Aram Oganyan Triumphs In Inaugural World Poker Tour Voyage Championship

Aram Ognayan is the latest addition to the celebrated list of World Poker Tour main event champions. The rising high-stakes tournament star took down the inaugural WPT Voyage Championship aboard a Virgin Voyages cruise ship in the Caribbean.

The Los Angeles resident overcame a field of 293 entries in the $5,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament, earning $214,245 for the win and adding his name to the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup. The score increased his career earnings to more than $4 million.

“I feel amazing. This is so fun. This is unbelievable. I won some flips at the end, got some bluffs through, and here we are. We got our name on the trophy. RIP Mike, the legend,” Oganyan told WPT reporters after closing out the win. “I thought poker on a cruise would be an amazing thing, and it is so amazing. Everyone should do it.”

This was the first title and third final-table finish of the year for Oganyan, including a third-place finish in a massive $25,000 buy-in high roller at the Triton Poker Jeju festival earlier this month for a career-best payout of $989,501. Oganyan has already accumulated 2,151 Card Player Player of the Year points, enough to move him inside the top 20 in this year’s POY race standings presented by Global Poker.

This event sported a $1 million guarantee. The 293-entry turnout saw the final prize pool grow to $1,347,800, with the top 37 finishers making the money. Plenty of big names ran deep, including 2013 World Series of Poker main event champion and WPT winner Ryan Riess (33rd), 2022 WPT World Championship winner Eliot Hudon (22nd), popular vlogger and WPT Ambassador Andrew Neeme (19th), WPT champion and two-time bracelet winner Tony Dunst (17th), WPT champion Frederic Normand (16th), bracelet winner and WPT champion Tyler Patterson (13th), and WPT Champion Masato Yokosawa (10th).

The final day began with nine players left and Farid Jattin in the lead. Oganyan was in the middle of the pack when cards got in the air. Reigning WPT World Championship winner Dan Sepiol scored the first two knockouts of the day, sending Marcelo Giordano (9th – $28,000) and Iman Dan (8th – $34,000) to the rail to his stack.

Kasey Mills (7th – $42,000) was the next to fall, with her pocket fives running into the pocket kings of Carlo Basurto. Ognanyan doubled up early in six-handed play, leaving his opponent Romulo Dorea on fumes. Dorea was knocked out the following hand, earning $55,000 as the sixth-place finisher.

Sepiol got the last of his stack in with an overpair of queens on a ten-high board facing the pocket eights of Jattin, who had flopped an open-ended straight draw. The river completed Jattin’s straight, eliminating Sepiol in fifth Place ($75,000).

Jattin lost a few big all-in confrontations during four-handed play, including having his pocket jacks beaten by the Q-J suited of Oganyan. His final hand saw another big pocket pair cracked, as his AA was bested by the KQ of Basurto, who flopped trip kings and held from there. Jattin earned $100,000 as the fourth-place finisher, growing his career earnings to nearly $8.8 million.

The final three players then hashed out a deal to redistribute the remaining prize money, setting aside $31,400 and the title to play for while locking up the following payouts:

Carlo Basurto – $202,885
Austin Srur – $188,670
Aram Oganyan – $182,845

The next hand saw a three-way all-in preflop, which was won by Oganyan’s Q-8 to give him a massive chip lead. The three went all-in again on the next hand and Oganyan’s 2 bested the 63 of Basurto and the Q4 of Austin Srur on a K32Q9 runout to bring the tournament to a close.

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

Photo credits: WPT.

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