Three tales from the live tournament scene including coverage of the WinStar River Poker Series, Unibet Belgium Poker Championship, and the Heartland Poker Tour Ameristar Chicago East

Benjamin Zamani suffers from an interesting case of synesthesia. When he enters the world’s biggest poker tournaments, the sounds of riffling chips stimulates the uncanny knack of attracting all the money.

The 2017 $2,500 buy-in WinStar River Poker Series Main Event is a classic example. The Floridian came out on top of a 926 player strong event that created a $2,173,000 prize pool.

Zamani, who was down to fewer than ten big blinds at one point during the final table thick and thin, cut a deal with China’s Chengce Jiang, during heads-up, a decision that ultimately led to Zamani picking up a $347,134 pay check.