Harry Arutyunyan Wins WSOPC Cherokee for $283k

The WSOP Circuit Cherokee featured twelve official tournaments, with 1,022 players entering its $1,675 Main Event to create a prize pool of $1,553,000. Following three days of play, the competition was eventually won on Sunday by Harut Arutyunyan, who collected a gold ring, and $283,597 in prize money for his stunning victory.
Back in 2014, the 33-year-old business owner took down the $3,700 WPT Legends of Poker for $560,969, with his latest winning performance now boosting his live earnings to $1,117,456. Commenting upon his latest success, Arutyunyan said:
“It feels great, man. I was just getting cards and kind of studied all of my players on Day 2. There were just a couple of spots that, you know, I picked correctly and it worked out perfect.”
The WSOPC Cherokee was held in North Carolina, and amongst the recognizable pros seeing a return on their buy-ins was Ryan Mcallister in 13th ($18,365), Brandnon Fish in 24th ($10,608), Dean Rutledge in 35th ($5,948), Jonathan Hilton in 51st ($4,752), and Alex Rocha in 80th ($3,618).
Harry Arutyunyan subsequently entered the final table in pole position, before adding further to his stack in a 2-2 versus A-K hand which saw Josh Vizcarra hit the rail in 7th. Arutyunyan (A-J) then dispatched Scott Ryder (4-4) to the rail in 5th, while his Q-Q was also good enough to eliminate a short-stacked Kindah Sakkal (K-3) in 4th.
Next, Arutyunyan (10-6) took care of Norman McKeldin (Q-10) in 3rd to set up heads-up play against Randy Lowery for the title, but the final encounter lasted just six hands before Arutyunyan managed to make a straight against his opponent’s two pair to secure the win.
When asked if he would be playing more WSOPC events in the future, Arutyunyan said: “It’s very hard for me to leave work for too long. I have businesses to run, two kids, a wife. And to just travel the circuit, I have to pick and choose carefully what to play.”
Final Table Results:
1: Harry Arutyunyan $283,597
2: Randy Lowery $175,345
3: Norman McKeldin $130,305
4: Kindah Sakkal $97,959
5: Scott Ryder $74,488
6: Marshall White $57,304
7: Josh Vizcarra $44,595
8: Danny Lawson $35,106
9: Brian Feck $27,962