Sam Panzica showed off his heads-up chops with an important comeback to defeat Richard Malone Jr. and take home his first World Poker Tour title at WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble.
Panzica banked $354,335 for topping the sector of 379 players, his second biggest score after his victory in a high roller on the European Poker Tour Dublin last year He's now surpassed $1.8 million in live cashes.
Official Final Table Results
| 1 | Sam Panzica | $354,335* |
| 2 | Richard Malone Jr. | $237,616 |
| 3 | Ankush Mandavia | $152,766 |
| 4 | Tyler Patterson | $100,643 |
| 5 | Noah Schwartz | $77,499 |
| 6 | Paul Balzano | $64,183 |
*Includes $15,000 WPT Tournament of Champions entry
When the overall table began, all eyes were on a couple of former champions. Tyler Patterson was trying to be the primary player to move back-to-back at an event after winning this one last year, while Noah Schwartz also had an opportunity to make WPT history by being the primary player to win the similar event twice — he took it down back in 2012.
Paul Balzano busted in brutal fashion very quickly at the first actual hand of the day, in line with the live updates. He three-bet from the small blind over Malone Jr.'s button open and got it in at the turn with kings on a board of 
. Malone Jr. decided to name with 
and saw he was in dire need of help without as many outs as he expected, however the 
gave him a winning straight.
Just a couple of hands later, Schwartz joined Balzano at the rail when he jammed 17 big blinds with king-queen only to have Malone Jr. get up with ace-king. That gave Malone Jr. about 1/2 the chips in play four-handed.
Forty hands in, two players went bust after a big hand. It started with Malone Jr. opening the button to 155,000 at 30,000/60,000/10,000. Patterson shoved from the small blind for 860,000 and Ankush Mandavia did likewise within the big for just over two million. Malone Jr. thought awhile and called.
Malone Jr.: 
Patterson: 
Mandavia: 
The flop brought an ace and that was it for Mandavia and Patterson, ensuring the WPT Champions Club could be inducting a brand new member in a couple of hours.
Panzica was observing a couple of 2-1 deficit entering heads-up play, but there has been a lot of room to move as he had north of 60 big blinds. The early rounds of the battle went to Malone Jr. and he unfolded a virtually 10-1 lead about 20 hands in. Left with under 20 big blinds, Panzica was reduced to shoving in preflop to survive.
The comeback began with Panzica and Malone Jr. seeing an 
flop for the minimum. Panzica check-shoved over a gamble with 
but Malone Jr. snapped him off with 
. Panzica needed help but had a whole lot outs, and the 
turn was certainly one of them, giving him a straight flush and the double to 26 big blinds.
Panzica found another double to hand #113, flopping a suite of tens and getting lucky when Malone Jr. turned a couple of aces to repay his river shove on a board of 
.
Panzica continued to chip away at Malone Jr. SLIGHTLY later the 2 were even. The tide continued to swell in his favor, though, and Panzica took a decisive lead handy #156, with blinds at 125,000/250,000/25,000. Panzica checked his big blind and check-called 300,000 on a 
flop. Both checked the 
and Panzica got 450,000 paid off at the river, showing down 
for 2 pair to take a virtually 3-1 lead and decrease Malone Jr. to twelve big blinds.
At Hand #185, after greater than four hours of heads-up play, Panzica ended it when he shoved the button with 
and got a choice from Malone Jr.'s 
. The board ran out in Panzica's favor as he hit two pair, completing his massive comeback and earning him the first-place money and a ticket to the WPT Tournament of Champions.
Image courtesy of WPT
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