips behind Merson, but he was able to overtake the lead early on and then knock out the former world champ in fourth place to enter three handed play as the runaway chip leader.

Just two hands after Merson hit the rail Xin Wang busted Andjelko Andrejevic in third place to set up the final heads-up match. Mermesltein began with a 3-to-1 chip advantage and was able to convert that into a win in only 18 hands.

On the final hand Wang raised to 110,000 from the button and Mermelstein three-bet all-in. Wang called with the A8, which was in a race against Mermelstein’s 66. The board ran out K97Q5 to secure the pot and the title for Mermelstein and send Wang to the rail as the runner up with $146,765.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:

Photo courtesy of World Poker Tour / Joe Giron.

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