Tony Ruberto takes down WPT Maryland for $344,755

With this win, Ruberto puts his name on the WPT Championship cup for the second time.

The tournament attracted a total of 554 players, who created a prize pool of $1,757,800, with 70 places paid. Some big names including Kelly Minkin, Mario Ho, and Paul Volpe were amongst those who managed to make the money.

Tony started the final table of 9 as the chip leader, thanks to a huge pot he took down with 13 players left, against Josh Turner. However, it wasn't Ruberto nor second biggest stack, Shankar Pillai, who grabbed the lead, when the tournament got down to the final six. WSOP bracelet winner, Will Givens managed to score two knockouts and took the lead.

He first busted Brock Parker in a tens vs Ace-queen preflop confrontation and then sent Miki Murzi to the rail with Queen-jack against Ace-five. But Ruberto managed to pull the same trick, as he busted both Mark Sandness (6th; $69,609) and Aaron Pinson (5th; $91,230).

[3]

It was former chip leader, Givens, who busted in 4th place, leaving the table three-handed, with Ruberto holding a huge lead over Poker Night in America regular, Jeremy Ausman and Shankar Pillai. Jeremy eventually busted, when he shoved his pocket nines on the turn against the two pairs of Ruberto's. The river bricked out and Ausman left the table, to pick up his $162,597 for his third-place finish.

Tony started the heads-up with a 4.5-1 lead but Pillai managed to double up in a backdoor flush vs bottom set hand to close the gap and then shoved on a four-straight board in a three-bet pot to take the lead. However, Roberto took back the lead and finally closed things out, when he shoved with a flush draw against top pair.

He spiked one of his outs on the river, to outdraw his opponent's pair of aces and take down the $329,755, the title and the $15,000 Tournament of Champions seat coming with it. Runner-up Shankar received a nice consolation prize of $220,780.

Final results

_{*includes $15,000 Tournament of Champions seat}