Aliaksei Boika of Belarus achieved a rare feat over the weekend: he won a European Poker Tour title when starting as the final table’s short stack. At the start of final table play of the EPT Malta Main Event, he had 960,000, about a quarter of the chips that the leader, Mats Karlsson, had. By the end of the night, though, he was holding every single one and was €355,700 richer.
Boika got going early, nearly quadrupling-up within the first two orbits. The big hand was a double-up through Tomas Macnamara, Boika holding Jacks and Macnamara with Kings. They were all-in pre-flop and the flop came down K-9-6 to put Macnamara in the lead. A Queen on the turn gave Boika additional outs and a Ten on the river made his straight. Macnamara was eliminated in sixth place just three hands later.
Hand 40 was the last hand for Peter Ockenden, who called a 130,000 chip raise by Mats Karlsson pre-flop. The flop was 9-8-3 and the two raised each other until Karlsson went all-in and Ockenden called off the rest of his chips. Karlsson had J-10 for an open-ender, while Ockenden held A-9 for top pair and the better hand at the moment. It was essentially a two-card race. A Ten was dealt on the turn, giving Karlsson a better pair and the King on the river sealed the deal, knocking Ockenden out in fifth place.
Just a few hands later, Eli Saad moved all-in pre-flop for just under a million chips with K-J. Boika looked him up with Tens and though Saad paired his King on the flop, the river produced a third Ten for Boika, causing Saad to hit the rail in fourth place.
Boika doubled-up Dmitry Yurasov shortly thereafter and went into the next break in third place with 2.87 million chips. Karlsson was running away with it at that point with 9.565 million, while Yurasov had 1.55 million. Boika made inroads after the break, actually taking the lead for a short time, but after Karlsson eliminated Yurasov in third place, it was Karlsson with 8.08 million and Boika with 5.905 million going into heads-up play.
Boika took the lead pretty much immediately and from there, just kept growing the lead. We’re going to skip over how that happened and instead cut right to the final hand, not just because it was the final hand, but because it involved one hell of an amazing call.
Boika had about 10.35 million to Karlsson’s 3.69 million, according to PokerNews, when Karlsson raised to 200,000 pre-flop. Boika three-bet to 625,000 and Karlsson called. The flop was 2-Q-8 and Boika check-called a 550,000 chip bet from Karlsson. Both men checked when a King came on the turn, but Karlsson decided to move all-in for 2.555 million chips when a 7 landed on the river. Boika pondered his move for a good five minutes and finally made the call.
As soon as he called, Karlsson said, “Nice call, you win. Wow, nice call.”
As it turned out, Karlsson was totally bluffing on his all-in play, holding only A-4 suited for just Ace-high. Even more incredibly, Boika ALSO had Ace-high, but his hole cards were A-J, giving him a better kicker. Part of me wants to say it was a terrible call, but considering how much thought Boika put into his decision, I think it’s actually quite obvious that he thought Karlsson was bluffing. That and if he thought Karlsson had something, just not something great, it wouldn’t make any sense to call with Ace-high, as that wouldn’t beat any sort of made hand. Just a fantastic poker play.
2016 European Poker Tour Malta Main Event – Final Table Results
1. Aliaksei Boika – €355,700
2. Mats Karlsson – €261,730
3. Dmitry Yurasov – €192,650
4. Elie Saad – €141,780
5. Peter Ockenden – €104,340
6. Tomas Macnamara – €76,790