Justin Arnwine Wins RGPS Maryland Main Event for $78,501

• Arnwine beat Maclaren Chatham heads-up with pocket eights to claim the $78,501 top prize.
• The $1,300 Main Event drew 329 entries and built a $375,060 prize pool.
• It was his second RGPS Maryland Main Event title in less than 12 months.
• He fired eight bullets on Day 1 this time, a world away from last year’s single buy-in win.

Arnwine Closes Out Chatham With Pocket Eights

Chatham started heads-up play in front, holding 10,000,000 to Arnwine’s 6,400,000. The lead did not last. The match went Arnwine’s way from there, and a misclick left Chatham hanging on at around 1,100,000.

The finish came when Arnwine’s pocket eights held against Chatham’s ace-seven on a 7♥ K♦ 6♥ 2♠ 3♣ runout. Pocket eights sit right in the sweet spot for multi-table tournaments, and they closed the deal here. Chatham took $50,212 for second.

A 329-Entry Field and a $375,060 Prize Pool

The Main Event pulled 329 total entries and a $375,060 prize pool across the September 21–27 series. Forty-three players returned for Day 2, and the money spread out across a nine-handed final table.

Arnwine Led Day 2 as Contenders Fell

Arnwine came back for Day 2 as the chip leader and the only player above 1,000,000, and he never really gave that grip away. The bustouts around him read like a who’s who of the field.

Greg Raymer went in 40th and Nicholas Rigby in 36th. Defending champion Arash Asadabadi hit the rail in 28th. Russ Dunlevy, who finished runner-up to Arnwine at this same venue last year, bowed out in 16th.

Pocket Deuces Fill Up to Send Chen Home

The hand that cracked the final table open belonged to Arnwine and a pair of deuces. Jimmy Chen flopped trip aces holding A♦ 9♠ and looked golden, then a deuce landed on the turn to give Arnwine a full house.

Chen went out in third for $38,481, and Arnwine carried a commanding stack into heads-up play. Chen had set the final table earlier by busting Nathan Bomey in 10th.

A 2026 Tear and a Player of the Year Chase

Arnwine is the unofficial record holder for most career tournament wins, sitting well over 150 titles. His 2026 alone has been loaded: a ring at the April RGPS Maryland stop, a Mystery Bounty at ARIA in June, a WSOP Circuit event in July, a Venetian event, the Monster Stack circuit at Horseshoe, a Borgata win, and a three-way chop at the Maryland State Poker Championship a few weeks back.

His stated goal is to become the 2026 Mid-Stakes Player of the Year, and he figures that once the Borgata results update, he will be number one. That willingness to go all out showed up in how he played the deep stages. As he put it, “…I was willing to lose earlier than ICM dictated I should have been putting myself at risk. But I just decided, no, I want to win…”

From One Bullet to Eight

Last November, Arnwine won the inaugural RGPS stop at MGM National Harbor over a 251-entry field for $80,646, and he did it on a single buy-in while holding a “1 Buy-In Haters” sign. This year told a different story. He went through eight bullets on Day 1 before turning it around and taking it down, which makes the repeat at the same venue stand out.

The win also carried weight for him personally. “It actually feels great. I rarely let myself enjoy the win, but I told myself if I won this one, again, straight up, no chop, again, then I was going to let myself enjoy the moment, and it feels good,” he said.

Why This Result Matters

Winning one RGPS Maryland Main Event is a fine result. Winning two of them at the same casino inside a year, once on a single bullet and once after eight, tells you something about a player who keeps solving the same room in different ways. For anyone following the mid-stakes circuit, Arnwine is the name to track down the stretch of 2026, and this $78,501 score puts him closer to the Player of the Year spot he has been calling. Keep an eye on the leaderboard once Borgata updates, because he plans to be sitting on top of it.