Opening up the sixth season of the European Poker Tour, the EPT Kyiv wrapped up with the chip leader from the previous two days, Russia’s Maxim Lykov, continuing his domination and closing the deal to take down the championship.
The first poker tournament ever held in the Ukraine, the EPT Kyiv was the last minute replacement for Moscow. The EPT had planned to hold the first tournament of its sixth season in the Russian capital, but the recent decision by the Russian government to remove poker from its sporting games list – and the resulting closure of thousands of card clubs across the nation – forced EPT officials to look for another outlet to hold the tournament. When the Kyiv Sports Palace stepped up, the EPT was more than happy to accept and the tournament was back on. It was also obvious that players were happy to take part in the tournament as 296 players took to the felt when the tournament started on August 18th.
Players from behind the former Iron Curtain dominated the final table, with players from Mother Russia earning the most seats at the eight-handed table. Besides the three Russian players (Lykov, Vitaly Tolokonnikov and Arthur Simonyan), Belarus, Poland and the host country the Ukraine landed players at the final table (Vadim Markushevski, Lucasz Plichta and Alex Dovzhenko, respectively). Rounding out the final two seats at the final table were Germany’s Torsten Tent and Holland’s Adrian Schaap.
Action in the early going was a bit tame as it took over an hour and a half before a player was eliminated from the final table. As in the past two days, Lykov controlled the play at the final table and, after Markushevski was dismissed in eighth place, took out the next two players to pad his chip stack. After Lykov eliminated Tent (seventh) and Schaap (sixth), the action once again slowed down between the remaining five players.
After three more hours of battle, two players knocked heads while both holding playable pocket pairs. Vitaly Tolokonnikov and Lucasz Plichta both got their chips to the center pre-flop, with Plichta and his pocket eights at risk for elimination and behind Tolokonnikov’s pocket Queens. Both an eight and a Queen hit the flop but the case eight would not materialize for Plichta, sending him to the rail in fifth place. Once Arthur Simonyan was eliminated minutes later in fourth place, the final threesome would take a dinner break with the chip stacks nearly even.
After dinner the trio came back to the table and quickly set about deciding the champion of the Kyiv tournament. On the very first hand, Vitaly Tolokonnikov raised the bet only to have Lykov reraise the action. After Tolokonnikov moved in and was called by Lykov, Tolokonnikov was shown with the edge as his pocket sevens would be racing the A-J of Lykov. The flop missed Lykov completely but, when an Ace hit the turn, he took the lead in the hand. Since he couldn’t find one of the two remaining sevens on the river, Vitaly Tolokonnikov was eliminated in third place.
Lykov went to the heads up battle against Kyiv’s very own Alex Dovzhenko (who had eliminated Simonyan before dinner) with a 5-3 lead and gradually began to grind down the hometown favorite. The end came after almost an hour of play on what looked to be an innocent board of J-7-4-4. Lykov checked the action to Dovzhenko, who put a 400K bet in the pot. Lykov responded with a check raise to one million and Dovzhenko moved all in. Lykov called and showed 9-4 for turned trips. Dovzhenko could only muster a J-10 and, since no Jack came to the rescue, Maxim Lykov became the champion of the EPT Kyiv. The final table finish and the payouts after a six-hour battle looked like this:
1. Maxim Lykov (Russia) – €330,000 (approximately $473,000 U. S.)
2. Alex Dovzhenko (Ukraine) – €220,000
3. Vitaly Tolokonnikov (Russia) – €140,000
4. Arthur Simonyan (Russia) – €100,000
5. Lucasz Plichta (Poland) – €80,000
6. Adrian Schaap (Holland) – €60,000
7. Torsten Tent (Germany) – €45,000
8. Vadim Markushevski (Belarus) – €30,000
“I’m already thinking of my second title,” Lykov said after his dominant display in the first EPT event of Season Six. He will have that chance when the EPT moves to its next stop, Barcelona, from September 4th through the 9th. The €8000 buy in tournament should draw a sizeable crowd as Germany’s Sebastian Ruthenburg, a PokerStars sponsored pro, looks to defend his title on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
