First Russian Wins EPT Event
Written by Renee K | Thursday, August 27th, 2009
Despite the fact that Russia has clamped down heavily on poker in the last few months, the newest winner of the Poker Stars European Poker Tour (EPT) Kiev stop is a young Russian player by the name of Maxim Lykov.
The event was moved at the last minute from its pre-determined destination, Moscow, to Kiev, after the Putin government decided to strip poker of its title as a sport and instead include it as a gambling pastime.
Maxim Lykov began the final day of the main event with a chip lead and he managed to hang on to that lead in the EUR 5K no limit event as he quietly but determinedly defeated nearly 300 other players.
This is the first major title won by Lykov, who took home a massive EUR 330,000 in prize money for his efforts.
“I am very proud to win this,” said the ecstatic player in a press release from hosting site, Poker Stars. “Ukraine and Russia are very close, so I feel I have won for both countries. It was a hard contest but I did believe I could do it.”
Play was slow in the beginning of the final table game, with the first player leaving the tournament after nearly one and a half hours of play. It took a full half hour later before the seventh player was bust out.
The game continued at almost snail pace, with the sixth placed player being eliminated three hours after that, and the following two in quicker succession.
Hungry and tired, the final three players stopped to eat dinner. It was Lykov’s game all the way from there, where he first eliminated fellow Russian Vitaly Tolokonnikov before beginning the heads up stage of the game against the Ukrainian Alex Dovzhenko.
The Ukrainian played well in the first half hour of the game, but his chip advantage soon dwindled and Lykov came in from behind to eliminate his toughest opponent yet.
Tolokonnikov won EUR 140,000, while the second placed Sovzhenko won EUR 220,000.
The final results were as follows.
1. Maxim Lykov – Russia
2. Alex Dovzhenko – Ukraine
3. Vitaly Tolokonnikov – Russia
4. Arthur Simonyan – Russia
5. Lucasz Plitcha – Poland
6. Adrian Schaap – Holland
7. Torsten Trent – Germany
8. Markushevski – Belarus
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· Written by Renee K · Filed Under Poker News · Comments Off
