Air Force Pilot was flying high after the win.

Before the final table of the World Poker Tour Main Event in Montreal began Thursday afternoon, Derrick Rosenbarger had just a single significant tournament cash to his name – a mincash in a $1,000 World Series of Poker event back in early July.

Rosenbarger not only held his own against a top-flight field of 862 at the Playground Poker Club just outside of Montreal, but the Florida native outlasted them all. Mukul Pahuja, a talented player in his own right who had a breakout run at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open back in August when he finished third for $872,625, was the last man standing in Rosenbarger’s way.

Despite a chip deficit of over 2-to-1 to start their heads-up match, Rosenbarger pulled close to Pahuja with an uncalled five-bet. Their heads-up match would eventually stretch to 64 hands, with each player reaching the brink of victory on several occasions.

Rosenbarger’s first all in came on a board of 6 2 2, with his Q 6 ahead of Pahuja’s K T, but not by much. It bricked out to give Rosenbarger the massive pot and a three-to-one lead, but Pahuja would not go quietly. One big five-hand stretch would restore the chip counts to where the heads-up match started.

The key swing happened when, on a board of A 8 8 J, Pahuja check-raised Rosenbarger all in. Rosenbarger snap-called with T 8 and had Pahuja drawing stone dead going into the river. His lead swelled to nearly 4-to-1 following this hand, and Pahuja wouldn’t regain the lead again, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. Pahuja got it in in equally good shape on the turn of a T9 2 6 board with 8 7 against Rosenbarger’s T 3 and earned his only double of the heads-up match. It was as close as he’d get.

On the 152nd hand of the final table, Pahuja three-bet all in and Rosenbarger quickly called, tabling Q Q. Pahuja would need some help with the A 4 but the 9 6 3 4 2 runout was not enough. Rosenbarger emerged victorious, claiming the half-million dollar first place prize, a seat in the season-ending WPT Championship at the Borgata, and a permanent place on the WPT Champions Cup.

Lily Kiletto was the lone woman at the final table when six-handed play began, and she entered the day with just six big blinds, but she after stealing the blinds on the first hand of play she doubled up twice. After Kiletto’s wins against Pahuja and Sylvain Siebert, she and Alexandre Lavigne were about as close as can be as the two shortest stacks.

Lavigne would go on to open-shove his last 11 big blinds with K 8 from the cutoff, only for Serge Cantin to find T T in the big blind. Cantin called and the J 9 5 5 3 runout was just what he needed to knock Lavigne out in sixth place.

Kiletto wouldn’t be far behind. On the very next hand she open-shoved her seven big blind stack from the cutoff and both Pahuja and Siebert called. The flop was Q J 4, which was checked, and the turn was the 4. Siebert bet Pahuja out of the pot and tabled A Q, which had Kiletto drawing dead with her A 8. The river was the meaningless J and Kiletto’s bid to be the first woman to win an open WPT event was thwarted, resulting in a fifth place finish.

Four-handed play continued for some time as the roles of Rosenbarger, the short stack and Siebert, the chipleader, were reversed. Rosenbarger got a fortunate double with Q 9 against Cantin’s A K, and then caught Siebert bluffing in the best spot imaginable after he flopped a set of queens to double again, into the chiplead.

Cantin would finish the job shortly thereafter. Siebert open-shoved with A 6 and ran into Cantin’s 8 8, with the board running out a clean K Q J 8 4. Cantin scooped the pot and made it a close three-horse race while Siebert, the former chipleader, was left to settle for fourth.

Pahuja and Cantin would quickly get it all in, only for their A Q and A Q to chop the pot. They’d get all again in on the very next hand, and that one would not be chopped. Pahuja opened, Cantin three-bet and before they new it there was a five-bet all in and the cards were on their backs. Pahuja was flipping with A K against Cantin’s 8 8, but he caught a big piece of the A 8 6 flop to take the lead. Cantin would pick up some serious help on the 3turn, but neither a set or a flush would come on the T river.

Cantin was out in third and the heads-up match between Pahuja and Rosenbarger was quickly underway. After their back-and-forth battle for the title, Rosenbarger would eventually end on top.

The group of players Rosenbarger outlasted just to reach the final table was even more impressive. WPT title-holder Amir Babakhani bubbled the final table in seventh, while pros Ludovic Lacay (9th), Griffin Benger (11th) and two-time WPT Champion Jonathan Little (17th) also got tantalizingly close to the bright lights and TV cameras.

The WPT quickly moves on, though, with the Five Diamond World Poker Classic set to begin Friday afternoon in Las Vegas. The final domestic stop of 2014 is one of the tour’s premier events, and one of only four tournaments on the Season XII schedule to feature a buy-in of at least $10,000.

2013 partypoker World Poker Tour Montreal – Final Results

Derrick Rosenbarger – $500,824
Mukul Pahuja – $340,928
Serge Cantin – $220,170
Sylvain Siebert – $162,936
Lily Kiletto – $121,848
Alexandre Lavigne – $98,574

From Bluff magazine http://www.bluff.com/news/derrick-rosenbarger-wins-wpt-montreal-title-500824-50521/

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