Phil Laak falls short as Artur Papazyan wins WSOPC LA in dramatic fashion

Phil Laak came close to winning his first Circuit ring in LA on Tuesday night, but he couldn't convert on the final table at the Commerce Casino. 

He was eliminated in sixth by the start-of-day chip leader Artur Papazyan in a hand that threatened to go the other way and put Laak second in chips.

Laak raised to 6,500,000 with 640,000 behind from under the gun, and Papazyan moved all-in from the small blind. Laak slid his last chips in and turned over , way behind Papazyan's .

The kicked it old school, though, and Laak flipped the script temporarily, only to see the drop on the turn. 

That left Papazyan with almost as many chips as the rest of the table combined, and he went on to secure his first ring when he beat Luis Concha heads-up.

Phil Laak got lucky and then unlucky to bust in sixth place, falling short of his first Circuit ring.

Papazyan seals it with dramatic turn card

Concha and Papazyan began heads-up play with nearly equal stacks, but Papazyan quickly extended his lead to almost five to one when he flopped top and bottom pair with A-T against the flopped middle pair of Concha, who held K-Q. However, Concha pulled back when his K-T out-flopped Papazyan's A-8 to put the pair near even in chips once again. 

The ring was decided in dramatic fashion with Papazyan needing to spike another set on the turn to close it out. In a pot worth 94% of the chips in play, all the money went in preflop, with Papazyan holding fours and in terrible shape against Concha's tens. 

The flop was safe for Concha but the hit like a dagger to the heart. Concha needed a six or a ten on the river but the gave Papazyan the title. 

"I can't believe how lucky I got with the four. I thought I was toast there," Papazyan said afterwards. "You know, realistically, that hand was worth (over $100,000). If I lose that, I have crumbs. That's probably one of the biggest pots I've played in terms of dollar value."

Poker can be a brutal game and Luis Concha got desperately unlucky in the final hand at the Commerce.

First time as a big stack

Papazyan has been around the Commerce Casino for almost the entirety of his poker career. He cut his teeth in the cash games at the world's largest poker room and now takes home his first WSOP gold circuit ring and the $341,830 first-place prize.

Nearly a decade ago, in late 2017, Papazyan took down back-to-back WPT Main Event titles for just over a million dollars. But, following those wins, he had not even sniffed a title, with his closest being a third-place finish at the WPT ARIA Summer Championship in 2019. 

However, Papazyan went on a heater late on Day 2 over the last two levels of play, culminating with him bagging a huge chip lead with 16 players left — almost double the stack of second place Nick Shkolnik heading into Day 3.

"That was the first time in my poker career I've had a big stack like that," Papazyan said to PokerOrg after his win. "I don't have too much experience with it, but I think I did pretty well. It wasn't easy; it was rocky, and I lost a bunch of all-ins, but eventually, I got lucky there in the end. So I guess fair is fair." 

"I have just been adapting over the years," Papazyan added, "trying to be the best version of myself, no matter what I'm doing."

Artur Papazyan delighted after being presented with his first WSOP Circuit ring.

2025 WSOPC LA Main Event results