Brian Altman Becomes The First Player To Ever Win The Same World Poker Tour Main Event Twice

Brian Altman has written his name in the poker history books by becoming the first player to ever win the same World Poker Tour main event twice. Altman defeated a field of 843 entries to take down the 2020 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open $3,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event, just five years after having won the same tournament in 2015. The poker pro from Longmeadow, Massachusetts earned $482,636 for his latest victory in this huge event, which is held each year at the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood.

“This is incredibly special. It’s amazing to be the first person to win the same WPT event twice, and kind of cement myself in history with this event. Obviously it’s fantastic to get big wins, but playing these events I’m happy to put myself in a position to go deep, be chip leader, and make final tables,” Altman told WPT reporters after coming out on top. “Winning a second WPT title feels amazing. It’s incredibly special. It doesn’t always work out. I’ve had maybe a dozen or so situations where I’ve gone deep and thought I was going to win and I didn’t. But that’s how tournaments go. To continually put myself in a position to win tournaments, it feels special.”

In addition to securing the title and the money, Altman was also awarded 1,368 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his fiurst POY-qualified score of the Year, but it alone was enough to see him climb into fifth place in the 2020 POY race standings, which are sponsored by Global Poker.

The final day of the tournament began with Altman in the lead, with John Dollinger hot on his heels. The two sat with 139 and 137 big blinds when play resumed, while the next largest stack, belonging to Nadeem Hirani, represented 67 big blinds.

Dollinger secured the first knockout of the day. Peter Walsworth shoved over his continuation bet on a 322 flop holding A7. Dollinger made the call with 99 and was able to hold from there, with the 5 and the 5 completing the board. Walsworth earned $98,686 as the sixth-place finisher.

Nadeem Hirani slid down the leaderboard after losing a key pot against Altman, who had been bluffing until he runner-runnered a straight. Hirani was left short after that. He got his last chips in calling a blind-versus-blind shove from Altman, who had J10. Hirani was ahead with AK, but the board ran out 106273 to give Altman the winning pair of tens. Hirani had to settle for $129,438.

The next elimination saw Nadya Magnus, who broke onto the poker scene as the ‘loose cannon’ star of the PokerStars Big Game televised cash game show, get her last chips in with AQ up against the AK of Altman. Neither player improved and Magnus was sent to the rail in fourth place ($171,642).

Chanracy Khun was left as the clear short stack, with Altman and Dollinger battling it out for the lead. His run in this event came to an end when he called the small-blind shove of Dollinger with A2. He was ahead of Dollinger’s 108, but the K109107 runout gave Dollinger trips to secure the pot and the knockout. Khun cashed for $230,086 as the third-place finisher.

With that Dollinger took roughly a 5:3 chip lead into heads-up play against Altman. It took only two hands for Altman to wrest the lead away, winning a key pot with trips to move into pole position. By the time the final hand was dealt, Altman had extended his advantage to roughly 2.5:1. Dollinger began the hand by limping in from the button for 250,000. Altman raised to 800,000 from the big blind. Dollinger quickly shoved for 9,175,000 with the A8. Altman snap-called holding AA. The board came down K97210 to lock up the pot and the title for Altman. Dollinger earned $311,751 as the runner-up.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded to the final six:

Winner photo credit: Joe Giron / WPT.

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