EPT National Sochi – Yury Masliankou Wins 9,317,000

Sochi is a famous place in Russia known for being a place that hosts a couple of poker tournaments, and the last one that took place in this beautiful city was EPT National Sochi, which required a buy-in of 77,000. It was a really exciting match that did not include any first-round knockdowns, and Yury Masliankou from Belarus managed to win the first prize of 9,317,000. Converted into American Dollars, that is roughly $139,755.

Looking to Play Some Poker –> Check Out Ignition Poker Here

Although Yury entered the final table as the chip leader, he managed to lose his lead, with two other players assuming that position at one point during the final table. In other words, the whole thing was pretty exciting, and it took quite a while before the final part of the tournament began and Masliankou engaged in the heads-up play against Daniil Lukin.

Masliankou managed to beat the field of 721 players and won the biggest cash prize in his career. The second-largest live cash recorded for this player was $96,025 which he managed to win at Eureka Prague in 2016. It is also interesting that Masliankou is the second consecutive player who is not Russian to win this event. The thing with this event is that it is predominantly Russian, with the majority of players being from this country. Another non-Russian player, Matous Houzvicek, managed to win this same event just twelve months ago.

The Final Table

The final table consisted of eight players, with six of them being Russian. The first one to go out was Sarkis Karabadzhakyan, who was paid 889,000, which is roughly $13,335. Karabadyhakyan was followed by Giorgiy Skhulukhiya in seventh place for 1,295,000 ($19,425).

The sixth place was reserved for Andrey Lukyanov. Lukyanov won a total of 1,806,000, which is $27,090. Leonid Bilokur ended up fifth, and his cash prize was 2,408,000 ($36,120). The fourth place was for Kartik Ved, who was the only player from India in the final table. Ved managed to win 3,059,000 ($45,885). The third place was occupied by Alexandr Sergutin, who won 4,067,000 ($61,005).

The start of the heads-up play was pretty much balanced, and it seems that Lukin managed to gain a tactical advantage as he let his opponent blow his biggest shots and get tired. Nevertheless, Masliankou managed to stay focused on his game and turn the tides into his favor. In the end, everything came to a natural conclusion somehow quickly. Lukin eventually fell behind and lost the heads up play, winning a total of 5,705,000 which is approximately $85,575. It turned out that Masliankou had a great game, and that both skills and luck worked in his favor that day.