The three largest live tournament scores of Aram Oganyan’s career have all been recorded in the past six weeks. Oganyan registered his first-ever six-figure cash by finishing sixth in a $25,500 buy-in at the World Poker Tour World Championship in December of last year. He backed up that high-stakes debut with a one-two punch in another pair of $25k buy-in events in January, finishing third in a PokerGO Cup event at that price point for $175,000 and then winning the Lucky Hearts Poker Open high roller $480,175.
Oganyan earned 588 POY points for his victory in that final event, and is now the 12th-ranked POY contender thanks to his pair of high-roller scores that were recorded just a few days apart. Nearly $790,000 of his $1,152,332 in career live earnings have now been secured over the past month and a half.
The LHPO high roller concluded thanks to a four-way deal, which saw Oganyan secure the largest payday and the title as the clear chip leader.
Oganyan was one of 74 entries in the $1,000,000 guaranteed event held at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood in south Florida. The strong turnout resulted in a final prize pool of $1,827,800, with the top 11 making the money and six-figure paydays for the final five.
Bracelet winner Galen Hall (10th – $54,800), three-time bracelet winner Joe McKeehen – $67,600), bracelet winner Jesse Lonis (3rd – $260,175), and two-time bracelet winner Justin Saliba (2nd – $353,175) were among the big names that made the money in this high roller. McKeehen climbed into fourth place in the POY rankings thanks to this deep run and his third-place showing in the recent Borgata $5,000 buy-in event. The 2015 WSOP world champion now has nearly $19.8 million in career earnings after his strong start to the year.
Saliba, who had finished fifth in that same event at Borgata, had also won a PokerGO Cup $10,500 buy-in event in the intervening days for another $195,000. With $852,804 in total earnings so far this year, Saliba is now second on the POY leaderboard with 1,710 points accrued through just the first three weeks of 2023.
Here is a look at the payouts awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Aram Oganyan | $480,175 | 588 |
| 2 | Justin Saliba | $353,175 | 490 |
| 3 | Jesse Lonis | $260,175 | 392 |
| 4 | Philip Shing | $250,175 | 294 |
| 5 | Marius Gierse | $110,500 | 245 |
| 6 | Leon Sturm | $83,100 | 196 |
| 7 | Joe McKeehen | $67,600 | 147 |
| 8 | Gytis Lazauninkas | $58,500 | 98 |
| 9 | Martin Stausholm | $56,600 | 49 |
Photo credits: Seminole Hard Rock Poker Blog.
